Chapter 92 Mine
Nico POV
Uncle Lucas lowered his voice, the wind from the terrace carrying his words away so no one else could hear. “Damon will try again, he failed to intercept the deal with our Mexican supplier, but he is too arrogant to walk away from a grudge. I have it on good authority that he may have secured a Russian contact.”
The words struck me like a physical blow and my entire body stiffened. The easy stillness I had forced over myself fractured. “Who?” I demanded, my tone sharper than I intended.
Uncle Lucas shook his head once. “I do not know yet the name has not surfaced but if he manages to formalize that alliance, if he locks in their backing, we have perhaps two months before he evolves from an irritation into a legitimate threat.”
Two months only, I turned away from him and walked toward the edge of the terrace. The city stretched beneath us in glittering lights and distant movement, unaware of the quiet war brewing above it. I braced my hands on the stone railing, then dragged one hand slowly across my jaw, thinking.
Uncle Lucas was not prone to exaggeration, If he said Damon was moving, then he was already three steps ahead.
Relentless that was the only word that ever truly fit my brother. Damon was not the type who forgive and he doesn't forget easily. He did not retreat, he regrouped, recalculated, and returned with sharper teeth.
He would not stop until he had taken something from me that could not be replaced and my gaze drifted across the terrace and they found Lila.
She stood a short distance away, unaware that she had become the axis around which my entire world now turned and Damon knew me.
He knew exactly how to break me because If our positions were reversed, I would not waste time attacking shipments or sabotaging contracts. I would not aim for warehouses or bank accounts, I would only aim for her.
Lila was not just a vulnerability, she was my weakness, my obsession and now addiction.
The fastest way to wound a beast was to rip away the one thing it could not survive without and this meant the war could only end in one way and it will be with my hand driving a blade into my own brother’s heart.
The thought no longer unsettled me the way it once might have. It did not tremble and It did not hesitate. Somewhere between the first time Lila looked at me with defiance and the moment she chose to stand beside me, something inside me had shifted and blood had once been sacred but now she was.
“I know what must be done,” I said quietly, my voice steady despite the storm coiling beneath it. “And for her, I will not hesitate.”
Uncle Lucas studied me for a long moment. He knew what that meant. He understood the weight of it. “Then act sooner rather than later,” he advised. “The longer you wait, the greater the risk to her.”
I turned to face him fully. “I am a patient man,” I replied evenly. “Damon is not, I will not need to hunt him.”
A faint, cold smile curved my lips, “He will come to me.”
Uncle Lucas’s attention shifted past my shoulder and his expression altered subtly. “It appears our discussion ends here.”
I followed his line of sight and Lila was walking toward us, the sight of her softened something inside me that very few people had ever been permitted to see. It was not weakness and It was not surrender but It was possession tempered by something dangerously close to tenderness.
She moved with hesitant confidence, as if still adjusting to the gravity of the world she had stepped into, she did not stride like someone born into power. She moved like someone learning to command it and yet she commanded me effortlessly.
She was exquisite and she was mine. “Did I interrupt something?” she asked, her lips curving into a half smile that was equal parts innocence and mischief.
I closed the distance between us without answering immediately. My hand slid around her waist, drawing her closer, fitting her against me as if she had always belonged there. I lowered my head and pressed a slow, deliberate kiss to her mouth soft, but claiming.
“No,” I murmured against her lips. “But even if you had, it would be the only interruption I would ever welcome.”
One brow arched playfully. “Careful, Mr. Moretti,” she teased. “You are beginning to sound like a romantic.”
“Never,” I replied, my mouth brushing the sensitive skin just below her ear. I let my voice drop, meant only for her. “What I meant was…”
I paused, letting my breath warm her skin.
“There is nothing in this world more deserving of my attention than you.”
I felt the shiver that traveled through her. It moved from her shoulders down her spine, subtle but undeniable. Satisfaction coiled low in my chest.
“And there is nothing,” I continued softly, my lips still hovering near her ear, “that would stop me from reminding you exactly how much you belong to me.”
Her breath caught and for a moment, the world beyond this terrace ceased to exist. The threats, the alliances and the inevitable bloodshed waiting on the horizon none of it mattered now because she was here and she was still mine.