Page 82 of Beautiful Ruin

The tenderness of it is almost unbearable.

I spent years believing love was something earned through usefulness, guided only by obedience and the undying need to prove I was still worth keeping around. The way Sofia looks at me now is like none of that matters. That I am worth something to her even now, as broken and lost as I am.

God, I love her so much it hurts.

My mouth finds hers with all the ache in me still raw and bleeding. Relief is so fierce it borders on pain when she tilts her head and deepens our kiss. My free hand slides to the back of her neck, fingers curling into her hair as I pull her closer. It turns fuller, hungrier, all the love and terror and need between us catching fire at once.

When we finally break apart, I brush a strand of hair from her face, my thumb lingering on her cheek.

Her smile is small and sweet. “I’m with you. We’re in this together.”

Those words feel like a vow. Ones I will defend until my dying breath.

Whatever comes next, war with the remnants of the Kuznetsov Bratva, fractures within the Pact, the political chaos Ivan’s death will unleash, we will face it together just as she said.

I look down at her, at the woman who walked into my life and shattered every certainty I had. She looks back at me with those steady blue eyes, certainty reflecting back at me.

“I love you,” I say quietly.

Her smile widens. “I love you too, Rowan.”

25

SOFIA

In the aftermath of Ivan’s death, the Kuznetsov syndicate fractures like glass under extreme pressure.

The first few days are filled with leadership struggles while the Iron Pact moves quickly to stabilize the situation, preventing outside syndicates from exploiting the sudden vacuum left in the wake of my uncle’s untimely death.

Rowan stays close to me through it all, a constant shadow at my side. His presence is the only thing keeping me grounded. Without him, I think I might have shattered a long time ago. He is my anchor in a sea of shifting loyalties and rumored betrayals. But even his strength can’t shield me from the truth that slowly unravels shortly after Nikolai Malyshko’s network uncovers some unsettling information.

After weeks of tracking, his records reveal my father’s encrypted communications hidden in secured servers in Germany, revealing a devastating new layer to what I thought was a man wrongly accused of a crime he never committed.

Apparently, my father has been working for a German intelligence agency for many years, even while married to my mother. Documents and call logs recovered all showed a years-long plan to allow the Iron Pact to destroy the Kuznetsov Bratva after exposing Ivan’s government takeover project to Artym Malyshko. Once done, my father had plans to sell the remnants of the syndicate’s power to foreign interests for an incredible sum.

He had always intended to profit from the collapse of his own wife’s family.

But before any of that could happen, Ivan struck first, killing my mother and forcing my father to flee back to Germany before the plan could fully unfold. Now after Ivan’s death, my father has vanished yet again. To where, no one knows exactly. The private investigators Nikolai had hired have all come back empty-handed.

He is a ghost once more, slipping through cracks he knows better than anyone.

And now I am forced to grapple with the fact that my father’s re-entry into my life had not been as organic as I once believed it to be. My father never planned on sticking around to reunify our family. He had plans to betray me just as he did my mother and sell what remained of our family in the aftermath.

Rowan stands behind me as I stare down at the intelligence report for the nth time, his hands resting lightly on my shoulders. “He’s a coward, Sofia. And a traitor to your family. You are Sofia Kuznetsov. You don’t need him to help define who you are.”

His words wrap around the fractures in my heart like a bandage, soothing the deep ache there until it is only a tender bruise. I turn and pull him into a kiss, melting when he kisses me back with the same quiet intensity. His hands frame my face, holding me as if I’m something precious.

In that moment, I feel the first real spark of purpose since Ivan’s death. I won’t let my father’s betrayal define me. I won’t let Ivan’s ambition destroy what’s left of this Bratva.

I will take what remains and shape it into something new.

Weeks later, I meet privately with Nikolai Malyshko.

The meeting takes place in a neutral location, or at least as neutral as anything can be in this world. A discreet safehouse on the outskirts of Moscow, heavily guarded but unassuming from the outside.

From the street, it looks like the kind of place no one would glance at twice. But the illusion falls apart the second the car pulls through the courtyard and I spot the men stationed in the shadows, their movements too controlled, their hands too close to the weapons hidden under dark coats to mistake them as anything other than mercenaries.

I arrive with Rowan at my side.