Page 113 of Beautiful Ruins
She hesitated, then spoke again, softer this time.
“I’ve never felt worthy of love,” she disclosed.“Not with Nathan.Not with anyone.Not even… with you.”
Her words hit me in the chest, right where they would hurt.She looked down.
“He used me.Lied to me.Lived off me.To him, I was just something convenient.Disposable.So when you look at me like I matter, like I’m worth protecting, like I’m… yours… part of me keeps waiting for the moment you realize I’m not worth the trouble.”
My chest tightened.
“I take that personally.”
Her head snapped up.
“You think I would burn half a criminal network, relocate you to a fortified safe house, and put a bounty on a man’s head for your safety if you were disposable to me?”
She said nothing.
“I do not protect things I do not value,” I added.“And I do not fear losing things that are replaceable.”
I stepped closer, lifting her chin slightly.
“You are neither,” I finished.
Her breath hitched.
“And for the record,” my voice was quieter now, “sending you away was never about discarding you.But the idea of standing in another empty house after losing someone I…” I stopped myself, jaw tightening.
She searched my face.
“You what?”she breathed softly.
I met her gaze.
“…care about.”
And that, more than the gunfire, the blood, or the threats outside our walls, was the most relentless truth I had spoken all night.
33
Raze
The Chernov outfit had not been large, but they had been disciplined, well-funded, and bold enough to test boundaries they did not understand.That alone made them powerful.By the time we were done, the bulk of their unit on my turf had been neutralised.Dead, captured, or scattered.
But I was not naïve enough to believe the problem ended there.
Power vacuums did not remain empty for long.
The moment one outfit collapsed, another would circle in, sensing weakness, probing for an opening, looking to establish dominance over the region.
That was how these things worked.
Which meant dismantling Chernov’s presence was only the first step.Preventing the next opportunist from trying the same stunt was the real objective.And that required something far more permanent than a simple show of force.
Then there was the more immediate issue.
Nathan Azzopardi.
The parasite who had dragged Russian attention straight to my gates.The same man who had tried to reclaim what he once took for granted, as if Izzy were some misplaced possession he could simply retrieve when it suited him.
