تسجيل الدخولNora’s POVThe room smells like metal, dust, and old rain trapped inside concrete.I sit tied to the chair exactly where Lucien left me, my wrists raw from struggling too long against ropes that refuse to loosen. The bulb above me flickers every few seconds, throwing weak yellow light across the walls before dimming again. Time drags strangely here. Every minute feels stretched thin and uneven.At some point, exhaustion settles into my bones so deeply that even fear becomes tiring.But my mind never stops.It keeps circling the same things over and over again.My parents.The accident.Mikhail.The pregnancy I still have not spoken aloud.My stomach twists painfully at the thought of it. I press my bound hands tighter against the chair behind me and force myself not to think about it. I cannot afford to break now. Not here.The door opens again.Lucien walks in carrying a glass of water. Calm. Composed. Like he is visiting someone instead of holding them captive.He crou
Mikhail’s POVThe first hour after Nora disappears is the worst because I still believe I can fix it quickly.People like me are used to control. We pull strings, move pieces, make calls and things happen. Doors open. Men appear. Problems disappear. That is how my world works. It has always worked that way.But not tonight.Tonight every lead collapses into another dead end, every answer arrives half broken, and the longer she stays missing, the louder the thoughts become.She was alone.That thought keeps circling back like a blade dragged repeatedly across skin.Alone.No guards. No escort. No protection.I should have known she would run the moment things became too heavy. I should have seen it in the way she looked at me after the warehouse, after Caleb talked, after every ugly truth crawled into the light. There had been distance in her eyes. Something retreating from me inch by inch.And I let her walk out anyway.The SUV tears through the city while Aleksei works be
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 POV The door swung open with a heavy creak, and there he stood—Mikhail Romanov, framed in the threshold like a spectre from my darkest dreams. His presence filled the room instantly, sucking the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping in the vacuum. He looked ravaged, his once-impeccable shi
Nora's POVI don’t sleep.I sit on the edge of the bed, back against the headboard, knees pulled to my chest, staring at the locked door like it might open and set me free.It doesn’t. The room is too quiet. Too perfect.Too much like a cage designed just for me.Black silk sheets still rumpled from
Mikhail’s POVI never meant to do it.That’s what I tell myself as I stand in the study, staring at the city through the bulletproof glass.I never meant to cross this line.But the line blurred the moment I tasted her again in that staff room.The moment she moaned my name like she’d never l
Nora's POV My eyelids flutter open, heavy and sticky, like they’ve been glued shut. The world swims in and out of focus—a blur of dark shapes and dim light filtering through half-closed blinds. I’m lying on something soft, too soft, the kind of mattress that swallows you whole. Black sheets tangl







