Neither did I.That was what I’d admitted.Standing there stripped of every defense, I’d told her the truth.That I was just as lost as she was.Just as terrified.
What kind of predator admitted fear to his prey?
The kind who’s falling, the wolf said, almost gleeful.And you hate it because you can’t control it.Can’t manipulate it.Can’t bend it to your will like everything else in your miserable life.
I wasn’t falling.I was recalibrating.Adjusting the parameters of the arrangement to account for unexpected variables.She was more resilient than I’d anticipated.More perceptive.That was all.
Keep telling yourself that.I’ll be here when you’re ready to admit the truth.
Petrov arrived at noon.
I heard his car pull up the drive, the low rumble of the engine.Heard him exchange words with Parsons at the front door, the low rumble of wolf acknowledging wolf.Heard his measured footsteps approaching my study, each one precise and unhurried.
My head of security moved like the predator he was, all contained power and watchful silence.When he entered, I caught his scent.Gunpowder and the cold wind he’d driven through to get here.
“Report,” I said without looking up from the documents I’d been pretending to read for hours.
Petrov settled into the chair across from my desk, a slim folder in his hands.His posture was rigid.Military.He’d served in the Russian army before joining the Bratva, and those habits never quite faded.
“I’ve completed the analysis you requested.The incidents at the Hughes Hotel.”
Now I looked up.Gave him my full attention, even as the wolf strained toward the door, toward the scent of apples and cream that still lingered in the hallway.“And?”
“The dead animal delivery.The heating system sabotage.The uptick in hang-up calls to Miss Hughes’s personal line.”He opened the folder, spreading photographs and printouts across my desk with methodical precision.Badge swipe records.Shift schedules.Call logs with time stamps highlighted in yellow.“All point to the same conclusion.”
I waited.Let the silence do the work.
“Someone with employee access.”Petrov’s voice carried the certainty of a man who’d spent his career tracking threats.“The delivery was made through the service entrance using a valid badge code assigned to kitchen staff.The heating sabotage required knowledge of the mechanical room layout and shift patterns that only long-term employees would have.The calls originated from a burner phone, but the timing corresponds precisely with gaps in Miss Hughes’s public calendar.Gaps that only staff with access to her schedule would know about.”
The wolf went very still inside me.That particular stillness that came before violence.
“You’re certain?”
“Beyond doubt, sir.”Petrov met my eyes, wolf to wolf.“The threat is from within.Someone on her staff.Someone she trusts.”
I should have felt alarmed.Should have immediately ordered increased protection, demanded Petrov identify the threat and neutralize it before another incident occurred.That was what any reasonable man would do.What any man who cared about the woman under his protection would do.
Instead, I cataloged the information with clinical precision.Filing it away like another asset in my portfolio.
An insider.Someone close to her.Someone she saw every day, smiled at, trusted with the small intimacies of daily life.And that someone wanted her afraid.
Protect her, the wolf demanded.Tell her.She needs to know who’s hunting her.
But knowledge was power.And her fear, her vulnerability, her need for protection from threats she couldn’t see?Those kept her close.Those made her dependent on me.Those ensured she’d come running back every time the world turned hostile.
“Continue surveillance,” I said.My voice betrayed nothing.“Report any new developments immediately.”
Petrov’s expression shifted.Surprise, maybe.Or confusion.“Should I increase the security detail?If the threat is internal, she may be in more danger than we realized.I could position men inside the hotel, blend them with the staff?—”
“That won’t be necessary.”I kept my voice even, controlled.The voice of a man making a calculated business decision.“Miss Hughes has proven herself capable of handling crises.The heating incident, for example.She managed that brilliantly, by all accounts.I have no doubt she’ll manage this one as well.”
When she knows about it, I didn’t say.If I choose to tell her.
Petrov hesitated.I watched the questions form behind his eyes, watched him decide not to ask them.He was a good wolf.Loyal.Effective.But he didn’t understand the long game.He saw only the immediate threat, not the patterns of power that underlay everything.
Information was currency.Fear was leverage.And Lena, afraid and uncertain and looking to me for protection?That was exactly where I needed her.
“As you wish.”He gathered his materials and stood, movements crisp and professional despite whatever doubts he harbored.“I’ll have an update for you by end of week.”
