***
I’m supposed to meet Dimitri and my cousins at eleven. Some new club that opened in the city center, the kind of place where Bratva money mingles with oligarch excess and everyone pretends not to notice the violence simmering under expensive suits.
I almost cancel. I’d rather stay here, watching surveillance footage, making sure Elena is—what? Comfortable? Adjusting? Not planning something stupid?
But canceling would raise questions I’m not ready to answer. Including to myself.
So I go.
The club is exactly what I expected—too loud, too crowded, too many people trying too hard to look important. Dimitri is already drunk when I arrive, arm around a blonde whose name he definitely doesn’t know.
My cousins Alexei and Mikhail are at the VIP table, discussing some territorial dispute in Petersburg that I only halfway care about.
I order vodka I won’t drink and settle into the manufactured chaos.
“You look distracted,” Dimitri observes, words slightly slurred. “Trouble?”
“When isn’t there?”
“Fair point.” He leans closer, conspiratorial. “Speaking of trouble, did you hear about the Lawrence girl? Apparently she’s gone missing. Father is frantic, calling in favors, trying to find her.”
My hand tightens on the glass. “Is that so?”
“Yeah. Disappeared a few days ago, no trace. Some people think she ran off, trying to escape the family’s collapse. Others think—” He pauses, grinning. “—think maybe someone took her. Someone with a grudge against dear old Walter.”
Alexei laughs from across the table. “Who would bother? She’s nobody. The bastard daughter, barely acknowledged by her own family.”
“Still,” Mikhail adds, “would send a message. Taking his daughter while he’s already bleeding out financially? That’s poetic.”
They’re discussing her like she’s a chess piece. A tool for applying pressure. Which is exactly what she should be.
So why does hearing it make my jaw clench?
“She’s with me,” I say.
The table goes silent. All three of them stare.
“What?” Dimitri recovers first. “What do you mean she’s with you?”
“Elena Lawrence. She broke into the east facility three days ago. Stole data, tried to run. I have her at the estate.”
More silence. Then Alexei whistles low. “Bold move. What are you planning to do with her?”
“That remains to be determined.”
“Ransom?” Mikhail suggests. “Leverage against the father?”
“No.”
“Then what?” Dimitri’s grin turns sly. “Unless this isn’t about business at all.”
I level him with a look that wipes the smile off his face. “Careful.”
“I’m just saying,” he continues, backing off slightly, “keeping a woman at the estate without clear strategic purpose seems… unusual for you.”
He’s not wrong. I don’t bring problems home. Don’t mix business with personal space. The estate is sanctuary, controlled territory where I’m supposed to be able to think clearly without complications.
Elena Lawrence is definitely a complication.
