Either Samantha is working with Robert and the Volkovs, which means everything between us has been a lie designed to infiltrate my family. Or she’s caught in the middle of something she doesn’t understand. Robert manipulated her into position for his own purposes, and she’s only now realizing it.
The way she looked in that video. The devastation on her face. That wasn’t the look of someone successfully executing a plan. That was the look of someone whose world had just shattered.
I pull up the full report Davis sent and start reading. Every detail about Robert Allen’s criminal activities. His connections. His debts. His timeline. Three years on Volkov’s payroll. Three years of working against me.
Samantha’s been with Logan for ten months. The timeline fits. Robert could have orchestrated that relationship to get her close to my family.
But why? What’s the endgame? What information could she possibly gather that Volkov couldn’t get through other means?
Unless it’s not about information. Unless it’s about something else entirely.
My sons are in love with her. I’m in love with her. She’s pregnant with a child that might be mine. We’re emotionally invested. Vulnerable. Exactly where Volkov would want us. The perfect position for maximum damage when everything explodes.
I close the laptop and stand, moving to the window. The estate is quiet. Peaceful. Snow falling gently outside. But underneath that peace, everything is falling apart.
Samantha is either a threat to my family or a victim being used as a weapon against us. Either way, the danger is real. And I need to know which one she is before this goes any further.
Before the baby comes. Before we’re bound together permanently. Before the damage becomes irreversible.
I pull out my phone and open the message thread with Donovan.
Me: My office. Now. We need to talk about Samantha. Bring Kai.
His response comes immediately.
Donovan: On my way.
31
DONOVAN
My phone vibratesagainst the desk where I’ve been working through acquisition contracts for the past three hours, and when I see Dad’s name on the screen, something cold settles in my stomach before I even read the message.
The text is brief, but carries all the weight of disaster:My office. Now. We need to talk about Samantha. Bring Kai.
I send a quick response, then push away from my desk and head down the hallway, finding Kai sprawled in the sitting room with a book abandoned on his chest and his eyes half-closed in that state between waking and sleeping.
When I kick his foot, he jerks upright and blinks at me with confusion clouding his face until he sees my expression, and then understanding sharpens his features into something alert and dangerous.
“Dad wants us,” I tell him, already moving toward the door while Kai unfolds himself from the chair and follows without asking questions because the tone of my voice has told him everything he needs to know.
The walk to Dad’s office feels longer than it should, and neither of us speaks because there’s nothing to say until we know what we’re walking into.
The door stands open when we arrive, and Dad is behind his desk with his laptop casting blue light across his face and his expression carved from granite in that way that means someone is about to have a very bad night.
He looks up as we enter, and his eyes are cold in a way I haven’t seen since the last time someone tried to betray this family. “Close the door and sit down.”
Kai shuts the door while I move to the chairs facing Dad’s desk, and the click of the lock engaging sounds unnaturally loud in the silence that follows.
Dad turns his laptop to face us, and I see security footage paused on the screen showing a woman who looks like Samantha walking into a restaurant.
“Samantha met with someone tonight at the main resort,” Dad says, his voice flat and controlled in that way that means he’s containing rage. “Watch this and tell me what you see.”
He hits play, and I watch Samantha slide into a booth across from a man I’ve never seen before, someone in his mid-fifties wearing an expensive suit and the kind of face that makes you trust him instinctively.
She pulls him into a hug that looks genuine and warm, and they settle into a conversation that seems casual at first, but then something shifts in the body language between them.
The man leans forward and gestures with increasing aggression while Samantha’s shoulders tense and her hands twist together on the table in front of her.
