The next two days blurred into a tense, uneasy calm. Damian's phone calls never stopped — clipped commands to his legal teams, hushed instructions to men whose names Alina never learned.
She tried not to listen too closely, tried not to imagine what those short, cold orders meant. But the lines around Damian's mouth only deepened, and he rarely let her out of his sight. It was as if he expected some threat to burst through the door at any moment.
Then on the third morning, the threat didn't come for them. It struck someone else.
---
Alina was curled on the couch with a book when Damian's phone rang. She half-listened at first, only catching the way his posture stiffened as he answered.
But then his voice changed — went cold and lethal in a way that made her stomach turn.
"What do you mean, he was found? Where?"
A pause. A muscle ticked violently in his jaw.
"And the message left on him?"
Another pause. His eyes closed. When they opened again, they were flat and glittering with something terrifying.
"Handle it. Clean it up. And for God's sake, keep the police away from this."
He ended the call without another word.
---
Alina rose slowly. "Damian… what happened?"
He didn't answer right away. Just turned to stare out the floor-to-ceiling windows, hands flexing at his sides. Finally he spoke, voice low and edged with something that sounded like grief.
"That was about Marcus. The man I was on the phone with the other morning."
"The one helping you freeze the investors' accounts?"
He nodded tightly. "They found him dead in his car outside his apartment. Shot once in the head."
Alina's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my God."
"They left a note pinned to his dashboard." Damian's eyes found hers, hard and blazing. "It had your name on it."
---
For a second, her knees nearly buckled. Damian was there in an instant, gripping her arms so tightly it almost hurt.
"This is because of me," she whispered. "Because of us."
"No." His voice was a growl. "This is because I underestimated how desperate they'd be to keep their grip on my empire. And because they think threatening you gives them power."
She searched his face, fighting tears. "What are you going to do?"
His mouth twisted into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Exactly what they're afraid I will."
---
Damian spent the next hours on a relentless spree of calls and private meetings, men in dark suits coming and going through the house. Alina tried to stay out of the way, but more than once, Damian reached for her hand in passing — almost as if to reassure himself she was still there.
When evening fell, he finally joined her in the library, sinking into a chair across from her. The light of the fire threw harsh shadows across his face.
"It's done," he said quietly.
"What is?"
"Their accounts. Their international real estate. The logistics chains that keep their other 'investments' moving. All tied up in so many legal knots they'll never untangle it. I've already had their assets seized in three countries." His eyes met hers, dark with ruthless triumph. "I sent them a message today — louder than anything they ever could've left on Marcus."
---
Alina shivered. Part of her wanted to recoil from how easily he spoke of destroying lives. But another part — the part bound to him now by some dark, unbreakable thread — felt strangely reassured.
Because if Damian would go this far for business… what wouldn't he do to protect her?
She crossed the room and sank onto his lap, framing his face in her hands. "Promise me something."
His brow furrowed. "Anything."
"That you won't lose yourself in all this. That you'll remember why you're fighting — that it's not just about winning or power or revenge. It's about us."
---
For a long moment, he didn't speak. Then he gripped her wrists gently, pulling her hands down so he could press his forehead to hers.
"You are the only reason any of this matters to me anymore," he whispered. "Without you, it's all just hollow victories."
Their mouths met in a slow, bruising kiss. When he finally lifted her in his arms and carried her upstairs, there was no rough dominance — only a fervent, almost tender desperation.
He made love to her as though trying to memorize every sigh, every shiver, every breath she took — imprinting them on his soul in case some darkness ever tried to steal her away.
---
Afterward, they lay tangled together in the dim light, Damian's hand drifting lazily up and down her spine.
"I don't know what tomorrow will bring," he murmured. "But I swear to you, Alina… I will burn down the entire world before I let it take you from me."
Her heart ached at the fierce promise. She pressed her lips to his chest, right over the frantic beat of his heart.
"I believe you," she whispered.
And terrifying as it was, she realized she found more comfort in Damian's darkness than she ever had in anyone else's light.