“I’m fine. I’ll clean it up.” My jaw is so tight with pain that I’m speaking through my teeth, but I can’t handle a doctor right now, someone else pawing at me and poking me, prodding me with questions and medical instruments and stitching me up. I’d rather do it myself, painful as it will be.
“Damian—”
“I’ll. Do. It. Myself.” I bite out each word, and Konstantin throws his hands up, shaking his head.
“I need to get to Valentina and let her know we’re safe. That I’m safe.” He looks at me again. “You should check in with Sienna.”
“She doesn’t know I was gone.”
“Valentina probably told her.”
“She’ll be fine.” I can’t see her right now. If I do, I’m afraid I’ll give in to everything I told myself this morning that I needed to pull away from. Sienna is light and sunshine and optimism, comfort and pleasure and everything I’ve begun to crave like air that I didn’t know I could breathe, and if I let myself have a taste of it…
I’ll collapse like something made out of stone, once the foundation has begun to crack.
I’m still thrumming with adrenaline, with nervous energy. I think I have been since Sienna and I were taken to that warehouse, and the only thing that’s calmed me in the slightest were the hours I spent wrapped around her, inside of her. I watch Konstantin stride away, in search of his wife, and though this morning I’d worried that he was going to go back to the negotiating table with Giovanni, I’m no longer concerned about that.
What I am is fucking livid that the man is still breathing. That he eluded us tonight.
I should have fucking killed him while he was bleeding on the floor of the warehouse. Fuck slow and torturous. I should have just put a bullet in his brain.
This morning, after I left Sienna, I met with Konstantin in his office. He’d had maps spread across his desk, floor plans of Giovanni’shideouts and mansion, reports scattered among them. It looked like he hadn’t slept much, and I remember feeling a flicker of guilt, knowing I’d spent all night devouring my wife.
I’d known, from the look on his face, what he was going to say before he even spoke.
“It might be worth going back to the negotiating table with Giovanni,” he’d begun. “We took out a significant number of his men during the attack on the warehouse. He knows we’re serious now. If we?—”
“If we what?” I’ve rarely ever interrupted Konstantin, but I did in that moment, fury surging through me. “Sit down and have a fucking tea party with them? Shake Giovanni’s hand and pretend he hasn’t walked all over us, attempted to traffic women who work in our clubs, harmed mywife?—”
Konstantin had looked at me sharply. “This is about Sienna. That’s all it’s really about, isn’t it, Damian? You want revenge for Sienna, and I understand that, but?—”
“You can’t seriously be thinking of negotiating with these—” I’d sucked in a deep breath. “They hurt my wife.”
“And they attacked my home and threatened my family.” Konstantin’s jaw was tight. “I’m furious too, Damian, but if we can avoid war?—”
“They started the war. This isalreadywar.” I’d felt my jaw clench tight. “Giovanni thinks he can step out of line and face no consequences. It’s time to show him that he’s wrong. That the Abramov family rules, first and foremost.”
Konstantin let out a long sigh. “You sound like my father.”
“He was wrong about a lot of things. This wouldn’t have been one of them.”
I’d realized, in that moment, that I didn’t know what I was going to do if Konstantin refused to finish off Giovanni Russo, if he ordered me to follow a path of diplomacy with him instead of more bloodshed. I couldn’t fathom it. All I could see was Sienna, her face pale, every inch of her body trembling, how terrified she’d looked while she was trying so very fucking hard to be brave.
Konstantin had sighed, his hands flattening on the desk as he looked up at me. “I understand the desire for revenge. Believe me, I do. But we've made our point. We've shown them that crossing the Abramov family has consequences. Maybe it's time to?—”
"To show mercy?" I'd laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You think Giovanni Russo is going to show mercy if he gets another chance at her? You think he's going to forget that she's a witness to what they were doing?"
"I think Giovanni Russo is a businessman first, and right now, continuing this war is bad for business."
"And I think Giovanni Russo is a piece of shit who would sell his own mother if the price was right." I'd moved closer to his desk, planting my hands on the surface and leaning forward. "They took her, Konstantin. They put their hands on her. They made her—" I'd stopped myself, the memory of being forced to touch Sienna in that room, with those animals watching, making my vision go red around the edges.
Konstantin had been quiet for a long moment, and when he'd spoken again, his voice had been gentler. "I know what they did. And I know what it cost you both. But think about this logically. We keep going after them, more of our men die. More of their men die. Eventually, it draws attention we don't want. The feds start sniffing around, other families start wondering if we're strong enough to handle our own business without turning Miami into a war zone."
"Let them wonder." I'd straightened up, crossing my arms again. "Let them all wonder. And when they see what happens to people who cross us, maybe they'll think twice."
"Or maybe they'll decide we're too unstable to do business with."
"Then we'll handle our business without them."
