Page 186 of Only for Him

But she would never let me

I open the door.

Pavel Starkov waits inside, perched on the edge of the bed like it’s a throne, a chilling grin stretching across his face.

It’s the smile of a man who knows he’s gotten under your skin, who relishes the game he plays.

“I didn’t think you had it in you to show up,” he taunts in Russian, each syllable a jagged edge.

I step forward, placing myself between him and Giselle, my body a shield I’ll gladly use to block every ounce of the hell he wants to unleash.

The rage in my chest is deafening, my pulse a war drum.

“You never knew what I had in me,” I say. “And it’s the last mistake you’ll ever make.”

“I’m glad it’s me who gets to end your pitiful existence once and for all,” he says. He leans back, arrogance draping him like a cloak. “Wish my father was here to see it. I guess you’ll just have to tell him about it when you two meet in hell.”

“You’re going to pay for what you did to her,” I growl, fingers curling around the hilt of my knife. “To all of them.”

“Oh, come now, Romochka,” he says, grinning that sickle-moon smile. “You know your whore was glad to die for me.”

Anastasia’s face explodes behind my eyes: her laughter, her warmth, the way she breathed life into my very soul.

Suddenly, I’m back in that room in that prison, and he’s laughing as he destroys the one thing I love, and she’s pleading with me to save her, and I can’t.

I can’t save her. I want to die because I can’t save her, only watch as he takes her apart, piece by piece. The knot in my gut tightens, and all I know is murder.

“And you even brought me a little treat,” Pavel says, eyes shining as he rises from the bed. Giselle’s breath hitches. “Detective, I was sad that you refused my offer. I’m afraid it’s off the table now.”

“Fuck you,” Giselle’s voice spits from over my shoulder, and I feel a bloom of pride.

Anastasia chose me, and Pavel never forgave it. And now—another woman stands at my side. Another woman who rejected him for me.

His gaze hardens, that twisted mind calculating with every heartbeat as we begin to circle each other.

“You should have stayed dead,” he sneers, blade flashing as he pulls it from his waistband. “You’re just a coward who lost everything.”

No. I didn’tloseanything.

It was fucking stolen from me.

And the sickest part?

Anastasia’s life didn’t matter more just because I loved her.

Every woman Pavel’s empire chewed up and spit out deserved better. Every life he broke was sacred, whether or not it belonged to me.

Like Serena. Like Dakota. Like Rosa.

My entire being ignites with a burning rage. I’m not the boy he locked in a cage. I’m not the ghost he thought would stay buried.

I’m a fucking reckoning.

“I’m going to make you regret every last dollar you made off flesh.” My blade glints in the dim light. A promise.

Pavel chuckles—low, gutteral, delighted.

“You’re going to die screaming,” he says. “Just like she did.”