LOGINSERGEI “She isn't here, Pakhan.” One of the boys said from the back bedroom.There I was in the center of the living room, taking in the space that was supposed to be Iris' apartment.Nikolai appeared in the hallway, shaking his head. “The house is empty.”“If she isn’t here, then where could they possibly be?” I finally asked.I was running out of patience and it was showing in my voice.“I will have people keep looking.” Nikolai said,A lot of thoughts were playing out in my head now. To think that I had been played by her, just because I had let her get under my skin."Let's go," I finally said. "We are wasting time."I reached the front door first, hand on the knob, already running through my next course of action.I pulled the door open and stopped.The woman on the front step froze mid-step, one hand still raised toward the door like she had been about to unlock it herself. Keys dangling from her fingers.Her face went through a series of changes in the span of a single second.
RENEE"I still don't think this is a good idea."Iris's voice cut through the low hum of the airport terminal, sharp with worry.She stood beside me at the departure gate with her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes darting around at every person who walked past like she expected one of them to lunge at us."It's Emma we're talking about here," I said."I know that, Renee. I know." She stepped closer, lowering her voice to barely a whisper. "But that doesn't mean you have to walk into the lion's den alone.""I'll do literally anything for her," I said. "She is the person I care about most in this whole world. And if it means getting my hands dirty in any form, then so be it."Iris searched my face for a long moment. I could tell she was looking for doubt. But she didn't find it."Immediately you land," she said, her voice firm now. "Figure out a way to tell me. Okay?""I will."Her eyes dropped to my chest, then back up to my face. "Are you with the card?"I pressed my hand flat aga
SERGEI "The fuck is wrong with all of you?"I shoved the first guard so hard he stumbled back against the gate, his hands coming up in useless surrender. "One job. You had one job. Watch the gate. Watch who comes and goes. And you're telling me she just walked out and none of you thought to stop her?""Sir, she said she was just stepping out for air…"I grabbed him by the collar before he could finish that sentence. "Do I look like I give a damn what she said?""Sergei." Nikolai's voice cut through, and I felt his hand close around my arm, pulling me back. "Enough. This is not going to solve anything."I let go of the guard, chest heaving, and he scrambled backward like I might change my mind and go for him again."We need to find her," Nikolai said, his voice steady. "That's what matters right now. Not this tempter tantrum.""She didn't go to her own house. "I was pacing now, the gravel crunching under my boots. "She would have to be an idiot to go there, and if there's one thing we
RENEE "Renee?"Iris's voice cracked with disbelief the moment she pulled the door open, her eyes going wide before she yanked me into a hug so tight it nearly knocked the breath out of me."What are you doing here?" she asked, pulling back just enough to look at my face."I had nowhere else to go."She stepped aside and let me in without another word, closing the door behind us and locking it. She took a step back, looking me over.“You look like shit," she said.“I feel even worse.”"I've been trying to reach you for a whole day," she said, following me into her living room. "No response, nothing. I thought…" She stopped herself, shaking her head. "What happened? What is the update with Emma? And those men?"She kept raining down questions on me, so I told her.I told her everything. The fact that I had stolen Viktor's number and made that call. The deal we had made, if it could even be called that, where I had to prove myself worthy of my own sister's life. And then, finally, I tol
SERGEI "Anything?"I barked the word into the phone before the man on the other end had even finished his sentence, pacing the length of my study for what felt like the hundredth time that morning."Nothing, boss. No sightings or word from anyone on the ground," he said. “Viktor has definitely gone deep underground."Keep looking." I hung up before he could offer another useless apology.Three days.Three days of calling every contact I had left in Moscow and St. Petersburg, every rat hole Viktor had ever crawled through in the last twenty years, and I had nothing to show for it but a headache and a growing, gnawing feeling that I was chasing a ghost."Any luck?"Nikolai's voice came from the doorway. I didn't even bother looking up."No."He walked in and dropped into the chair across from my desk, arms crossed, watching me the way he always did when he thought I was about to say something he wouldn't like."I think to solve all of this, I'm going to have to go back to Russia, mysel
RENEE Would he even pick up? I thought to myself. I stood in the far corner of the garden, my thumb hovering over the call button.I had snuck out here leaving Sergei still asleep on the couch with my heart hammering so loudly that I was sure it would give out before I even had the opportunity to dial the number.What if he doesn't answer? I mean, why should he pick an unknown number? The fuck am I even going to say?I didn't let myself think about it any longer before I pressed the send button. It rang once and by the third ring, my nerves were already fired."Who is this?" the line clicked.I felt my entire body go rigid and my breath catch somewhere in my throat at the sound of his voice.I couldn't believe it. I was actually talking to the man who was holding my sister's life in the palm of his hand and I was going to… what the hell was I going to say to him? How would I plead for the life of my sister to a man such as him?"This is Renee," I managed, forcing my voice to stay s
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
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
KATYAWe landed in Russia three hours later.I stared out the window at the gray skies and endless stretch of snow-covered ground while panic clawed its way through my chest again.This could not be real.People did not just get kidnapped and flown across the world because their estranged father ap







