Chapter 16 – Adrik
She’d been unusually quiet since her visit to her grandfather’s three days ago. At first, I wanted to brush it off as nothing, but then I couldn’t ignore her unease around me.
Lately, her smile seemed forced, and the light in her eyes was dimmer than before. I had no idea why she was so distant and gloomy almost all the time.
I could tell she was processing something in her head. But what could she possibly be processing that was taking her attention away from me? Although I told myself I wasn’t going to think much of it, it ended up being the only thing I could think of.
This sudden switch in her behavior was affecting me more than I cared to admit. And I hated it. I loathed not being able to focus on being productive.
Instead of asking her what was on her mind, I’d decided to just keep watching.
Two more days passed, and still nothing had changed. Nothing significant, anyway. By now, she was already trying to slither out of her shell, but to me, she was still distant.
I didn’t think a day would come when I’d miss our banter—our silly arguments and those tiny moments of pure bliss. Yet that day came sooner than I could blink.
However, as the days blurred by, another matter arose at work. Sergei brought my attention to some shady activities that needed to be investigated.
There has been a series of strange delays in our shipments over the past couple of days. Some important names were omitted from a report.
And that wasn’t all.
Sergei suspected there was a mole within the inner ranks feeding information to our enemies. We hadn’t identified the unfortunate individual. Yet. But rest assured, we’d find them, and they’d face the full consequences of their actions.
This organization operated on fierce loyalty with zero tolerance for traitors. Whoever the mole was, they would wish they never crossed the line.
That morning, while having breakfast with my wife, the dining area was awkwardly quiet. Only the occasional faint sounds of clinking cutlery punctuated the air.
We sat at both ends of the table like two strangers, and I despised the graveyard silence that lay between us.
She had her head lowered and had barely touched her food. Emika was distracted, lost in her own thoughts.
Unable to keep silent anymore, I decided to address the elephant in the room.
I looked right at her with a blank expression. “Is there something on your mind?”
She froze, her eyes darting side to side for a moment before she raised her head. “What’re you talking about?”
I leaned back in my chair, analyzing the look on her face and the hint of fear in her voice. “You’ve been distant lately. Quiet. Unusually quiet.”
Her brows rose, a small grin tugging at the corners of her lips. “Are you saying I’m usually loud?”
“No,” I replied, struggling not to be affected by her smile. “I’m just saying that you speak a lot less these days.”
“I thought men liked that,” she said, holding my gaze. “I thought you guys hated it when we talked too much.”
I paused, taking a moment to savor that grin I hadn’t seen in a while. “I see what you’re doing.”
She shrugged her shoulders and reached for her cup of freshly brewed coffee. “I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re deflecting.”
“Unless you can substantiate that claim—with some real evidence—I’m afraid it’s just a baseless assumption.” She sipped her coffee.
I hesitated, my lips curling into a mischievous smirk. “Does your sudden detachment from me and the rest of the world count as real evidence?”
“Not at all.” She retained that smile that had already brightened my day. “At best, it sounds…circumstantial.”
I watched her in silence, enjoying her enthusiasm for her legal profession.
She paused, her smile slowly vanishing. “People are allowed to be quiet sometimes, Adrik.”
Silence.
“It doesn’t always mean that they’re detached. It just means that…they might be dealing with a lot.”
Again, silence.
I couldn’t find the right words to say at the moment.
She flashed me a forced smile. “It’s a phase. It’ll pass.”
Whatever she was dealing with began the day she went to visit Richard Beaumont. That man wasn’t to be trusted. He’d sold out his only grandchild to secure an alliance with my family.
I’d always known that he was a snake—just like every other person in this criminal underworld. I needed to tread carefully, especially with Emika. She might look innocent and harmless. But before everything else, she was first a Beaumont, even though she went by Morgan.
She was Richard’s granddaughter, and his blood ran through her veins. In my world, trust was a luxury that ruined empires and got people killed.
Maybe Emika was innocent. Maybe she wasn’t.
But one thing was certain: I wasn’t going to let my guard down.
***
Later that night, Sergei and I followed one of my men to an abandoned warehouse at the docks. According to Sergei, he’d noticed that this man had been acting strangely lately. He said he had a gut feeling that the man was up to something.
When we arrived at the location, he parked the car at a reasonable distance. From here, we could clearly see the man speaking with two other unfamiliar faces.
“Should we get him?” Sergei asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“Not yet,” I said, my eyes pinned on the three men in the distance. “They’re waiting for someone. I wanna know who.”
Less than a minute later, a vintage vehicle pulled up in front of them. A tall man in a black suit stepped out of the car with a briefcase in his hand. The man we’d trailed walked over to the newcomer and shook his hand.
With my binoculars, I watched the man hand out a file bearing the Tarasov logo in exchange for the briefcase.
My jaw tightened. This bastard was the mole. He’d been selling information to the enemy. Was whatever in that briefcase worth his life? What an idiot!
I shifted my lenses to the newcomer, the man in a suit. “Do you recognize him?” I asked Sergei. “The buyer.”
Through his binoculars, he looked at the man. “Shit,” he murmured.
We both lowered our lenses.
“That’s Nickolas Freeman.” He turned back to face me. “Richard Beaumont’s errand boy.”
My expression darkened.
I knew that man wasn’t to be trusted.
One question lingered on the fringes of my mind: Did Emika know about this? Did she know that her grandfather was buying information about the Tarasov business? Could this be the reason she’d been acting very strange and suspicious these days?
“What’s the order, Boss?” Sergei asked me. “How would you like me to handle this?”
“Kill the mole, and the other two men,” I said coldly.
“What about Nickolas?”
“Break his legs if you must,” I answered. “But bring him in. Alive. I have questions.” My gaze flicked out the window. “In the meantime, take me home.”
He nodded once and started the engine.
***
When I returned home, I was furious, my blood boiling with rage. I stormed through the hallway, heading straight to the master bedroom. By the time I got there, my wife wasn’t inside.
I searched my office. She wasn’t there either.
However, before the funny thoughts creeping into my mind could solidify, one of the maids, Hannah, rounded a corner. She was carrying some neatly folded clothes and was humming innocently.
The second she spotted me, she froze in her tracks, scared by the look on my face.
“Where is she?” I growled. “Where is my wife?”
She swallowed hard, unable to hold my gaze. “In the library.”
My eyes darted toward the staircase leading to the upper floor, a quiet sigh of relief escaping my lips. At first, I was starting to think that she’d vanished somehow. However, finding out that I was being cynical was more refreshing than I cared to admit.
I went up to the library, and there she was, sitting in a chair by the window. She was staring blankly into space, a book on her lap. Her red nightgown draped elegantly over her body. The thin left strap hung from her shoulder, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of skin above her breast.
I hated how the sight thawed something frozen inside me, how it had me distracted for a moment.
When she caught me standing by the doorway, she sprang to her feet. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I knitted my brows in suspicion. “Why? Is there something you wanna tell me?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t lie to me.” I began walking over to her.
“Lie to you about what?” Her voice was tinged with confusion.
“Did you know?” I halted in front of her.
“Know what? What’re you talking about?!” She raised her voice a little higher, frustration lacing her tone.
“I’m talking about your grandfather bribing my men for information about the family business!” I replied with the same tone.
She paused, shock simmering in her gaze. “What?”
I stepped closer, and she withdrew until her ass hit the edge of a table. “Do not play games with me, Emika.”
She swallowed hard.
“Did you know about this?”
She shook her head. “That he was buying information from your men? No.”
“Then what do you know?”
“Nothing. I don’t know anything,” she answered, trying to stay as calm as possible. “And honestly, I don’t appreciate this interrogation.” Her face twisted into a frown. “You can’t leave the house for hours without explanation, only to return and begin to accuse me of treachery.”
My eyes dropped to her quivering lips as she stared at me like she was unaffected by my intimidating gaze.
Despite her attempts at staying calm and collected, I could see right through her. She was shaking. Not from guilt. From fear. The sight of her glassy eyes and slightly trembling lips cracked something in me.
I hated how seeing her like this softened me, making my anger dissolve like ice. “What happened the day you went to see your grandfather?”
“We talked about my mother’s condition,” she began, her voice smooth and steady. “He gave me some advice on marriage, and the rest of the time, he was just blabbing about politics.” She paused, staring right into my eyes. “That’s all.”