ログインNora’s POV,Unknown Location...Pain wakes me.Slow.Thick.Like I’m swimming up through tar.My head pounds.My mouth is dry.My limbs—Heavy.Too heavy.I try to move.Metal clinks.My eyes snap open.Darkness.Not complete.Dim light flickers from somewhere above—yellow, weak, unstable.I blink.Force my vision to focus.Concrete walls.Bare.Cold.A single bulb swinging slightly from the ceiling.I’m sitting on a chair.No, strapped to it.Wrists bound behind me.Ankles tied.Rope.Tight enough to burn.Panic surges instantly.Sharp.Violent.I jerk against the restraints.Useless.“Easy.”The voice comes from the shadows.Male.Calm.Familiar in the worst way.My heart stutters.“No…” I whisper.A figure steps forward.And the world tilts.“Hello, Nora.”Lucien.He looks… composed.Untouched.Like he didn’t just rip me out of my life and drag me into a nightmare.My chest heaves.“You—”“So many questions in those eyes,” he says
Mikhail’s POV Romanov Warehouse ... The first call comes in at 18:42. I ignore it. Not because it isn’t important—but because everything is important right now. Viktor is still a ghost. Ingrid vanished like smoke. Lucien’s trail is ice cold. And every second they stay hidden feels like a personal insult and I'm losing my fucking mind. “Aleksei,” I say, pacing in front of the wall of screens, “run the docks again. I want manifests, private shipments, anything flagged in the last—” My phone rings again. Same number. Dmitri. I pause. Aleksei notices immediately. “Answer it,” he says. Something in his tone shifts the air. I swipe to accept it, pressing the phone to my ear. “What?” Silence. Then— “Sir… Nora is not in the estate.” The words don’t land. Not at first. They just… hang there. Meaningless. “What do you mean she’s not in the estate?” My voice is calm. Too calm. “We—she left earlier. Said she needed air.
Nora’s POV I don’t sleep. Not really. I lie there beside Elias in the dark, eyes open, staring at the ceiling as shadows stretch and shift across it. Every creak of the house sounds like footsteps. Every passing car feels like a countdown. Morning comes too fast. Or maybe it never left. By the time the first light bleeds through the curtains, I’ve already made up my mind. I slip out of bed quietly, careful not to wake Elias. He needs the rest. One of us should have a clear head when we run. I head to the bathroom. Lock the door. And stare at myself in the mirror. I look… the same. That’s the strange part. Same face. Same eyes. Same girl. But everything inside me feels rearranged. Like someone reached in and shifted all the pieces without asking. I turn on the tap, splash water on my face, grip the sink. Breathe. Then the nausea hits. Sudden. Violent. I barely make it to the toilet before I’m on my knees, retching until my throa
Mikhail’s POV Romanov WarehouseAfter Caleb’s revelation to Nora, I instruct one of my men to drive her back home, though she wanted to resist, but this place was no place for any woman, well, except Ingrid of course, as she’s a fucking snake!Aleksei stands beside me, face carved from stone. He hasn’t spoken since we arrived. He doesn’t need to. We both know what this means.I finally break the silence.“She talked before she got out. Every word. Repeat it.”Aleksei exhales through his nose, voice low.“She said Viktor contacted her three years ago. Offered her a deal: help take down Maxim, split the empire, and she’d get you as the prize. She agreed. Fed him intel on operations, weaknesses. The ambush on Maxim was their first big move—paid the driver to divert the route, hired Albanian shooters to make it look like a rival hit. She said Viktor has been building alliances in exile—the Albanians, the Irish, some Italians who hate Maxim’s grip. The plan was to frame Nora, break you,
Nora's POVI wake up to a pounding headache, the kind that throbs behind my eyes like a drumbeat I can’t escape. The room swims into focus slowly—the massive king-sized bed with its black sheets, the high ceilings, the balcony doors letting in slivers of morning light. My body feels heavy, like I’ve been running a marathon in my sleep, and as I shift, the memories flood back: the confrontation at the hospital, Elena’s tears, Caleb’s face when Mikhail revealed the truth about him being Lucien’s son, the way everything shattered in that moment. I remember backing away from Caleb, the betrayal hitting me like a physical blow, and then the world tilting, darkness swallowing me whole.I sit up slowly, propping myself on my elbows, and that’s when I see him—Elias, sitting in the chair beside the bed, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. He looks dejected, defeated, like the weight of the world has crushed him. His hair is messy, eyes red-rimmed from crying or lack of sleep or both. H
Nora’s POVI wake up alone again.He hadn't come home last night.The bed feels too big without him in it, the black sheets cold where his body should be. Sunlight cuts through the blinds in sharp white lines, turning the room into a cage of light and shadow. I sit up slowly, pulling the sheet around me like armor. Yesterday's events all come crashing down on me—the date, down to finding out Ingrid had escaped, to which I had no idea he had her . God, I feel so...used, and dumb, like I'm just being kept in the dark like a child. Tossing the sheets away, I stand up and head into the bathroom.The roses downstairs are starting to wilt, petals dropping like accusations. Everything he gives me feels like a leash disguised as a gift.I shower fast, scalding water pounding my skin, trying to wash him off. It doesn’t work. His scent is in the shampoo, the soap, the towels—cedar and smoke and him. I step out, wrap myself in one of his shirts (too big, sleeves falling past my hands) a
Mikhail's POVWe leave the fairgrounds faster than I planned.The fireworks are still popping overhead when Aleksei’s call comes through—short, clipped, furious.“She’s gone.”Two words.That’s all it takes to turn the night from magic back to ash.I hang up without a word.Nora’s hand is s
Nora’s POVMuch to my utmost surprise, Mikhail takes us to a funfair.I swear this man keeps confusing me in ways I never deemed possible.THE MIKHAIL ROMANOV, Russian mafia don and billionaire CEO, at a freaking funfair.It was already late in the evening by the time we get there. And I’m not
MIKHAIL’S POVAfter we finish, we lie still in silence next to each other before I stand up and head into the bathroom, grab a bowl of water and a washcloth, and head back into the bedroom to clean her up.Slowly and reverently, I glide the warm cloth over her skin, erasing the remnants of us both.
🔞🔞🔞🔞🔥🔥🔥🔥 Mikhail’s POV – Hospital I make sure Dmitri has Nora safely in the SUV before I turn back toward the private ward. The tracker on my phone shows the vehicle pulling away smoothly—safe, for now. She’s mine to protect, even if she hates every second of it. The corridor feels long