Page 51 of Captured By the Russian Wolf

I saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. It was brief, almost imperceptible, but it was there. He wasn't as confident as he wanted me to believe. He was cornered, and he knew it.

"You don't scare me, Nikita," he said, his voice laced with venom. "I've dealt with worse than you. You think you can come into my world, threaten me, and walk away? You're just a thugwith too much power. I've survived men like you before. And I'll survive this too."

I clenched my jaw, every muscle in my body tightening as his words sunk in. He wasn't going to back down willingly. But I knew that before I came.

"You think you can go to war with me?" I asked quietly, my voice deadly calm. "You think you can walk away alive? Why don't I just take you out right now?"

He took a step back, his eyes flashing with something that might have been fear, but he quickly masked it with that same condescending smirk.

"Try it," he called out, his tone smug. "But if you think Lily's going to stand by your side when she finds out what you've done, you're a bigger fool than I thought."

My blood froze, a surge of anger flooding through me as I watched him. He was smiling now, like he'd just dealt the final blow, like he'd found the weak point in my armor.

"You think she doesn't know who you are?" he continued, his voice dripping with mockery. "You think she's going to forgive you for this? Does she know you're here?"

I didn't respond, my eyes locked on his, my body coiled tight with barely contained rage.

"Lily's a smart girl," he said, his smile widening. "And sooner or later, she's going to realize you're no different than me. You're just another man who uses people, who manipulates them to get what he wants. And when that happens—" He paused, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. "She'll leave you. Just like everyone else."

I could feel my fists clenching, the urge to put him down right there nearly overwhelming. But I couldn't let him get to me. Not when everything was on the line.

I stepped forward, my voice low, dangerous. "If you ever say her name again," I growled, "I'll make sure it's the last thing you ever do."

Nicholas's smile faltered, but only for a moment. "Let's think about this," he offered, his body language relaxing. His voice was calmer now, stripped of the arrogance that had filled his tone only moments before. There was something different in his voice—something calculating, but not desperate.

"Before you go and make a decision you'll regret," he continued, his footsteps drawing closer, "hear me out. You think killing me solves everything? You're wrong. Dead men can't be leveraged, Nikita. But alive? Alive, I'm worth more to you than you realize."

My eyes narrowed as I sized him up. Nicholas Donovan, always playing the game. Always looking for the angle.

"You think I care about whatever pathetic deal you're about to offer me?" I growled, my voice low and dangerous.

Nicholas smiled, but this time it wasn't the smug grin of a man in control. It was the smile of a man who knew he was cornered but was too smart to go down without bargaining.

"You should," he said quietly, his eyes locking onto mine. "Because if you kill me, you're leaving a lot of loose ends behind. My network, my assets… they'll fall into chaos. And trust me, you don't want that. But if I leave—if I disappear quietly—everything stays under control."

I watched him closely, my mind racing through the possibilities. He wasn't wrong. Donovan was connected, his empire vast and interwoven with people and operations that would be difficult to track down in the aftermath. Killing him would create a power vacuum, one that could spiral out of control if I didn't have a plan in place to contain it.

But could I really trust him to just leave? Could I trust him to keep his word?

"I'll leave the country," he said, as if reading my thoughts. "I'll walk away from everything—my businesses, my connections. I'll disappear. You'll never see or hear from me again."

"And why the hell would I believe you?" I asked, my voice thick with distrust.

Nicholas shrugged, his hands raised in a mock gesture of surrender. "Because I'm a survivor, Nikita. That's what I do. I adapt. And if staying alive means getting as far away from here as possible, then that's exactly what I'll do. I have no interest in dying today. And I sure as hell have no interest in bringing everything I've built crashing down around me."

I studied him, searching his face for any sign of deceit, any hint that he was playing me. But for once, his arrogance seemed to have faded, replaced by something more pragmatic. He wasn't pleading for his life—he was making a calculated decision, one that offered both of us something we wanted.

Control.

"I leave," he continued, taking a cautious step toward me, "and you get to keep your empire intact. You don't have to deal with the fallout, the chaos, the inevitable war that'll come if I die. But more importantly, Lily gets her peace. She doesn't have to live with the knowledge that her father's blood is on your hands."

At the mention of Lily, my jaw tightened, anger flaring up inside me once again. "You don't get to talk about her," I growled.

Nicholas raised his hands again, placating. "I'm just stating the obvious. You think she won't find out? You think she won't ask questions? She's smart, Nikita. She'll know you were behind it. And when she does, what happens then? Do you think she'll ever forgive you for killing her father?"

I hated that he was right. As much as I wanted to end him here and now, as much as he deserved it, the fallout wouldn'tbe clean. Lily would ask questions. She would wonder what had happened, why her father had disappeared, why he was dead. And when the truth came out, it would tear apart whatever fragile bond we had managed to rebuild.

Nicholas took another step closer, sensing the shift in the air. "Let me go," he said, his voice quieter now. "Let me disappear, and this ends. No bloodshed, no war. You keep your empire. And Lily gets her peace."

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