Chapter Four
Sofia woke to unfamiliar surroundings, disoriented for a split second that bordered on panic. The room didn’t make sense at first. It was nothing like anywhere she should have been. Then it clicked back into place. Volkov estate. Right.
She lay still for a moment, grateful no one could see her like this, before forcing her breathing to even out and her thoughts to settle. Outside the heavy curtains, dawn was already bleeding into the sky.
The house had shifted with it, moving from stillness into something carefully structured. Guards rotated outside the corridor. Doors opened and closed in timed intervals. Footsteps moved along the marble halls like they were following a schedule instead of living a life.
Nothing here happened by accident. Everything was watched.
Sofia sat up in bed slowly, finally composed. Sleep had come in fragments rather than surrender. Her mind had refused to fully shut down in a place that felt too controlled to ever be truly safe.
Although the door was locked, she was all too aware there were adjoining walls and a husband in the next room who was still a stranger to her.
Her marriage had lasted less than twelve hours and already felt like a carefully constructed siege. She rose, crossed the room, and pulled open the curtains.
The estate grounds stretched out beneath her in perfect symmetry. Stone paths cut through manicured gardens. Security patrols moved between hedges at precise intervals. Black cars idled near gated exits like sleeping predators. It felt suffocating.
Sofia exhaled slowly. This was not unfamiliar territory. It was simply a different cage than the one she had grown up inside. Sofia inhaled and exhaled until familiar calm filled her. A knock sounded at her door.
She turned. “Yes?” she asked, glad her voice came out even.
A woman’s voice responded from the other side. “Breakfast is ready, Mrs. Volkov. Mr. Volkov is already downstairs.”
“Thank you for letting me know,” she replied.
Mrs. Volkov. The title still felt artificial, and it would probably be that way for a long time.
Sofia opened the door and stepped out into the corridor.
Two guards immediately shifted their attention toward her.
They were neither hostile nor welcoming.
They simply watched her, probably figuring out what kind of problem she might turn into.
She gave them nothing back. She kept her expression neutral, her pace steady, and walked past without acknowledging them.
Downstairs, the dining room was already set. There was minimal décor. A long table, more food than anyone actually needed. Sofia paused only long enough to take it in.
Then, as casually as if she were simply stretching her legs after a long night, she decided to take a short walk outside before sitting down. A quick look at the garden wouldn’t hurt. She wanted fresh air, space. That seemed normal enough.
She stepped out toward the estate grounds, her attention shifting to her surroundings. The garden was beautiful in a way that felt almost staged. There were carefully trimmed hedges, an assortment of rose bushes, wide stone paths, ornamental trees spaced with deliberate symmetry.
Sofia’s gaze wasn’t on the flowers and trees for long. She noted the camera placement along the roofline. Guard rotation patterns near the east gate, sight lines between hedges. The distance between patrols. Blind spots that weren’t really blind if you paid attention long enough.
She walked slowly, as if she were just admiring the grounds, while her mind quietly mapped the entire perimeter. Exit routes, in case things ever went wrong.
The front gate was obviously heavily monitored. Side access appeared tighter than it looked. A service path near the greenhouse was less obvious, but likely covered in shifts. She filed it all away without emotion.
Sofia liked planning for worst-case scenarios. It made things simpler, made her feel safer. By the time she turned back toward the house, she already knew three ways out, two she didn’t like, and one she might be able to use if she absolutely had to.
Dmitri now sat at the far end of the table. He had not changed much from the night before. He wore a dark shirt, his sleeves slightly rolled at his forearms. He looked up as she entered, and their eyes met. She wondered if he spotted her through the windows, walking the garden paths.
A quiet moment of mutual assessment passed between them before either spoke. Sofia took her seat across from him. Breakfast was served immediately. For several seconds, only the sound of utensils touching porcelain filled the room.
Then Dmitri spoke. “Managed to sleep?”
Sofia lifted her coffee. “Briefly.”
“I see,” he said.
“Is that concern I hear from you, husband?” Sofia couldn’t help but ask, her tone dry.
A faint pause. “Perhaps.”
Sofia studied him over the rim of her cup. Dmitri finally looked up from his phone and set it down.
“You went for a walk,” he said. A statement, not a question.
“Yes,” Sofia replied evenly. “I wanted to explore the garden.”
His gaze stayed on her a little too long, like he was weighing whether to accept that at face value or dismantle it. “And how did you find the security?”
There it was. Clear disbelief, wrapped in calm politeness. Sofia didn’t react to the tone. She just took another slow sip of coffee.
“Very thorough,” she said, letting him hear the approval in her voice.
Dmitri’s expression barely shifted. “I see. I’m glad we met your approval.”
“You have roses. I assume I’m allowed to appreciate flowers without it being an interrogation?” Sofia added lightly, just to move on from the topic.
“Of course,” he replied. “Enjoy the garden to your heart’s content.”
Breakfast went on in a quiet, almost careful rhythm. Between bites, Sofia kept watching him. Dmitri Volkov wasn’t like most men she’d grown up around. He didn’t need to raise his voice or make a scene to take up space.
Even when he spoke, it came out measured, like every word had already been weighed before it was allowed out. It was a little unnerving, if Sofia had to be honest with herself. She simply had to find a way to deal with him effectively, she decided.
Dimitri returned his attention to his phone. Sofia’s gaze lingered on him a second longer than she meant to. She set her fork down gently.
“Your staff changes routes every hour,” Sofia remarked, simply to get a reaction out of him.
Dmitri didn’t even glance up from his phone at first. “And?”
“It’s not random. It’s training. Pattern disruption.”
“And?” Dimitri ventured again.
Sofia watched him for a beat. “Are you expecting some sort of an attack?”
“It never hurts to be prepared,” he said, finally setting the phone aside.
“I see,” she said. Sofia leaned back in her chair. “You don’t trust anyone.”
“I trust competence.”
A faint tilt of her head. “What about me? Am I competent?”
His gaze finally settled on her properly. “Of course you are. I noticed that the first time we met.”
Sofia didn’t react, but something in her chest tightened anyway. Recognition always felt more dangerous than dismissal. After breakfast, Dmitri left first.
Sofia didn’t rush to follow. She waited until his footsteps faded into the corridor, then stood and moved through the estate alone. No one stopped her.
That, more than anything, told her how Dmitri had instructed the staff. Control didn’t always look like restriction. Sometimes it looked like observation. She turned down a quieter corridor that led toward Dimitri’s office.
The door wasn’t locked, so Sofia stepped inside. The space was large, restrained, and neatly organized. The room had dark wood, clean lines. Weapons and security elements were probably integrated so smoothly into the room they could almost pass as design choices.
After all, Dimitri was a man who expected things to go wrong. Sofia moved toward the desk without hesitation. She hadn’t been invited, and that made it better.
She silently tracked the room as she walked. The document placement, camera angles, vent spacing. She stopped, then reached up under the edge of a shelf. Her fingers found a seam that didn’t belong. A microphone, hidden well, but not perfectly.
A faint look of irritation crossed her face. She kept moving. Within minutes, she found four more. Sofia walked to his desk and straightened a stack of files by a few precise millimeters. Then she left.
****
Dmitri immediately noticed something was off in his office after answering a phone call downstairs. Small, almost irritating inconsistencies in a room that was usually exact. A chair angled slightly wrong. A pen placed where it didn’t belong. A file no longer aligned with the rest.
He stood in the doorway of his office for a moment, just taking it in. He didn’t rush in or correct it yet. Dimitri merely observed the deviation like a problem being mapped before it was solved. Then he stepped inside.
His gaze moved slowly through the room, methodical, unhurried. Nothing about his expression changed, but the attention sharpened as he worked through each detail in silence.
He stopped at the microphone point under the shelf. It was gone. A quiet exhale left him through his nose.
Sofia Marino had also removed another device and left everything else just visible enough for him to understand she knew. She wasn’t just reacting to the surveillance—she was answering it.
Well, message received. An almost-smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
Dmitri adjusted security protocols without telling her, then watched her pick up on the changes anyway. He changed patrol timing, rotated routes, tightened access points in subtle ways that most people wouldn’t even notice unless they were looking for them.
Sofia noticed. She then rearranged his office again the next time she passed through it, small shifts that were technically meaningless unless you understood the original structure.
A quiet correction of his order, or maybe a deliberate irritation. It was hard to tell with her, which made it worse in the best possible way.
He replaced her driver with Volkov security when she wanted to head out to meet a cousin for lunch. She hadn’t argued, although she’d thrown him a withering glare that would have sent a lesser man quivering in his toes.
Dmitri had simply watched her from the car window as she got in anyway, posture straight, expression controlled, eyes promising future consequences he was strangely not concerned about.
Who knew having such a competent wife would provide so much entertainment? And it was their first day being married to boot.