ログインRenee had been standing at the door for what felt like an eternity.The building she had been directed to was tucked into a narrow street on the edge of the city. Viktor was smart. He had picked a location where it would be easy to see if she was being watched by anyone and she knew that he was somewhere right now watching her.She could feel it.Minutes passed. Then more minutes. Her hands had started to shake, and she shoved them into her jacket pockets to keep them still, her mind spiraling toward the worst possible conclusion.He wasn't coming. This whole thing had been a trap from the beginning, some cruel game designed to string her along right up until the moment he decided she was no longer useful.Just as the thought fully settled into her chest, a van rolled up beside her, tires crunching against the gravel.The side door slid open before she'd fully processed what was happening, and two men stepped out, gripping her by the arms and pulling her inside before she could so muc
SERGEI"This way."I led her down a corridor, past two of my men stationed at either end, until we reached the door at the far end and I keyed in the code.The moment we stepped inside, I heard her breath catch.The room was lined wall to wall with monitors, dozens of them, feeding live footage from cameras scattered across half the city and beyond. Server racks hummed along the back wall, their lights blinking steadily in the dim room, and a bank of equipment sat along the center console that most people would never even recognize, let alone know how to operate."This is how we're going to track you," I said.She turned in a slow circle, taking it all in, and for once she wasn't bothering to hide the shock on her face."How is any of this not illegal for an ordinary person to have?""I'm not an ordinary person.""Oh, get over yourself."I let that one go. My tech woman, Yana, stepped in through the side door a moment later, already pulling on a pair of gloves."Renee, this is Yana,"
RENEE "Well, well."Viktor's voice slid through the line. "I wasn't exactly expecting to hear from you again. Not after that disappearing act you pulled."My hand tightened around the phone. Sergei was standing close enough that I could feel the tension radiating off him in waves, though he kept his face carefully unreadable."I chickened out," I finally said. “It wasn’t exactly my plan to do that, but I panicked when I walked into the building and decided to take the back door away from your man.”Viktor was quiet for some time and then let out a loud laugh that made my skin crawl. "I find that hard to believe. Especially considering your sister's life is hanging in the balance.""That's exactly why I chickened out." My voice sharpened before I could stop it. "You had me locked in a room for two days, and I never once got to see her. For all I know, she could be…"My voice hitched, cracking right down the middle of the sentence. I was a good actress and under duress, I could be an e
SERGEI"Looks like a phone to me."She said it with a shrug, like I had asked her something painfully obvious, her chin tilted up in that same defiant angle I was starting to know far too well."I know what it is." I kept my voice level, though the anger simmering under it was thinning fast. "Don't play dumb with me. Viktor gave you this, correct?"She didn't answer but her silence told me everything.I turned to the man still holding a hand to his jaw where I'd hit him. "She's being tracked. Right now, this second. We need to move before Viktor's people show up here."I powered the phone off, killing whatever signal it had been broadcasting, and tossed it to him. "Blindfold her. Get her to the car.""That is not necessary," Renee said."Shut up."I didn't have the patience left for another argument, not with a beacon pointing straight at us and Viktor's people God knew how far out. My men had the blindfold back over her eyes within seconds, her wrists rebound in front of her, her ank
RENEE I fucked up.That single thought kept circling in my head, over and over, the entire time they dragged me down what felt like an endless stretch of hallway, a blindfold pressed tight over my eyes and a hand gripping my arm."What is going on?" I asked, my voice bouncing uselessly off walls I couldn't see. "Where are you taking me?" No one answered. I hadn't really expected them to. From being escorted from the reception, I had been hauled into a car and blindfolded immediately.The obvious answer to who was behind this settled into my chest somewhere around the third turn they dragged me through, and it made my stomach twist violently. It had to be Sergei. These were his men.It was the only explanation that made any sense. He was the only one with enough reason and enough resources to actually track me down and pull off something like this. And if he knew I was in Russia at all, that meant he'd figured it out through Iris. Oh God, Iris. Is she okay?My heart was racing so
"What the fuck do you mean you lost her?" Viktor snapped.His knuckles had gone white around the phone.“I… I… she…” the man stammered, “She went in like you said, boss and I waited in the car for her.”There was a slight pause.“Twenty minutes went by, and then it began drawing close to the hour mark.” He continue, “But she never came out.”“And?”“I went in after her.” he replied,“Boss, I checked the lobby and even the bathrooms, but she was nowhere. I thought about asking the staff in the building, but that would draw attention.” The man continued, “It seems like she is gone.”Viktor turned toward the window, his jaw working silently."That's impossible.""Maybe she bolted," the man added.Viktor almost laughed at this."No." he finally said, “There was no way she bolted.”He let the silence stretch a bit, his mind already turning.The girl had called him not the other way around. She had begged for her sister's life, stolen from Sergei Morozov himself, gotten on a plane to a coun
NIKOLAII walked into my father’s study where his council were waiting.“Nikolai” One of them clasped me on the back.“I did not think you would arrive so soon and with the girl.” My father’s second in command nodded at me.“It was not hard to find her” I said.No way was I going to tell them to th
KATYAMy phone fell out of my hand, hitting the ground in a dull thud.My head spun as I tried to grasp what I had just watched.Daniel had cheated on me. My stomach twisted violently, the video going around on a loop in my mind.I staggered back, my legs hitting the edge of the sofa as I sank onto
KATYA“Such a dirty word coming out of so sexy a mouth,” he drawled.Aside from the slight smirk that curved his lips, he did not react to my insult.Which, for some reason, irritated me more.Most men would have gotten offended or at least taken the hint and backed off but not him.He just stood t
KATYAOnly my boyfriend of five years would think the best place to celebrate our anniversary is in a club surrounded by naked women.“What do you think? Don’t you like it?” He asked me, grinning from ear to ear.Like it? I fumed.I was holding the thong Daniel had gotten me for our anniversary gif







