Page 106 of Beautiful Enemy

Neither of them are my enemy.

But to let Nadia see Anya again would mean I would have to let Nadia go. She would be free to return to me.

That is, if Erik and Sergei and Viktor didn’t prevent her from seeing me again and there’s a good chance they would do that. There’s a good chance they would find me and kill me.

Yet, if I want Nadia to truly be mine, I have to let her go.

I never thought I’d be a compass for morality. It fucking sucks. I would much prefer to kill Erik and Sergei and Viktor and keep Nadia for myself and call it a day. But Nadia will never be truly happy until she can see Anya again and the only way for her to see Anya is to return Nadia to Erik.

I kiss her neck. She snuggles deeper against me, letting out a contented sigh.

“I have to let you go,” I say into her ear.

Nadia tenses before pulling away from me. “What?”

“If you want to see Anya again, I have to let you go. You could have died today, Nadia, and it would have been partially my fault. Hell, it’s all my fault. I put you in this position. I want to be a possessive ass and keep you all to myself but… I don’t want you to be my prisoner any more. I want you to choose to be with me and the only way I can do that is if I let you go.”

“I can go back home?”

It breaks my fucking heart to say it but… “You can go back home. I won’t stop you.”

“Oh, Dante.” Tears spill down her eyes as she kisses me. “But what about us?”

“You know there is no us.”

She gasps. “There has to be. I can convince Erik to stop. To let you live.”

“Can you really do that?”

“Erik listens to me and if he doesn’t, he’ll listen to Anya. I can convince them.”

“Ok. Say that you do. But can you convince your father or Viktor to stop?”

She huffs and pulls the blanket around her body, shielding herself away. “Why can’t I have both? You and my family?”

“Because that’s impossible.”

“So then why let me go? If I leave, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to come back, even if I want to.”

I run my hand over her back, tracing her shoulder blades and spine. I want to memorize all of it in case I never see her again.

“I know,” I say simply. “And trust me, I don’t want to let you go. But the more I’ve spent time with you, the more I see that vengeance isn’t the answer. That I can have more in life than just hate. That I want more in life than just hate.”

“What do you want?” she whispers.

“I think I just want to be happy.”

“Oh, Dante.” She cups my face. “Doesn’t everyone?”

“If you don’t leave right now, baby, I’ll never let you leave this bed. So if you want to see your sister again, you should go.”

“I feel bad.”

“Don’t. I’m the bad guy here. Don’t stay because of how I feel. Make a choice because you need to do what you need to do.”

“I have to see my sister,” she says.

Her words sting but they don’t surprise me. “I know. I never even thought I would feel this way for you. You’ve opened my eyes to more in life.”

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