They aren’t startled or confused. Just cold, almostdead, and steady, like he’s been watching me this entire time.
My stomach drops, and for a second, neither of us moves.
In a flash, his gaze travels over me slowly, unsettlingly calm, taking in the oversized knitted sweater hanging off one shoulder, my wind-tangled hair, the tablet clutched against my chest.
I know what he’s doing. I’ve watched it on nature documentaries—the predator assessing its prey before it strikes.
This man is deciding exactly what to do with me.
And while fear unlike any I’ve never known spikes hot beneath my skin, something else slips in with it—a darker tingle that makes my pulse stumble in confusion.
He’s terrifying…and yet, though I can only make out outlines and hard edges in the dark, my heart asserts without a doubt that he’s devastatingly beautiful.
The kind of beautiful that causes scars, brutally claims territories, and triumphs over ruin. The kind of beautiful I should fear.
The ocean wind tears through the dock again, whipping my hair across my face, but he doesn’t blink or look away.
His attention pins me exactly where I stand, silently taunting. Patiently waiting for me to bolt.
I know I should.
Yet my body betrays me completely, remaining rooted to the spot beneath the mystic hold of those unreadable eyes.
Then his head tilts slightly, and I know a signal has been sent.
Because a split second later, a dock light flickers, and the gruff man who barked orders earlier turns sharply towards the railing. His beady eyes narrow at the ground below, zeroing in…
On me.
My eyes widen in stark terror as I realize the worst thing that could happen, finally has—I’ve been spotted.
Adrenaline floods my system and I finally succumb to the nagging voice that tried multiple times to save me. I do the one thing I should have from the minute I saw shadowy figures on the yacht.
I run.
Chapter Two
Leonid
Have eyes on the back of your head.
It’s one of the rules we live by. One of the first rules my father beat into me young enough that I still remember the metallic taste of blood in my mouth and the freezing snow beneath my knees while he taught it.
Complacency gets men buried, carelessness gets empires destroyed, and stupidity?
Stupidity gets your head delivered on a golden platter to your enemies.
My gaze narrows on the figure standing a few inches away from the railing and dutifully observing our movements on theMona. The second I spot the intruder, I know the drop is compromised.
And the idiots on deck still haven’t figured out that there’s a witness standing twenty feet from illegal merchandise worth enough to start a war.
Mikhail argues in hushed tones with Artem near the storage hatch while another man scans the wrong side of the marina. I roll my eyes.Fucking new recruit.
The three of them are too slow, with no one seeing what I notice from the upper deck.
Leaning forward, I rest one hand against the cold railing, my gaze fixed on the narrow strip of dock below. As if on cue, the figure drags its feet forward, cautiously approaching theMona, and a sudden flash of light from the marina makes my job easier.
My jaw clenches when I realize…
