LOGINHe turns around with his emotionless handsome face and starts leaving the room, leaving me for a heart attack.
"Wait! You can't just kill me! Of course, you need information. Like who I am and whom I work for." I quickly blurt out, swallowing the lump in my throat. "No." He stops walking, turns his head a bit so that I get a clear view of his wicked smirk. Ok, I'm not in a state for complementing. His cockiness, arrogance and I-don't-care look just ignites the rage inside me. I'm not gonna let some sexy arrogant prick kill me, not today. When he attempts to leave, I pull out the small dagger hidden inside one of my sneakers and in one swift motion I fly over him furiously to stab him on the back. But the Russian beauty is faster than me. He grabs my wrist without looking at me or moving from his spot and rotates me around within a blink. Now my back is pressed on his hard chest and the dagger in my hand is pressed on my neck where the artery is. I should fear the Russian pythons aiming their guns close to my face or the man who's one second away from cutting my artery and leave me bleed to death. But I'm too plunged to care about them because the strong, intoxicating and addictive cologne from the man who pressed my small frame against his strong and gigantic one, hypnotizes me to tarnish my sensibility. The tall man leans down until his breath is tickling the side of my neck before he rasps, "Nice effort but not impressive." The amusement and cockiness in his voice bring me back in reality. I slap my inner bitch mentally for acting like a bitch in heat where I'm struggling between my life and death. The more I move in his hold, his men step closer until he stops them with a silent gesture. One wrong move, and I'll meet Robbie in hell. But I'm not the person of being defeated by their enemy without a bone-crushing fight. I win, I take control and I manipulate. "Oh c'mon, you haven't seen anything yet." I grit out. I crease my leg and attempt to hit the boss to where the sun doesn't shine but the man simply twisted my legs between his without an effort and takes my painful and bloody body totally under his control. I'm fucked up. The thought of not being able to see Robbie anymore is smashing my heart into pieces. Now I realize, how big a mistake I've made to underestimate the Russian mob boss. When the tension of the room becomes so thick like desert air, the door burst open tearing it and making our heads snap to the direction, except the Russian beauty. "Boss, wait. She has Landon." The guard who's interrupted the boss and his little slaves from ending my sweet little life, adds quickly. "What?" Katherine, the girlfriend of Landon almost screams, glaring at me like she's gonna eat me one piece. But the Russian beauty doesn't bulge or tense a bit as if he's aware of everything before they can even happen. "Just order me, Volkov. I'll kill this bitch right now!" Katherine hisses as she moved forward slightly with a gun pointed at my skull. "No, you can't. Use your fucking brain, not your tits. Landon has our sixty million dollars with him from the last deal with the Arabians and we've got no single clue where he is right now, except this bitch." The guard speaks harshly at Katherine. Sixty fucking million dollars?! I feel my eyes popped out of their sockets. "Then I think we should keep this little vixen alive for a while guys." Their boss finally speaks coldly, digging his fingers in my wound as I let out a painful cry. "And you think I'd ever spit a word out to you? How cocksure!" I hiss as I feel my body going numb due to the unbearable pain. I try to elbow him but my hands are already behind my back in his tight hold. "Oh, you will, malen'kiy viksen." Again his hot breath fans against my earlobe as he speaks Russian with his sexy melodious voice, suddenly making my legs turn into jelly and goosebumps rise all over my body. [Russian- Little Vixen] All of my dark fantasy dies down when the asshole let go of me all of a sudden as I lose my balance and collapse on the ground. "Let her rot in this room and starve without medication until she speaks about Landon, and then kill her." He orders his men looking directly into my eyes without a void of emotion. His emerald gaze is so cold to freeze my entire body and face too hard to scare the hell out of me. Fucking asshole. "You'll pay for this." I snarl angrily. With a sly smirk, he simply left the room with my blood and dust all over his expensive suit as everyone in the room followed him behind, leaving no room for me to debate further. As soon as the Russian Cobra leaves with his associates, a guard enters the room and throws somebody on the ground beside me. My head snaps toward the person on its own before meeting the familiar person, groaning and wailing in pain. Her eyes widen when she looks at me as if I'd grown two heads. "Well, hello to you too." I roll my eyes and look around. "Why the fuck am I here?" Lucy gasps. "I'm the person who should ask that question. Why the fuck are you here? You're supposed to go somewhere very far from the city." I scowl. "Oh, I was in my apartment and packing up for leaving the city. But suddenly the curly hair, I mean Andrey, burst into my apartment with his men and kidnapped me again." She sighs dramatically. "And why on earth you're in your fucking apartment? Gosh, how could you be so stupid?" I throw my head back and slap my forehead. "Well, I thought they won't check my apartment. I had a lot of money in my closet. I had to rescue them. But those bastards took all of my money." Lucy wails with fake tears. "Very good job. I got a fucking bullet in my arm to rescue you but you're worrying about your motherfucking money? Good thing that they didn't kill you on the spot. Now you're welcome to rot in this cell with me and die from starving." If I had a bit of energy, I would kill this bitch right now. "Oh my God, you got shot! Shit, you're bleeding badly." Lucy quickly sits up and throws me a concerned look. Ripping half of my already torn shirt, Lucy wraps it around my wounded arm and tied it up tightly. The good thing is, it somehow helps with the bleeding. But the bad thing is, I'm now only in one of the sexiest bras in my closet. Fortunately, Lucy didn't care to ask me why on earth I decided to wear this in a horrible mission like this. I wish embarrassment had a limit for me today. "Why are you being angry? I apologize. It's just, how could I leave you alone? You forgot we're sisters." She pouts, looking anywhere but my face. "What the— You intentionally came here? I'll kill you, Maxwell!" I scream top of my lungs. This bitch is just dead! I can't believe everything I did for her went in vain! "Well, love you too." She grins cheekily but instantly gasps when I slap her head. "Ouch! Did you see the boss? Oh my fucking goodness! He's just so fucking—" "Don't! Don't you dare finish that sentence. I know, right? But look what he and his men did to me, us. I now realize why he's the devil to the underworld. Lucifer is so sexy and good-looking too but from inside he's just ugliest and so fucking horrible. He can change his face to manipulate people. That's what Ivan Volkov is. He's no less than Lucifer." I look at Lucy who gasps and applauds in admiration, making me scowl at her. This bitch's never serious. "But what now? We're not the rotting-in-a-cell type girls. You have a mission to complete." She sighs, dropping her head on my wounded shoulder that makes me cry out in pain. "You bitch! You've to do this right now?!" "Oops, I'm so sorry! I just forgot!" "What do you keep in mind except robbery?" I clutch the shoulder and take a deep breath. "Stop insulting my occupation!" "Whatever. We're going to operate 'Plan B', seducing the boss and his men." My lips tilt up with a devilish smirk as Lucy looks at me in awe. This is gonna be the most challenging thing I've ever done in my so fucked up life.Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Woman at the Lake Emma Volkov We didn't speak until the trees swallowed Ark completely. The facility disappeared behind us. No alarms followed. No vehicles. No shouting. Nothing. That frightened me more than pursuit would have. Lucas walked beside me, scanning the forest. Viktor remained several steps behind. My father was breathing heavily. The message was still open on my phone. Your mother is waiting for you. I stared at it again. “No signal,” Lucas said. “I know.” “Then how did you receive it?” “I don't know.” My father looked at the screen. “Delete it.” I looked at him. “Why?” “Because whoever sent it knows where you are.” Lucas shook his head. “That's not enough.” My father looked at him. “What?” “If they know where we are, they already know the phone received the message.” He turned toward the road. “Which means deleting it changes nothing.” Viktor finally spoke. “Unless the message itself is the trap.” I looked at him.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Welcome Home Emma Volkov “Welcome home, Emma.” The voice came from inside the room. Not from the speakers. Not from the corridor. Inside. I froze. Lucas moved immediately, placing himself between me and the doorway. My father whispered my name. Viktor reached for the flashlight at his belt. I stopped him. “Don't.” He looked at me. “Why?” “Because whoever is in there wants us to react.” The silence that followed felt deliberate. Then the emergency lights returned. The room was empty. The chair sat beneath the lamp. The desk remained untouched. No person. No hidden movement. Only the photograph. And my mother's note. If you're reading this, he's already won. Don't trust your father. I walked toward the glass. My father remained behind me. “Emma.” I didn't look at him. “Don't.” He stopped. I opened the door. The room smelled faintly of paper and dust. Nothing else. Lucas entered behind me. Viktor followed. My father stayed at th
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Original Lie Emma Volkov The door opened somewhere beneath us. We heard it. A deep mechanical release. Then the sound of something heavy moving across rails. No one spoke. My father was staring into the darkness. Lucas stood beside me. Viktor had gone completely still. I looked at my father. “You said you disappeared because you discovered who created Ark.” “Yes.” “Who?” He didn't answer. “Dad.” His expression changed at the word. It was the first time I had called him that since seeing him again. Not Professor Volkov. Not Aleksandr. Dad. Something broke across his face. Regret. Then fear. “Come with me.” He walked toward the newly opened door. I followed. Lucas followed me. Viktor came last. The staircase descended farther than the previous levels. Much farther. The air became colder. The walls changed from concrete to exposed stone. This part hadn't been renovated. It felt older than Ark itself. My father kept one hand aga
Chapter Thirty-Six: The Cost of Trust Emma Volkov CHOOSE WHO YOU TRUST. The sentence remained on the screen. No timer. No instructions. No explanation. That somehow made it worse. Lucas was the first to speak. “It's manipulating us.” My father shook his head. “Not exactly.” Lucas looked at him. “Then explain it.” “The system has no reason to care who we trust.” “Then why give us the choice?” My father looked toward the four sealed doors. “Because it wants to observe the consequences.” Viktor gave a quiet laugh. “You're still pretending it's an observer.” My father turned. “And you're still pretending it isn't.” Viktor stepped closer. “It learned from us.” “Yes.” “It adapted around us.” “Yes.” “It now predicts our reactions.” “Yes.” Viktor's voice hardened. “Then it's no longer observing.” My father didn't answer. I looked at the screen. “Maybe that's the point.” Both men turned toward me. I continued. “Maybe it doesn't care who we trust.” Lucas fro
Chapter Thirty-Five: The Choice Beneath ArkEmma VolkovThe deeper we went, the less Ark looked like a building.It became a machine.The walls were no longer concrete alone. Behind them ran cables, conduits, cooling systems, old fiber lines, newer replacements. Some belonged to the original facility.Others had clearly been installed years later.Someone had kept Ark alive.Quietly.Carefully.For reasons no one had ever told me.My father walked ahead of us.He knew exactly where he was going.That bothered me more than the darkness.“Where are we going?” I asked.“The observation chamber.”Lucas looked at him.“The original one?”“Yes.”“Why?”“Because Phase Two begins there.”Viktor stopped.My father turned.“You don't have to come.”Viktor gave a bitter smile.“After all these years, you still think I can walk away?”“Yes.”“That stopped being true a long time ago.”My father studied him.Then continued.I looked at Lucas.He didn't say anything.But I could tell what he was thi
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Man Behind the DoorEmma VolkovThe gate closed behind us with a sound that was almost too ordinary.Metal against metal.A mechanical lock engaging somewhere beneath the ground.Then silence.The forest swallowed the road behind us.Lucas kept both hands on the steering wheel.He didn't move.Neither did I.Ahead, the Ark facility stood exactly as it had appeared in my father's old photographs.Concrete.Narrow windows.A central tower.No insignia.No visible entrance.No sign that anyone had been inside for years.And yet the gate had opened for us.I looked at Viktor through the rearview mirror.He was staring at the building.“You've been here before.”“Yes.”“When?”“Once.”“Why only once?”His answer came after a pause.“Because the second time I came, the door wasn't there anymore.”Lucas looked at him.“What does that mean?”“I don't know.”I turned around.“You always say that when the truth is worse.”Viktor met my eyes.“This time, it's the truth.”
Chapter Twenty: The Weight of YesEmma VolkovPower announces itself long before it settles.I felt it the morning after the engagement talks went public—not in the calls or the messages or the sudden politeness of men who had once dismissed me, but in the way silence shifted around me. People wait
Chapter Eighteen: A Question Sharper Than a BladeEmma VolkovMarriage, I learned, is a word that sounds different in rooms where men decide wars.It isn’t romantic there. It isn’t soft. It’s strategic, sharpened, measured by what it costs and what it secures. I’d heard it all my life spoken like a
Chapter Twenty-One: The Shape of a CrownEmma VolkovEngagement didn’t feel like celebration.It felt like architecture.Everything rearranged itself around a future that had not yet arrived, beams sliding into place with a quiet inevitability. Invitations weren’t sent so much as anticipated. Secur
Chapter Eighteen: A Question Sharper Than a BladeEmma VolkovMarriage, I learned, is a word that sounds different in rooms where men decide wars.It isn’t romantic there. It isn’t soft. It’s strategic, sharpened, measured by what it costs and what it secures. I’d heard it all my life spoken like a







