LOGINKATYA"Hello, Katya."The voice came from behind me and for a split second, my heart nearly stopped.I spun around so fast that I almost lost my footing.My father.He was standing a few feet away from me, looking straight at me. "What….”The word left my mouth before I could stop it. I looked around immediately, scanning the area."What are you doing here?" I asked.The shock was still clear in my voice.He glanced toward the direction Nikolai had disappeared. Then back at me."Take a walk with me."I stared at him now. "You didn't answer my question.""Take a walk with me, Katya."The request sounded more like an order. One that I should have refused.Part of me wanted to.But another part of me, the stupid part that still hoped there was a father somewhere underneath the monster, followed him.We began walking slowly through the cemetery.Side by side. Though it felt more like two strangers sharing the same path.After several moments of silence, I finally spoke."You have some
NIKOLAI "You are staring again." I let out a low chuckle and glanced down at the woman lying comfortably across my chest. "I am literally looking at the ceiling." "Mm-hmm." Katya shifted slightly, her head pressing more firmly against me. "That doesn't mean you aren't staring." "At the ceiling?" My hand rested lazily against her shoulder as she absentmindedly traced patterns across my chest. A smile tugged at her lips now as I shook my head. I had to admit, it felt good waking up to her on my body every day. I could really get used to this. But I knew that I actually shouldn’t. I had spent most of my life teaching myself not to become attached to things. Especially things that could be taken away from me at any given time. "I'm going to be away from the house for a bit today." I said as I looked at her. "I want you to stay inside the room while I'm gone." That got her full attention, as her eyebrows rose immediately. "Am I being grounded?" I rolled my eyes. "I am serio
“Quite frankly, I was surprised when you said you wanted us to meet, Sergei," Viktor said as he sat in his study. “I was under the impression that you were full on ignoring me now.” Sergei laughed at this. It was one of those uncomfortable laughs because he could still sense the subtle threat in Viktor's words. “It isn’t like that at all.” Sergei said, “Things have been quite… eventful. I couldn’t exactly contact you as much because it was risky.” “Who is your friend?” Viktor asked, as he turned to Lily. Sergei resisted the urge to sigh. Bringing Lily into this had been a risk. But after her little revelation in the bar, he hadn't exactly had much choice. Some wildfires couldn't be extinguished. They had to be controlled. “This is Lily.” Sergei said, “She is Nikolais' fiancé.” "Ex-fiancé," Lily corrected immediately. Viktor folded his hands together. “Oh, I see.” He said, as he walked up to Lily and then walked around her, sizing her up with his eyes. “Let me rephrase the qu
KATYA I genuinely didn’t want to talk to Daniel right now. Not because I missed him or anything stupid like that. In fact, chances were that if he were in front of me at that moment, I would genuinely be considering picking up a bottle and smashing it square across his head. Every time I thought about him, all I could see was that video and I absolutely hated it. “Katya,” Nikolai said as he stared into my eyes. “You know, if this is too hard for you, then you don’t have to do it. I will find another way to handle it.” Something about the softness in his voice made me smile. The Nikolai from a few weeks ago would have simply ordered me to make the call immediately. Now he was giving me a choice. “No,” I finally replied, straightening my shoulders as I looked at the phone. “I want to do it.” Nikolai nodded once. Then I remained silent as I picked up the phone and punched in Daniel's number. It pissed me off that I still knew it. The phone rang a couple of times before finally
Sergei stood partially concealed behind a hedge near the eastern side of the estate grounds, having stepped outside moments earlier for a cigarette and a brief reprieve from the endless responsibilities piling onto his shoulders.Instead, he had stumbled upon something far more interesting.Nikolai and Katya. He had been watching them for some time now, the anger piling in his chest as he saw them making out. Their relationship had progressed much faster than he would have liked or even anticipated. The fact that they could still go at it with each other like rabbid dogs despite everything going on was disgusting. She definitely had no shame to willingly be sleeping with the man who had kidnapped her after all. Just as he was about to walk away, he heard Nikolai speak. "I've been having a strange feeling lately." He said, “About what?”Nikolai hesitated for a bit, as Sergei found himself leaning slightly closer."About Sergei."For a split second, Sergei thought he had misheard.
KATYAI rolled on the bed one more time, opening my eyes.“Dammit” I mumbled to myself. “Don’t tell me you cannot sleep without him already, Katya.”I frowned now. More at me than anybody, as I stared at Nikolai's side of the bed, which was empty.For a moment, I simply lay there staring at the ceiling.Then a smile found its way onto my face despite myself. A lot had changed recently.If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be willingly lying in bed in a Russian mafia boss's room, wondering where he had disappeared to in the middle of the night, I would have laughed in their face.Yet here I was.And somehow... I was happy.The realization still felt strange to me.Ever since the library, it was like the walls that Nikolai kept around himself seemed to be slowly coming down. I had noticed it for a while now, but I didn’t know for sure.Not completely; I doubted they ever would, but enough for me to see the man behind them.A warmth spread through my chest just thinking a
KATYAEverything hurt.My head, my body, even my fucking eyelashes somehow felt heavy.I groaned softly and shifted against something warm beneath me before the scent hit me first.My eyes flew open instantly.For one horrifying second, I forgot where I was and panic surged through me violently unt
NIKOLAIThe second I saw her eyes roll backwards and her begin to fall, something inside me jerked forward and I was catching her before I knew what I was doing.Her head lolled against my chest, her skin deathly pale beneath the blood splattered across her face.For one horrifying moment, I genuin
KATYAThe next morning, Nikolai came to the dungeon.I knew it was morning only because a maid had brought food earlier and judging by the exhaustion sitting heavy in my body, I had slept at some point during the night curled up on the thin mattress shoved into the corner of the cell.The food tray
NIKOLAIShe looked fucking terrified.I dragged a hand through my hair and exhaled slowly, forcing myself to think clearly.Everything about Katya felt real and I hated that because real did not matter in my world. Real got people killed. My father had trusted people too easily toward the end and n







