He steps inside my office and drops into the chair across from me.
The study in this cursed mansion reeks of death and destruction.
“This came for you,” he says, handing me a letter. “And… there was a hit on facial recognition.”
I blink. “And?”
He grins faintly. “Vegas. We got a hit in Vegas.”
Even with everything going on, we’d continued searching—what we thought was my half-sister turned out to be my full sister.
Selene had planted that seed before everything went to hell, and we hadn’t let it go.
“So… we go back to Vegas,” I say, trying to keep my voice casual, even as a tightness coils in my chest.
Dario nods and stands. “I’ll go find Keir and fill him in.”
I give a curt nod in return as he leaves, the door clicking shut behind him.
In this life, grief doesn’t come in waves—it bleeds out in slivers, through stolen moments and quiet agony.
No time to fall apart.
Not when you’re holding the reins of a kingdom you never asked for.
While I’ve been dismantling the Bravata’s human trafficking rings, Keir’s been running his syndicate. We forged a pact—Selene’s idea.
Now we’re two of the most powerful men on the East Coast.
And none of it means a damn thing without her.
I pick up the letter Dario left behind. No return address. No markings. Just my name.
My pulse kicks up as I open it.
I barely breathe as I unfold the page.
Dear Kazimir,
I don’t even know if I’ll send this. I’m not sure I have the lady balls for it.
But I needed to write it—needed to get the weight of it off my chest.
There’s so much I want to say, but maybe it’s all useless. Because you left.
All of you left me.
I woke up in the hospital alone.
My heart shattered into a million pieces when I found out you were gone—gone as if I meant nothing more than a fleeting distraction.
Maybe I should’ve seen it coming. It had only been, what, a week?
A shrink would probably say I’m crazy.
And maybe I am.
Because the moment I saw you, it felt like something inside me snapped into place.
