LOGINCHAPTERMaxim sat comfortably in the center of the warehouse, one leg crossed casually over the other, watching the wide entrance. This was the warehouse where his father had been killed by Sergei. It only seemed right for them to return to the exact scene where the crime was carried out. His men were positioned carefully throughout the space, tucked behind shadowed corners and stacked pallets, weapons ready in case Sergei arrived with reinforcements of his own despite explicit instructions not to. So far, the coast remained entirely clear and he had not gotten any reports of anything out of the ordinary. Just Sergei, walking in alone as instructed. He really was foolish enough to come by himself, Maxim thought, watching Sergei's silhouette grow larger as he approached through the open doorway. Love truly did make people do remarkably stupid, sentimental things. He'd almost expected better from a man with Sergei's reputation."Sergei." Maxim rose smoothly from his chair as the othe
SERGEI"How much longer are we supposed to just sit here?"Andrei's voice cut sharply across the room, his patience visibly thinning with every passing minute. His men were assembled in the courtyard outside, waiting on a signal that hadn't come yet and showed no sign of arriving anytime soon.Nikolai stood near the window, arms crossed tight over his chest. It was obvious he was on edge too.“The motherfucker is grinding us out.” Nikolai finally said,"He'll call," I said, though the words felt thinner each time I repeated them, my own patience fraying just as badly as Andrei's, if not considerably worse. I'd already worn a visible path into the carpet of my own study, pacing the same stretch of floor for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour alone.We'd assembled everyone we could trust in the compound within a few hours of leaving that party, every ally Andrei and I had managed to secure over the preceding days now standing armed and ready throughout the grounds all wa
RENEEThe door swung open sometime past midnight, hard enough that it woke me from whatever sleep I had drifted into. I sat up sharply on the bed, my heart already hammering before I'd even fully registered who was standing there silhouetted against the dim hallway light.Maxim.His shirt was half unbuttoned, collar askew and his tie from earlier today was gone entirely. His hair looked disheveled and he looked nothing like the calm man that I had come to know over the last couple of days.He swayed slightly in the doorway, one hand braced hard against the frame like it was the only thing keeping him upright, and it took me only a second to place exactly what was wrong with him.He is drunk."How'd the party go?" I asked, keeping my voice carefully flat, watching him closely as he stumbled a few uneven steps further into the room, nearly clipping his shoulder against the doorframe on his way past it.He mumbled something incoherent in response, half in Russian, half in English, the tw
SERGEIThe ballroom was packed by the time Nikolai and I walked in, chandeliers blazing overhead in cascades of gold light.Every major family in the region was represented in one glittering, treacherous room. Waiters moved through the crowd with trays of champagne, a string quartet played something classical near the far wall, and every single guest was dressed in their absolute finest, clearly here to get the favor of the council head.Maxim had spared no expense for his own birthday celebration, and the sheer audacity of it wasn't lost on me. A man who'd spent weeks quietly selling out an entire underworld to federal agents was standing at the center of a room full of the very people he'd been betraying, toasting his own good fortune while they raised their glasses in return, utterly unaware.That irony was exactly why we were here tonight.Andrei and I had met the previous evening, in my study after we had gotten Maxims outrageous invite. I had laid everything out for him without
RENEEI lay there on that unfamiliar bed, wrist still cuffed to the metal bar above my head, staring up at the ceiling and running through every single decision that had led me to this exact moment.The bar. That fucking yacht and the wine. I shouldn’t have consented to any of it.I should have fucking known all of this was too good to be true.That had always been the pattern, hadn't it? Every time something good drifted into my life, it turned out to be built on rot underneath, waiting to collapse the second I let my guard down enough to actually enjoy it. Sergei. And now this. Max. Maxim. Whatever I was supposed to call him.I was still turning that thought over, twisting the sheets between my fingers in frustration, when the door opened and he walked in, carrying a tray with what looked like an actual decent meal balanced across it.He set it down on the small table near the bed without a word, and I stared at it, then at him, refusing to reach for it despite how loudly my stomach
SERGEI"I can't believe this." Nikolai shook his head slowly, disgust plain across his face as he stared down at the file still spread open across my desk, page after page of documented meetings, signed agreements. "A rat. Sitting at the head of our council, passing information to the Feds this entire time. That is the lowest of the low, Sergei. Lower than anything Viktor ever did, and that's saying something."I sat back in my chair, still working through the shock of it myself, reading back over the same page for the third time in a row, as though the words might somehow rearrange themselves into something less damning if I simply stared at them hard enough.When Nikolai’s man had sent the initial document over the phone, I thought it was a lie, but staring at them physically now."You're absolutely sure about this source?" I asked, looking up at him finally."Positive." Nikolai crossed his arms, leaning against the edge of my desk, his expression grim but certain. "Every single dea
NIKOLAIHer anniversary?And that bastard had spent it with his cock out in my club.My jaw tightened.What kind of man does that?No…scratch that.I knew exactly the kind of man that did that.The kind that did not deserve a woman like her.“What the hell does Kotyonok even mean?”Her voice cut 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
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
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







