Chapter Forty-four
Dmitri Konstantinov
I held Inna’s hand as we moved silently through the hallway.
What just happened in that room rearranged things.
Inna understood money, power, and danger in theoretical forms. But watching me put a bullet in a man’s head was a different education entirely.
I was prepared for what came after once she understood the shape of the life she was standing in.
As we neared the stairwell, Inna stopped, and so did I.
She pulled her hand from mine, looking at the floor for a second before stepping back.
I stepped toward her automatically, watching her face.
I expected her to break down because I could still see traces of hurt there, but she inhaled deeply and looked up at me.
The shift happened almost instantly. Whatever I expected to find in her expression disappeared behind something smoother and more controlled, which unsettled me immediately.
“I think.” She pointed back toward the room we had come from. “I forgot to tell my mother something.” Her eyes returned to mine. “It won’t take long. Is that okay?”
I stayed quiet, trying to read what this was. When she realized I wasn’t answering, she waved one hand dismissively, and a slight smile touched her lips.
“Come on, it’s not a big deal. I’ll be right back.”
Even her voice had changed. The uncertainty she carried when we left the room was gone. I followed her immediately because whatever this was, it needed a witness.
She pushed the door open and stepped back inside. Her mother, who had been pacing while speaking on the phone, stopped and faced her. She lowered the phone slowly from her ear, surprised to see Inna.
“I forgot something,” Inna said, a smile sitting on her mouth that felt wrong in the room somehow.
“We’re okay. We moved to Florida actually, and my name is Inna now.
Though people call me Inna Grace, I prefer Inna,” she chuckled softly.
“Cole is a big boy now. The most chaotic human being I’ve ever met.
He is at that age where he’s always right about everything, you know how that is. ”
She laughed again, and that sound landed strangely against the silence.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know we’re okay. You look amazing, by the way. Since you’re clearly okay, I can stop wondering what happened to you. I didn’t want to leave without saying that.” She smiled wider. “And don’t worry about Cole and me. Eat and sleep well.”
I looked at her mother. Her expression matched mine too closely.
“Okay. We’ll leave now. Bye,” Inna waved before turning toward me. “Shall we?” she asked. “I believe we have plans with Alessia.”
She walked past me, and I followed.
“Why is this hallway so dark? Whoever chose black carpet for the entire floor wasn’t thinking practically.
” She pulled her phone from her bag as she headed toward the stairs.
“Oh. A missed call from Caitlin.” She tapped the screen and lifted it to her ear.
“Hey Cate, sorry I missed your call. Are you okay?”
I followed behind her while she laughed at something Caitlin said. Whatever this was, it was worse than breaking down. And I was not prepared for it.
We got to the car, and as I reached to open the door for her, she moved faster and did it herself. Her voice stayed bright as she continued talking on the phone. I walked around and got in beside her. By then, she had ended the call and was typing something, humming under her breath.
The car pulled out into traffic.
Inna leaned toward me and tilted her phone in my direction. “Cole decided surfing is his career path. Who even gave him a surfboard?” She shook her head, smiling. “Look at him.”
I didn’t look at the phone. I looked at her face.
She lifted her eyes toward mine. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
I was not a man who was easily scared. Fear was what I understood mostly as a tool other people used, a weakness I identified in others and managed carefully in myself. I built a life specifically resistant to it.
But watching Inna act like this terrified me. Not because she was breaking. Because she wasn’t.
The ride back to the hotel became an endless stream of observations about buildings she found architecturally interesting, a motorcycle she liked in traffic, a restaurant sign she thought looked ugly. There was not a single mention of her mother or anything that happened in that room.
We reached the hotel suite, and Inna disappeared into the bedroom.
Akim had followed us upstairs, which meant he had something to report, so I stayed behind in the sitting room. Part of me was still waiting to hear Inna crying somewhere beyond the walls.
“Boss.” Akim’s eyes shifted briefly toward the bedroom door before returning to me. “I have Zachary’s full schedule. He has two upcoming public events.”
I took the phone from him and scrolled through the information. The closest he had was a charity event and a political gathering where he would be speaking.
“I’ll visit him at the charity event first.”
Akim nodded once. “Also, Iker requested a meeting.”
“Arrange one. Make it convincing.” I dismissed him and walked toward the bedroom without waiting for anything further.
The room was empty.
Something cold moved through me, and I crossed toward the bathroom faster, pushing the door open.
Inna froze beside the sink.
“Jesus, you scared me.” She looked down at what she was holding, and my eyes followed. It was a pad. “Can I have a minute?”
I exhaled and stepped back out. For one irrational second, I thought she was doing something stupid. She once tried to jump off a building. I couldn’t overlook that.
I stood in the middle of the bedroom, scrolling through absolutely nothing on my phone while water ran behind the bathroom door.
Eventually, the water stopped, and Inna walked out a minute later. “Are we meeting Alessia?” she asked casually as she moved toward the bed.
Rodion and Alessia left earlier this morning. I didn’t tell Inna they would since I knew that last night. Even after she cornered me in the bathroom and forced information out of me piece by piece. The memory surfaced briefly, and I shut it down.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I moved closer.
She looked up and laughed once. “It’s just periods. I’ve been dealing with them for years—”
“Inna,” I cut her off, “about today.”
She waved her hand, brushing the topic away before it could settle between us.
“About that? Yes, I’m fine. Did you see my mother, though?
She’s beautiful. People always said she looked like me, but honestly, I think I take after Dad more.
What do you think? And don’t comment on the hair, I know it’s short like hers. That was intentional.”
Whatever she was doing, I hated it.
I crossed the remaining distance and sat beside her. “Okay,” I said. “Ask me anything.” She looked at me. “Whatever you want to know,” I added.
“About my mother?”
“Yes.”
She scoffed. “There’s not much to ask, really. She left to run a family business in Mexico. Iker is my grandfather, and, by the way, why does it have to be him of all people?” She shrugged. “But now I know why she left, which is better than not knowing. So...”
That was another wall. I could see it happening in real time. People handled pain differently, but this kind was the most dangerous one. The ones that adapted too fast.
My hand moved toward her, and she flinched before I even touched her.
There it was.
“I killed a man,” I said. “You will not ask about that?”
She rolled her eyes. “He was rude. I was shocked for a second, I’ll admit that. But then I remembered you told me you killed people while rescuing my father.”
She stood and crossed toward the mirror. I watched her gather her hair and lift it from her neck as she studied her reflection.
“Hm.” She tilted her head slightly. “This actually looks good.” She clicked her tongue. “I need a hair tie.” She moved toward her bag and started digging through it, shifting objects around restlessly.
Trauma did not always look like collapse. Sometimes the mind kept moving simply because stopping meant feeling everything at once.
I was going to watch Inna closely because the wall she was building was going up far too fast.