Darker Than Love
2020 Heat 5/5
Darker Than Love by Anna Zaires is a 2020 romance. Tropes: Assassin, captor-captive-romance, Dark Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, hasty-marriage, morally-gray-assassin-romance, partners-in-crime, possessive-hero, terminal-illness-and-healing, ticking-clock-romance. Heat 5/5. Book 1 of Darker Than Love.
What happened in Darker Than Love?
Once upon a cold, dark night, a Russian killer stole me from an alley. I’m dangerous, but he is lethal. I escaped once. He won’t let me do it twice. The revenge is his. The betrayal is mine. But so are the lies to protect the ones I love. We’re cut from the same twisted cloth. Both merciless. Both damaged. In his embrace, I find hell and heaven, his cruelly tender touch destroying and uplifting me at once. They say a cat has nine lives, but an assassin has just one. And Yan Ivanov now owns mine.
What tropes are in Darker Than Love?
Where does Darker Than Love fall in Darker Than Love?
Book 1 of Darker Than Love. Reading order
What should I read next?
Capture Me by Anna Zaires.
Chapters
Chapter 2
Thirty kilometers outside Budapest, six-year-old Mina rides with her parents along a snow-covered forest road on a cold winter night. When armed men ambush their car, the family is torn apart in a sudden, brutal attack that leaves the child orphaned and alone in the freezing dark. Hiding among the tree roots, Mina survives the violence but is left to discover her parents' bodies by moonlight, an ordeal that shatters her innocence. Rather than crumble, the trauma forges something harder inside her: as she walks away from the scene, the fear and pain drain out, replaced by a chilling emotional stillness she experiences as her heart turning to snow and ice. This haunting origin sets the stage for a woman shaped by loss, resilience, and a terrifying capacity for cold resolve.
Chapter 3
Working a grueling shift as a Budapest waitress, Mina conceals debilitating dizziness and nausea that hint at a hidden pregnancy, her military training the only thing keeping her sharp. When she overhears two Russian assassins plotting a kill at a nearby table, she freezes behind a column, then feigns ignorance with practiced charm to slip away unnoticed. Though the lethal, darkly handsome stranger triggers an inconvenient surge of attraction, she suppresses it and survives the night. Just as exhaustion threatens to overwhelm her, the men vanish—only for footsteps to ambush her in the freezing alley behind the bar, leaving her survival hanging in the balance.
Chapter 4
In the dim alleys of Budapest, fugitive twins YAN and Ilya abduct a punk-styled waitress named Mina after she may have overheard their dangerous conversation. While Ilya attempts gentle reassurance, YAN claims exclusive possession, his attraction inflamed by her petite vulnerability and hidden strength. Trapped in their second-floor apartment, Mina performs terror, but YAN's instincts detect excitement beneath the fear—and a dangerous secret. When YAN speaks of murder in Russian, her frozen composure confirms she understands the language despite her denials. As exhaustion weighs heavily on the captive, the brothers stand guard over her until dawn, the chapter closing on YAN's desperate hope that she will stay awake long enough for what he intends.
Chapter 5
Mina wakes in a Soviet-era safe house after being abducted from a bar, exhausted and terrified but alive. Her captors reveal themselves as twin brothers: Ilya, the softer-voiced man with skull tattoos who promises her safe passage, and Yan, the predatory stranger who cornered her earlier. When Yan wedges himself onto the couch beside her and rests a possessive hand on her thigh, the air between them crackles with danger and unwanted attraction. Mina, nursing trauma from her past, finds herself unsettled by her body's response to the threat. To isolate the more dangerous brother, she accepts Yan's invitation to be left alone with him, sending Ilya away—a calculated risk that leaves her vulnerable and intensely aware of the violence lurking beneath his charm.
Chapter 6
Yan, holding the woman he kidnapped captive, correctly reads that Mina desires him despite the mortal threat between them. He leads her to his bedroom and locks the door, where her trembling question about whether he will kill her afterward only fuels his dark triumph. Their tense confrontation ignites into a ferocious, passionate encounter that escalates with savage intensity, clothing discarded in a frenzy as they surrender to mutual, consuming hunger. After driving her to a shuddering climax, Yan prepares for their union, ensuring protection before pressing into her, leaving the chapter suspended on the brink of consummation while the danger of their situation remains unresolved.
Chapter 7
Mina wakes alone in the unfamiliar room after a night with Yan, one of two dangerous brothers holding her captive. Overhearing them argue in Russian, she learns Yan intends to keep her against her will and take her when they leave town—dashing any hope of release. Though the intensity of their connection tempts her to consider staying, Mina recognizes the deadly reality of her situation and the responsibility she bears for her grandmother Hanna, who depends on her. With the brothers distracted by their fight, she fashions a rope from bed linens, forces open a second-floor window, and leaps into the unknown, her brittle bones and weakened body making the desperate escape perilous. The chapter closes on her suspended between the ground and the window, freedom within reach but survival far from guaranteed.
Chapter 8
In Esguerra's Colombian compound, Yan monitors a tense hostage standoff as the team races against a deadline set by their nemesis, former US general Henderson. When their hackers identify the sniper who attacked Peter Sokolov's arrest—code-named Mink—as Mina, a former lover from Budapest, Yan's controlled fury detonates into a volatile confrontation with his twin brother Ilya, who reveals Yan's affair to the room. The revelation ignites a near-violent clash between the brothers before Lucas Kent abruptly interrupts with urgent news about Peter's wife, Sara. Left seething with betrayal, Yan redirects his rage toward Mina, ordering her capture alive for interrogation about Henderson's location—and for the personal reckoning she owes him. The chapter closes on Yan's chilling resolve to make Mina pay for her deception.
Chapter 9
Mina wakes to find herself captive and restrained in a hot, musty location, her wrists bound above her head. Fighting through the fog of drugging, she recalls being ambushed in a dark Budapest alley by four armed men while on her way to a bartending gig. Though she disarmed one attacker and injured another, she was overwhelmed and flown to this unknown destination. She connects her abduction to a dangerous job in Chicago involving someone named Esguerra that she shouldn't have taken. As footsteps approach, she feigns unconsciousness, but the newcomer—a man named Yan—sees through her ruse. He crouches beside her with cruel amusement, addressing her as "Mina" and "Mink" in Hungarian, his sandalwood-and-pepper scent triggering an uncanny recognition. The chapter closes with his fingers grazing her lips, leaving Mina trapped and at the mercy of a captor who clearly knows her past.
Chapter 10
Mina, a Hungarian freelance sniper, finds herself recaptured by Yan and his brother Ilya, the Russian criminals she tried to forget. After taking a job from a former US general to ensure a target named Sokolov wasn't taken alive during an arrest, she realizes the target is connected to the twins, landing her in their Colombian compound. Bound in a wooden shed, she interrogates with them—revealing her military background, her freelance work, and betraying a team of mercenaries to buy goodwill. Yan's possessive, threatening touches and the mention of Peter Sokolov's interrogation methods keep the stakes lethal, while Ilya's jealous tension over who guards her adds volatile heat. Mina ends the chapter trapped with Yan alone, desperate but calculating, aware that cooperation may be her only path to survival.
Chapter 11
Captive operative MINA awakens bound in a jungle compound, her captor Yan restraining her with ropes as tropical heat bears down. When armed guards threaten her, Yan’s violent protection paradoxically heightens her fear and attraction, blurring the line between danger and desire. Forced into dense foliage to evade surveillance drones, she endures a humiliating moment of vulnerability that triggers intense, unwanted physical arousal despite her terror. Back in the shed, new captives arrive—Sokolov and Yan’s twin Ilya—bearing evidence that exposes a conspiracy: the Delta Force mercenaries MINA once identified are actually doppelgängers wearing disguises crafted by her own mentor, Gergo Nagy. To save him from execution, MINA falsely claims responsibility for the elaborate deception, sealing her own fate as the men close in with cold, lethal intent.
Chapter 12
Yan holds Mina captive in a remote shed after recapturing her for framing him as a terrorist, his rage warring with the raw desire he still feels for her. While Sokolov interrogates her about a disguise that might aid Yan's escape, Yan tends to the injuries she suffered during her capture, cleaning her wounds and forcing her to eat and drink despite her restraints. Their conversation circles back to her betrayal—she insists it was only a job, but the words cut him deeply. As the chapter closes, Yan confronts her about her motives while battling his urge to punish her, leaving the tension unresolved between captor and captive.
Chapter 13
MINA awakens in a dark shed, still bound and wearing Yan’s shirt, the scent of his cologne clinging to the fabric. Her captor arrives with cases of disguise materials and forces her to transform him into one of the Delta Force operatives she allegedly betrayed, threatening her life if she fails. The power dynamic shifts dangerously as physical tension erupts between them; despite the threat of death and the presence of guards outside, they engage in a raw, desperate encounter that blurs the line between captor and lover. When Yan’s twin Ilya interrupts, the moment shatters. Once the disguise is complete, Yan’s demeanor turns glacial, and he leaves MINA bound to a wall hook in darkness, promising further suffering to come.
Chapter 14
Yan returns to the compound nursing a grudge after his brother Ilya challenges his exclusive claim over Mina, the captive traitor awaiting execution by Sokolov. Convinced the betrayal demands singular vengeance, Yan slips into the jungle at night and unlocks the shed where Mina is bound. He strips away her disguise and claims her in a volatile fusion of possessive desire and simmering rage, their intimacy charged with danger and reluctant surrender. The heat of the moment shatters when Yan realizes protection was forgotten, leaving him stunned by the terrifying possibility of pregnancy—an unresolved threat that hangs over the compound as he stumbles back into the darkness.
Chapter 15
Mina wakes in a shed, bound and traumatized by her captor Yan's assault the night before. He forces a morning-after pill on her, confirming his intent to kill her once she is no longer useful. Pressed into service, she disguises Peter Sokolov for a deadly mission against Henderson, then waits alone as Yan, Ilya, and Anton depart for the hit. Hours of isolation erode her sanity until she overhears Yan promise Sokolov he will "take care of" her. When he returns alive—Henderson eliminated by guards—Mina expects execution. Instead, Yan serves her a final meal of pollo con chocolate, shares a raw, vulnerable intimacy, then injects her with a sedative. The chapter closes on her fading consciousness, whispering his name.
Chapter 16
Mina wakes in Yan’s Prague apartment after twenty hours of drug-induced unconsciousness, discovering a rice-grain tracker implanted at the back of her neck that ensures she cannot flee. Though he confesses he was ordered to kill her, he instead keeps her captive, and she overhears his crew planning an assassination on the Balkan crime lord Casmir Dimitrov. To earn her freedom—and money for her ailing grandmother Hanna—Mina proposes impersonating the notorious art dealer Natasha Petrova, offering the missing Salvator Mundi painting to lure Dimitrov into a trap. After a tense negotiation where her captors outvote Yan, he reluctantly agrees but asserts dominance. The chapter culminates in a violent confrontation where Yan physically overpowers her, and despite her hatred and resistance, her body betrays her with arousal, leaving her shattered and marked as his possession.
Chapter 17
Yan holds Mina captive in his Prague apartment after she attempted to assassinate him, their volatile connection simmering through a raw intimate encounter. When she confesses a childhood nightmare about her parents' murder during a car hijacking, his protective instincts flare despite his criminal detachment. As they prepare for a high-stakes meeting with crime lord Dimitrov at the Hotel Paris's Gustave Klimt suite, Yan assigns her a disguise from Simon's antique shop, but his possessive grip tightens when his twin brother Ilya flirts with a woman at the bar, sparking a bitter confrontation about exclusivity. The chapter ends with Mina vanishing through the hotel door, leaving Yan's control fracturing just as the hit looms.
Chapter 18
Mina wakes with a nosebleed and bruises that betray violence rather than passion, confronting her captor Yan in the bathroom over his liaison with his brother Ilya and a stranger. Their tense exchange escalates into a battle of wills, with Yan asserting absolute ownership over her body and freedom while Mina grapples with an unfamiliar surge of jealousy. Seeking common ground, they trade stories of their first kills—revenge for murdered family—and Yan reveals he has uncovered Mina's secret: her grandmother Hanna's Parkinson's treatment in a Budapest clinic. The conversation shifts to business as they renegotiate her contract to assassinate Dimitrov, securing a fifty percent upfront payment through an offshore account. Despite moments of dark camaraderie, the chapter closes on unresolved pressure: Yan's insistence on meeting Hanna, the threat of Ilya's reckless behavior upstairs, and Mina's desperate retreat to bed, acutely aware that her freedom remains a distant, purchased commodity.
Chapter 19
Mina wakes from nightmares in the captive compound, trapped by a tracker in her neck and the possessive grip of Yan, who has declared her exclusive for the first time. While Yan is away in Ostrava pressuring the Hotel Paris manager, his twin Ilya guards her, revealing the brothers’ habit of sharing lovers and his own unrequited longing for Mina. After a moment of raw emotional vulnerability, Mina manipulates Ilya’s guilt, securing cash and permission to leave alone for breakfast. As she steps outside with the tracker still pulsing at her throat, she abandons the pretense and runs, desperate to reach Hanna before Yan returns and the fragile truce shatters.
Chapter 20
Yan consolidates a lethal plan with a government agent to assassinate crime lord Dimitrov during a clandestine art deal at Hotel Paris. The scheme hinges on Mina posing as socialite Natasha Petrova to deliver a fake da Vinci, while Yan and Ilya infiltrate as transporters to ambush the target from the Klimt suite balcony. As they finalize a three-week timeline—exploiting Petrova’s upcoming travel deviation to Prague—Yan grapples with his possessive fixation on Mina, recognizing her as his soulmate even as he views her as a caged bird he has claimed. The chapter closes with the date unconfirmed and Mina’s life still hanging in the balance of a plan that is foolproof only in theory.
Chapter 21
Mina races against time from Prague to Budapest, desperate to secure her ailing grandmother Hanna's future before returning to the dangerous handler who controls her. Using coded messages, she warns her mentor Gergo that Russian operatives hunt him, sacrificing her own safety by claiming responsibility for the disguises that framed them. At the private clinic, Mina arranges lifetime care for Hanna while receiving devastating news—her leukemia has returned, and she refuses further treatment. With bruises from her violent life and a tracker still embedded, she shares a final, tender meal with the woman who raised her, memorizing every fragile moment. As she boards the train back to Prague, Mina faces an uncertain future alone, carrying the weight of goodbye and the unspoken dread of what awaits her.
Chapter 22
When Mina flees to Budapest to visit her grandmother at a private clinic, Yan abandons everything to hunt her down, driving eleven hours with Anton to intercept her at the train station. His relief at finding her curdles into possessive fury, and he drags her to a rundown hotel where he exacts a brutal, punishing intimacy to make her feel the terror of losing her. The next morning, gentler but no less controlling, he draws a trembling release from her while threatening her grandmother's life if she ever runs again. Their fragile truce shatters when Yan reviews surveillance footage from the clinic and discovers Mina embracing a dark-haired stranger with glasses and a facial mole—a jealousy that burns hotter than his regret, leaving the chapter on the edge of a new, dangerous confrontation.
Chapter 23
Mina awakens bruised from the night's cruelty, her captor Yan having punished his own twin Ilya for her transgression—leaving the gentle giant bloodied and the household fractured. With her own death sentence looming from leukemia, Mina throws herself into the final mission: infiltrating the orbit of art dealer Casmir Dimitrov by adopting the persona of Natasha Petrova. Through a flawless video performance, she negotiates a $200 million deal for the Salvator Mundi, securing a clandestine meeting in Prague's Hotel Paris. But back in their apartment, the tension between the warring brothers erupts into open combat until Mina intervenes. Left alone with Yan, her defiance dissolves into a charged encounter where he asserts absolute possession, yet grants her the illusion of choice—leaving Mina surrendering to desire despite knowing time is running out.
Chapter 24
Yan wakes beside Mina consumed by jealousy after reviewing security footage of her secret meeting with a mysterious man named Izsak Varga at a clinic. His possessive obsession drives him to investigate the man's identity through his hackers, but the trail leads only to dead ends—a rental car under a false name. When morning comes, the tension erupts into a passionate and intense intimate encounter between Yan and Mina, their connection deepening despite his dark, controlling nature. The chapter shifts abruptly when Yan receives a message revealing Mina's traumatic past: the reason she left the Special Forces and the violence she endured. The chapter closes with Yan seething with protective rage, vowing to make things so good for Mina that she'll forget the other man—and perhaps heal from her past.
Chapter 25
Mina, an assassin working under duress, finds her ex-teammate Gergo hiding in the dressing room of an upscale boutique where she's shopping with her captor, Yan Ivanov. Gergo, known as The Chameleon, followed her from Budapest and offers to kill Yan or extract her, but Mina refuses, revealing she's playing a three-week undercover job to pose as Natasha Petrova and sell a fake Salvator Mundi to target Dimitrov at Hotel Paris—money needed for her grandmother Hanna's care. When Yan discovers them, Mina improvises an escape, hiding Gergo behind the door as they leave. Over lunch on a rooftop terrace, Yan's mood shifts from cold calculation to possessive intensity, probing Mina's traumatic past in the Special Forces. He promises retribution against the mercenaries who assaulted her, revealing a capacity for ruthless protection that blurs the line between captor and protector. Mina struggles with unwanted feelings as Yan insists she is "his," closing the chapter on the unresolved tension of their dangerous entanglement and the approaching assassination.
Chapter 26
Mina returns to Yan's apartment where simmering tension between the brothers contrasts with Ilya's guarded care. When a sudden nosebleed strikes, his tender concern—revealed alongside his own bruised face from Yan's hand—sparks an impulsive hug that ignites Yan's jealous fury upon his return. Claiming exclusive possession in a raw bathroom confrontation, Yan transforms their argument into a passionate encounter that leaves Mina questioning their future amid her terminal illness. As they prepare for a celebratory dinner alone, Yan reveals a photo of one of her attackers with his face beaten to a pulp, proving his revenge has already begun. The chapter balances intimate vulnerability with the dark reality of captivity and mortality.
Chapter 27
Yan takes Mina to dinner at an unfamiliar restaurant to escape tension at home, but his obsessive fixation on her—heightened by her recent framing of him and a disturbing photo he showed her—derails the evening. When he pressures her to see a psychiatrist for her withdrawal and bruises, their argument escalates into a chilling reminder of his ownership over her. After intimidating a stranger who stares at Mina, Yan drives home consumed by jealousy and a new, unsettling desire: not just for her body, but for her trust and heart, which she keeps locked away. The chapter ends with them sharing a charged, wordless intimacy that underscores his growing need to break through her silence.
Chapter 28
Yan slipping out at night with his enforcer Anton reveals a calculated campaign of vengeance. While his companions sleep, he flies to Hungary to confront Major General Rafael Tóth, the officer who buried the brutal assault on Mina Belan—an attack that left her with life-altering injuries and shattered fertility. In a tense midnight interrogation, Yan forces Tóth to confess the details of the cover-up: broken ribs, skull fracture, and permanent damage. As Tóth’s misogynistic justifications inflame Yan’s cold fury, the scene escalates into a brutal reckoning where Yan threatens permanent maiming to extract justice for Mina. The chapter closes on Yan’s unresolved vow that nine more perpetrators remain, leaving the night’s violence as both punishment and promise of more to come.
Chapter 29
Trapped in Yan's apartment, Mina battles listlessness and a resurgent nightmare of her parents' murder, the trauma that shaped her into a detached sniper. Their captor-captive dynamic softens into raw vulnerability as she confesses the origin of her nickname "Mink," the meaning behind her hummingbird tattoo, and the medical crisis that nearly killed her. Yan counters with his own chilling history, revealing he felt no remorse at sixteen when he first killed. When his jealous interrogation about her past lovers threatens to reopen old wounds, Mina admits she chose him freely, reigniting their passion. The morning after, Yan drags her from bed for a punishing jog through the old town, proving that action—not rumination—is his remedy for her depression, leaving their volatile bond tested yet intact.
Chapter 30
With two days until they assassinate Dimitrov in Prague, Mina watches her captor Yan systematically eliminate the men who hurt her, bringing her ten more proofs of their deaths. As her fatal illness accelerates, the apartment grows tense with jealousy when Yan's brother Ilya challenges Mina's feelings, sparking a violent confrontation that leaves team member Anton injured. Cornered, Mina finally confesses she's in love with Yan—a confession he meets with possessive comfort rather than reciprocity. Their intimacy becomes a desperate surrender, Mina offering herself completely to the man who holds her life in his hands. With her body failing and her heart exposed, she accepts that she'll die loving her captor, planning a visit to her grandmother tomorrow while the clock ticks toward the hit.
Chapter 31
Yan grapples with unexpected love for his captive Mina while flying to Budapest with his brother Anton. Determined to make amends for holding her against her will, he insists on introducing her to her grandmother Hanna at a private clinic. Though Mina resents his presence, Yan charms the sharp-tongued elderly woman during a tea-and-cards visit, promising forever and a ruby ring. Meanwhile, Anton hunts the last surviving member of Mina's attackers, Laszlo Kiss, who has fled to the Swiss Alps. But a classified file on Gergo Nagy—the disguise expert known as The Chameleon who rescued Mina and trained her—triggers a jolt of recognition in Yan, leaving him questioning what Mina is hiding as they prepare for tomorrow's lethal mission against Dimitrov.
Chapter 32
Yan's world tilts when surveillance footage reveals that Mina's secret meeting in Budapest wasn't a betrayal but a desperate warning to Gergo Nagy—the legendary 'Chameleon' who saved her life after her assault. The realization crashes over him: the disguises that nearly destroyed their trust were Nagy's work, and Mina took the blame to protect the man she owes everything. Drowning in guilt, Yan recognizes he has been weaponizing her 'sin' to bind her to him, but now that leverage is ash. As jealousy curdles into shame, he faces a terrifying truth—he cannot let her go, even knowing she loves him freely. While Mina showers, Yan redirects their mission, sending Anton to Switzerland to hunt 'Kiss' while they secure Dimitrov, all the while wrestling with the question of who is systematically eliminating Mina's attackers.
Chapter 33
Yan confronts Mina about secretly meeting her former trainer Gergo Nagy in Budapest, revealing he tortured their superior Tóth to uncover the truth. When Mina begs him to spare Gergo—who saved her life and taught her disguise—Yan reluctantly agrees, then claims her in a raw, possessive encounter on the floor to prove ownership and soothe his guilt. Afterward, Mina admits her feelings remain real despite the betrayal, but warns Yan not to fall in love with her. Later, Yan confesses to his twin Ilya that he loves Mina, only to realize that keeping her is selfish. He resolves to set her free after their next job, dreading the heartbreak tomorrow will bring.
Chapter 34
Mina wakes beside Yan on the morning of their mission to eliminate Dimitrov, their charged intimacy momentarily resolving a brewing emotional rift before Yan's cold detachment reasserts itself. Disguised as art dealer Natasha Petrova—with prosthetics, wig, and makeup—she infiltrates the Hotel Paris's Klimt suite while Yan and his twin Ilya pose as transport workers to plant a decoy painting. After a thorough security sweep, Mina meets Dimitrov, whose predatory charm masks lethal intent. As she prepares to strike in the bathroom, counting down the seconds to his death, Dimitrov ambushes her from behind, grabbing her waist and halting the assassination. The chapter closes on the unresolved tension: Mina's mission compromised, her feelings for Yan acknowledged but forbidden, and the deadly game with Dimitrov only beginning.
Chapter 35
Yan and his partner Ilya execute a high-stakes identity swap with hotel security to infiltrate a luxury suite, but Yan's focus fractures between the mission and his terror for Mina, who is alone with the dangerous Dimitrov minutes from now. As they stage their infiltration from the rooftop, swapping clothes and weapons in tense silence, Yan grapples with possessive jealousy and the fear that their relationship will end the moment Mina walks away from this job. When Anton calls with a frantic warning that the meeting is a trap, the operation shifts from extraction to desperate rescue, leaving Yan racing against time to reach the woman he loves before violence erupts.
Chapter 36
Mina infiltrates a luxury hotel suite to eliminate crime lord Dimitrov, only to discover his "art expert" is a traitor who has lured her into an ambush. What begins as a seduction turns into a brutal fight for survival when Dimitrov overpowers her, leaving her trapped and vulnerable. Using only a lamp cord and a hairpin, she fights back with lethal precision, blinding him and severing his jugular before turning to the mysterious observer. Just as she believes she has won, her partner Yan bursts in to rescue her, only to face the traitor at gunpoint. In a heart-stopping standoff, Yan sacrifices himself, taking a bullet meant for Mina. As he dies in her arms, she realizes the depth of his love, leaving her shattered and alone as sirens wail in the distance.
Chapter 37
Yan cradles Mina as she bleeds from a gunshot wound in a Prague hotel suite, certain she is dying in his arms. With his brother Ilya and pilot Anton, he executes a desperate escape to Budapest via private plane, evading authorities through back routes while a government fixer sanitizes the crime scene. En route, Anton reveals a brutal betrayal: their former associate Gergo Nagy orchestrated the assault on Mina, placed a five-million-dollar bounty on her head, and sold Yan’s team out to their enemy Dimitrov. At a private clinic, Dr. Lena Adami stabilizes Mina but delivers devastating news—Mina has leukemia. Yan vows to capture Nagy alive for Mina to judge, doubling the bounty while wrestling with the fear that his beloved may not survive either the wound or her hidden illness.
Chapter 38
Mina wakes in a private clinic after taking a bullet for Yan, her captor turned devoted protector. As they process the violent shootout that left their attackers dead, she uncovers the devastating betrayal of her oldest friend, Gergo Nagy, who staged her earlier assault to recruit her and leaked their plans to crime boss Dimitrov. The revelation deepens when Yan reveals Mina's secret: her cancer has returned after sixteen months of remission, a truth she hid to protect him. In response, Yan confesses he has already secured Hanna's future with a lifetime donation. Overwhelmed by his fierce, unconditional love and facing mortality, Mina accepts Yan's impromptu marriage proposal, becoming Mina Ivanova as they pledge to seize whatever time remains together.
Chapter 39
Yan guards his recovering fiancée Mina—leukemia-stricken and still healing from a gunshot wound—in a private clinic while plotting a trap for Nagy, the master assassin hunting them under a ten-million-dollar bounty. When Yan reveals he wants to marry Mina immediately, the team scrambles to arrange a same-day wedding, complete with a ruby ring and a marzipan cake. But their plans collapse when a flirtatious nurse reveals herself as Nagy in disguise. In a brutal struggle, Mina kills him with a hidden syringe of strychnine, suffering a torn wound in the process. With the threat neutralized, Yan and Mina exchange vows in the clinic chapel, where a blood-red ruby seals their bond as she walks down the aisle despite her injury, choosing forever amidst the danger.
Chapter 40
Three years after surviving a devastating illness, Mina celebrates her remission anniversary with her partner Yan at a hilltop restaurant in Prague, toasting to their survival and the life they've rebuilt together in Mozambique. Their sentimental evening takes a turn when encrypted messages arrive on their unlisted phones, summoning them to a high-stakes job worth six million dollars. Unable to resist the pull of their dangerous lifestyle or each other, they share a passionate encounter in a shadowed alley before rushing off to catch their flight. This chapter captures the deep bond between two assassins who have found healing and purpose in each other, balancing the joy of Mina's recovery with the thrill of their next mission, while still mourning the loss of their friend Hanna, who passed away the previous year.
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Darker Than Love by Anna Zaires. https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/darker-than-love Plot summaries, not full text.