Page 48 of Made for Sinners

Valentina:Is yourwifekeeping you on a leash?

My grip tightened around the glass.

Me:Watch yourself.

Valentina:Relax, tesoro.I just think it’s cute. You, all domesticated.

I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to stay calm. Valentina loved to push buttons, to poke and prod until she found a weak spot. It was her game, and she was damn good at it. I didn’t have weak spots.

Not anymore.

Me:Send me what you have. That’s all I need from you.

Valentina:For now.

The message was followed by another pause, like she was waiting for me to say something else, to bite, to give her more ammunition.

I ended the conversation before she could. The phone hit the counter with a little more force than necessary, the sound breaking the heavy silence in the kitchen.

The last thing I needed was Valentina stirring the pot.

But the worst part?

She wasn’t wrong.

Emilia had changed things.

I glanced at the closed bedroom door, the faint sound of her pacing reaching me even from here. She was a storm contained in that room, her anger and defiance battering against the walls like thunder.

And me? I was the idiot standing in the middle of it, daring it to strike.

I took another sip of whiskey, the burn doing little to chase away the unease coiling in my chest. She wasn’t just a complication. She wasn’t just some pawn in the endless game I played.

She was something else entirely.

Something that made me feel too much, too fast. Something that threatened to unravel the careful control I’d spent a lifetime perfecting.

I wasn’t sure if that made her dangerous—or if it made me weak.

My grip on the glass tightened as I forced the thought away. Weakness wasn’t an option. Not in my world. Not with enemies closing in.

I’d find the Russians. I’d deal with them. I’d remind them exactly who they were dealing with.

And Emilia?

She’d learn.

She’d learn that no amount of defiance, no amount of fight, would free her from me.

Because she wasn’t just my wife.

She was mine.

Completely, irrevocably mine.

And God help anyone who tried to take her from me.

The call came just after midnight.

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