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“I want a seat at this table,” I said, straightening my spine. “Not because I’m your problem. Because I’m part of the solution. You want to win this? Then don’t keep me on the sidelines.”

Nikolai’s eyes narrowed in my direction.

“And if it gets dangerous?” he asked.

I smiled.

“It already is,” I countered.

Maxim leaned forward, drumming his fingers on the table.

“That’s the play, then,” he said. “We undermine Stillwell quietly. No blood. No headlines. We move like professionals.”

Charlie nodded, but the thin line of his mouth hadn’t eased. “Just make sure she’s kept out of it going forward.”

I lifted my chin. “Kept out?”

“She’s in it now, whether we like it or not,” Nikolai said before I could speak. His voice was low, treacherous in its calm. “Thisisn’t about saving face anymore. It’s about protecting what’s mine.”

Charlie turned his head slowly. “You’re saying she’s yours now?”

Nikolai didn’t blink. “She was mine from the first moment I laid eyes on her.”

My breath caught.

No one challenged him.

Not Maxim, who simply took a sip of his drink. Not Sergei, who stared at the table like he’d already done the math. Not Ivan, who smirked faintly at the corner of his screen. Not Aleksei, who raised a glass and murmured, “To family.”

My father looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He leaned back, exhaled, and rubbed a hand over his face.

“Just keep her from blowing up my career,” he muttered. “And try not to let her burn the city down either.”

“No promises,” I said, reaching for my vodka.

They all looked at me.

I just smiled.

Maxim stood, and the others followed. The meeting was over.

I lingered for just a second longer, letting them file out one by one until it was just me and Nikolai. He was watching me with that unreadable gaze, and for once, I didn’t try to decipher it.

“I’m proud of you, Sloane.”

His praise felt good, better than good, and I took a deep breath, just standing there. Silent. Thoughtful.

Maybe for the first time, I didn’t feel like a pawn on someone else’s board. Maybe this time, I was something more. Maybe even a queen.

The look in his eyes said he knew it too.

He reached out, brushed his fingers lightly against my jaw, and said nothing. He didn’t have to.

Whatever came next, we were in it together.

CHAPTER 28

Sloane