Lev pulls his gun with practiced ease, presses the barrel to Dmitri's temple, and pulls the trigger. The shot echoes through the warehouse, and then there's only silence.
We leave the body for Abram to find. A message written in blood and gunpowder—I know who's responsible, and I won't tolerate further attacks.
By the time we return to the office, it's late afternoon. I've cleaned up in the warehouse bathroom, but there's a tension coiled in my chest that won't ease. I didn't get the proof I needed. Didn't get answers. Just another body and the certainty that this situation is escalating toward war.
The elevator doors open onto the forty-second floor, and I immediately sense something's wrong. Eva is at her desk, but her posture is rigid, her movements stiff. When I walk past her office, she doesn't look up. Doesn't acknowledge my presence.
I settle behind my desk and try to focus on the documents waiting for my attention, but my gaze keeps drifting through the glass wall to Eva. Something has changed. Something happened while I was gone.
After twenty minutes of watching her avoid looking at me, I press the intercom. "Miss Markova. My office."
She enters with her notepad, her professional armor firmly in place, but I see the fury simmering beneath the surface. Her brown eyes are hard when they finally meet mine, and her jaw is tight with barely contained anger.
I close the door, lower the blinds. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Mr. Sokolov." Her voice is cold, clipped. "Is there something you need?"
"Don't lie to me, Eva." I move around my desk, closing the distance between us. "Something happened. Tell me what it is."
Her composure shatters like glass. "I don't like being toyed with."
I know what she's talking about. Daria, of course. We haven't had a chance to talk yet and obviously, she's been simmering about it since yesterday. I open my mouth to explain but she cuts me off.
"Don't." She holds up a hand, her voice shaking with fury and hurt. "Don't you dare try to explain this away. You kissed me. You touched me. You made me feel…" She takes a deep breath. "And you have a fucking fiancée?"
The pain in her voice cuts deeper than it should. "It's not what you think."
"Really?" Her brown eyes blaze with betrayal. "Then what is it? Because from where I'm standing, you're engaged to another woman while you're fucking your secretary."
"I'm not using you." I reach for her, but she steps back, putting distance between us. The rejection stings more than I want to admit. "Eva, listen to me. I've never touched Daria. Never wanted her. Never intended to actually marry her."
"But you let her think you would. You let her call herself your fiancée." Eva's voice drops lower, becomes almost dangerous.
Before I can answer, Eva's gaze drops to my wrist. Her expression shifts from anger to something else. Something that makes my blood run cold.
Horror.
I follow her stare and see what she's seeing. A small, dark stain on my right cuff. Blood. I missed it when I cleaned up, too focused on getting back to the office, too distracted by thoughts of Eva to check properly.
Her face goes pale, all the color draining from her cheeks. Her breath catches, and I watch understanding dawn in her brown eyes. Understanding of what I am. What I'm capable of.
"Eva—" I start, but the words die in my throat.
Because I see the exact moment she truly understands what Roman Sokolov is. Not just a demanding boss. Not just a man with prison tattoos and dangerous connections.
A killer.
17
EVA
The blood on Roman's cuff is small, barely noticeable. Just a dark spot against the crisp white fabric. But I can't stop staring at it.
"How did you hurt yourself?" My voice sounds steadier than I feel, my hands clasped in my lap to hide their trembling.
Roman's blue eyes meet mine across his desk, and the silence stretches between us like a blade. He doesn't offer an explanation. Doesn't claim he cut himself shaving or caught his wrist on something sharp. He just watches me with that cold, calculating gaze that sees everything, reveals nothing.
And in that silence, I understand.
