61

Lia

The night didn’t end after the meeting in the lounge. It couldn’t. Every second felt like a ticking clock, and every move we made was a gamble. Petrik and I left the club together, the weight of the lieutenant’s cooperation sitting heavy between us.

“He’s scared,” I said as we climbed into the car. “That’s why he agreed to talk.”

“Fear makes people predictable,” Petrik replied, his voice steady but cold. “And predictable is exactly what we need right now.”

I watched him as he drove, his face illuminated by the faint glow of the city lights. There was a tension in his jaw, a quiet fury that I’d come to recognize. He was calculating, always thinking ten steps ahead. But tonight, there was something else—a heaviness that seemed to pull at him.

“You’re carrying too much,” I said softly, breaking the silence.

“I’m carrying what I have to,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the road.

“You don’t have to do it alone,” I said, leaning closer. “You’ve got me, Nikolai, the alliances we’ve built. You don’t have to shoulder all of this.”

His hands tightened on the wheel, and for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t respond. Then he let out a sharp breath, his knuckles turning white.

“If I don’t,” he said, his voice low, “who will?”

The car came to a stop in front of the safe house, and he turned off the engine. The silence between us was deafening, but I didn’t move to get out. Instead, I reached out, placing my hand over his on the gearshift.

“We will,” I said firmly. “Together.”

He turned to me then, his gaze intense. The air between us felt electric, the weight of everything we’d been through pressing down on us. I could feel the unspoken words hanging in the space between us, the tension that had been building for weeks threatening to boil over.

“Lia…” he began, but his voice faltered.

“Don’t,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t push me away.”

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t pull back. Instead, his free hand moved to my face, his fingers brushing against my cheek. The touch was so gentle, so unexpected, that it sent a shiver down my spine.

“You’re the only thing keeping me sane,” he admitted, his voice rough. “And that terrifies me.”

I swallowed hard, my heart pounding. “You don’t have to be afraid. Not of me.”

He leaned in, his forehead resting against mine. For a moment, everything else faded away—the danger, the uncertainty, the constant fear of what Diana would do next. It was just us, caught in the eye of the storm.

“I don’t deserve you,” he murmured.

I tilted my head, brushing my lips against his in the faintest of kisses. “Maybe not. But I’m here anyway.”

He didn’t hesitate this time. His lips met mine in a kiss that was both fierce and tender, filled with all the unspoken emotions we’d been holding back. His hand slid to the back of my neck, pulling me closer, and I let myself get lost in the moment, in him.

But the moment was fleeting. A sharp knock on the car window shattered the intimacy, and we broke apart, both of us breathing heavily. Nikolai stood outside, his expression grim, his phone in hand.

“We’ve got a problem,” he said through the glass.

Inside the safe house, Nikolai pulled up a live feed on his laptop. The grainy footage showed a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, its exterior swarming with armed men.

“This is one of Diana’s storage facilities,” Nikolai explained. “My contact flagged it after noticing unusual activity. It looks like she’s moving something big.”

“What kind of something?” I asked, my heart sinking.

“Weapons, probably,” Nikolai said. “But I can’t confirm. Whatever it is, she’s putting a lot of resources into protecting it.”

Petrik leaned over the table, his eyes scanning the footage. “She’s preparing for war.”

“Looks like it,” Nikolai said. “And if she’s stockpiling weapons, she’s not planning to sit back and wait for us to make our move.”

I crossed my arms, trying to steady my racing thoughts. “So what do we do?”

“We hit it,” Petrik said without hesitation. “We take the weapons, destroy the facility, and send her a message.”

“That’s a suicide mission,” Nikolai said, his voice sharp. “You’ve seen the security. We’d be outnumbered and outgunned.”

“We don’t have to take them head-on,” Petrik countered. “If we can get inside and plant charges, we can take the entire place down without engaging.”

“And if we’re caught?” I asked.

“We won’t be,” Petrik said, his voice firm. “Because we can’t afford to be.”

Nikolai sighed, running a hand through his hair. “This is reckless, even for you.”

“It’s necessary,” Petrik said. “If we don’t act now, she’ll be ready to strike before we can stop her.”

I looked between them, my mind racing. The plan was dangerous, yes, but he was right. Diana was escalating, and if we didn’t push back, she’d crush us before we had the chance to finish what we’d started.

“I’m in,” I said, my voice steady.

Petrik turned to me, his expression softening slightly. “You don’t have to—”

“I’m in,” I repeated, cutting him off. “We’re doing this together, remember?”

He nodded, the ghost of a smile playing at his lips. “Together.”

As we began preparing for the mission, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were standing on the edge of something irreversible. The tension between Petrik and me, the stakes of what we were about to do—it was all building toward a breaking point.

And I wasn’t sure we’d survive the fallout.