Chapter 10
Alyona
The rain pours down so hot and heavy that it feels like a rainforest outside, especially from my garden-level apartment. Technically, there is no garden here. There is a small patio to the side and back of the brick building. It is so overgrown that it’s almost suffocating.
Inside, most of the lights are off except for the one over the stovetop.
Everything is clean; it’s Friday, my day off from school and my day on at The Foundry.
My shift starts in two hours, and I’m trying to convince myself I’m ready.
The weird, crawling sense under my skin will fade if I ignore it hard enough.
I’m drying my hands when the knock comes.
Three sharp raps that land like punctuation.
My heart stutters, then over-corrects, pounding hard enough that I can feel it in my throat as I cross the living room. I tell myself it’s Devin or maybe the downstairs neighbor with another complaint about noise that doesn’t exist. My instincts are already screaming as I unlock the door.
Nika stands there, rain slicking his jacket. His short blonde hair glistens, and water drips from his nose as if he’s stepped out of a storm. His face is composed in such a way that feels deliberate. It’s like whatever he’s holding back is too dangerous to say.
“No,” I say immediately.
His brows lift a fraction. “We need to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I reply, bracing one hand against the doorframe. “I’m working tonight, and you don’t get to just show up here like—”
“This isn’t optional,” he cut me off.
The calm certainty in his voice drains the heat from my anger and leaves something colder behind.
“I didn’t agree to this,” I say, my voice tightening. “Whatever this is.”
He steps inside without waiting, eyes scanning my apartment with quick, practiced movements that make my chest constrict. The couch. The window. The back door. He clocks it all in seconds, like he’s already decided something.
“Grab your shoes,” he says. “And a jacket.”
“I’m not a child,” I snap. “I’m not some asset you can move when it’s convenient.”
He finally looks at me then, really looks, and something flickers across his face that makes my stomach dip. Concern.
“Aly,” he says quietly. “Please.”
That word coming from him feels wrong, like the world misfiring.
I’ve always thought Nika looked too young to work for my dad and Kazimir.
His skin is too pale, and his cheeks are too pink no matter the weather.
Now I see the steady, chilling way energy settles around him.
The certainty that if something happens here, he’d handle it.
“I didn’t do anything,” I insist, my voice shaking despite my best effort to keep it firm.
“I know,” he says. “That’s why we’re leaving.”
The words don’t compute fast enough to stop me from reacting, but I’m already moving.
I put my shoes on and grab my jacket off the hook by the door with hands that feel like they belong to someone else.
I don’t remember agreeing. I just hear the sound of the rain again and the solid click of my door locking behind us.
“This is kidnapping,” I mutter as he guides me toward a black SUV idling at the curb.
“Lightly,” he replies, opening the door with the ghost of a smile.
I slide into the seat, pulse racing, and watch my building disappear as we drive away. The familiar brick is swallowed by sheets of rain and shadow. As we drive, I check my phone; no messages.
What is going on?
Time passes, and I realize I have no idea where we’re going. Savannah blurs past, streets giving way to trees, the city loosening its grip as the land thickens and stretches.
“Is this about him?” I asked finally, unable to hold it in any longer. There’s only one reason I can think of that would result in me being dragged from my home.
Liev found out.
And maybe murdered his boss, the leader of Georgia’s Bratva. Maybe this is a relocation or something, my dad trying to save me from the very danger he brings. The temptation that tagged along like a shadow.
Nika’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t answer.
The road narrows, then curves, trees arching overhead as though conspiring to swallow us whole. When the iron gates appear, it’s black and imposing through the rain. My chest tightens.
The driveway beyond the gate winds long and slow. Oak branches heavy with moss hang low enough to brush the roof of the car. Dusk settles in gradually, the rain easing as though on cue, and when the estate comes into view, it steals my breath away.
I’ve never been here before. But it can only belong to him.
Amber light spills from wide windows, warm and inviting.
The light glows against beige columns and sprawling porches that stretch outward.
The house doesn’t loom; its grounded and ancient beauty is softened by time rather than diminished.
Arched sections of the porch frame the front like something out of a storybook.
Polished wooden rocking chairs sit idly beneath the overhang.
Potted ferns hang in the corner of each arch.
Homey.
The word slides uninvited into my thoughts, and I hate it.
Other buildings dot the grounds, set back and purposeful, their outlines obscured by the moss and trees. Business. Housing. Something else entirely. When I squint, I can see men moving from one building to another. This isn’t just a house.
The SUV stops, gravel crunching beneath the tires, and before I can gather my thoughts, Nika is opening my door again.
“No,” I say, sharper now. “Take me home.”
“Inside,” he replies, his tone inviting no argument.
The front door opens before I can bite back, and there stands my father.
For half a second, relief flashes through me; sharp and unwelcome, but it’s quickly followed by something hotter and volatile. What would he do to save me? He’s the reason I got dragged to the States.
An old, buried enemy whispers in my head: Maybe if he hadn’t left, Mom wouldn’t have died.
“You,” I say, the word carrying everything I haven’t said to him in years. “You had no right.”
“Alyona,” Liev begins, stepping forward.
“No,” I cut in, the anger finally breaking free and stepping around Nika. “You don’t get to decide when you show up in my life, and you don’t get to collect me like I’m a piece of luggage because it suits you.”
“This is about your safety,” he says, his voice careful.
“You don’t get to talk about my safety,” I snap. “You left.”
Silence stretches between us, brittle and fragile, and then another presence steps forward, heavier and colder.
Kazimir Baranov.
The air shifts instantly, the warmth of the house feeling like a lie. Or a disguise.
“I gave the order,” he says calmly.
I turn on him, fury igniting so fast it steals my breath. Or maybe that’s just because I’m facing a literal mountain of a man. His hair is disheveled, pieces hanging around his jaw, eyes dark and full of anger. My heart leaps into my throat.
“You think you can just drag me out of my life because you feel like it?”
“You’re in danger,” he replies evenly. It’s the same flat voice he used that night at The Foundry, in the alley. As if he didn’t care, though his hands told another story when they touched my skin.
“I didn’t ask you to protect me.”
“No,” he agrees. “You didn’t.”
Liev turns toward him sharply. “You should have told me what you were doing.”
Kaz doesn’t look away from me. “I did what was necessary. You’ve trusted me all these years, Liev. Trust me now.”
With your daughter’s life goes unspoken. Kaz’s jaw ticks, but I’m the only one who sees it. Liev and Nika are both watching me. Expecting more of a fight, maybe, but it finally sinks in…
That feeling of being watched at the bar, despite Kaz’s absence. The certainty that something is wrong.
I could stay and find out; leave if it’s nothing.
They usher me inside; the house swallowing us with polished floors and quiet luxury. We move through hallways that feel too wide, too deliberate, past closed doors, until Kaz leads us to a staircase.
Down one level. Then another.
The air cools, the walls turning from elegant to utilitarian, stone and reinforced steel replacing plaster and hardwood. The space opens abruptly into a massive room humming with low energy, screens lining the walls, maps glowing softly, men pausing mid-conversation as we enter.
Every eye turns toward me.
My face burns.
“What is this?” I whisper.
Kaz gestures, and the screens shift, routes and ports lighting up, names appearing in crisp white text.
“A cartel,” he says. “Moving north. This,” he points to several sections, “is my territory.”
It’s not a brag. Just information. But information that I wish I could sear from my brain. I want nothing to do with this, whatever lies live underneath Baranov Tech.
“Okay,” I say slowly. “So, what does this have to do with me?”
The nondescript men in the room filter out in seconds, quietly, like ghosts. The door clicks shut behind the last one, leaving me with my father, Nika, and Kazimir Baranov. Not just a silver fox watching me from the shadows, but the leader of an empire built on bones and blood.
My dad speaks before Kazimir can answer. “Did they mention her by name?”
My brow furrows. Surely, he doesn’t mean…?
“No,” Kaz bites out, the word a low rumble. “But I know it was her he was talking about.”
“How?” Liev’s neck is turning a dark red-purple at his collarbones, rising slowly like a warning. “How do you know he meant her, Kazimir?”
“That’s not possible,” I break in after a beat of heavy, electric silence. “Whoever this is—this person on your map, trying to take over, I don’t know them, and they don’t know me.”
“They intend to use you as leverage,” Kaz continues. “To force concessions.”
I laugh, and the sound comes out sharp and brittle. “That’s insane.”
“It’s strategy,” he replies, finally turning toward me. He has on a plain shirt and tailored pants. His shirt sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. His skin is damp with sweat, and I swear I can smell it. It makes me sway forward, entranced by the possibility of how he might taste.
Liev steps between us, anger rolling off him in waves. “You let this happen. I don’t know how--”
“I stopped it,” Kaz counters. “Before it escalated.”
“And your solution?”
Kaz doesn’t answer right away. His dark gaze shifts to me. He’s assessing something, calculating. His expression makes my skin prickle.
“A cover,” he says finally. “Something public. Untouchable.”
“What?” Nika asks, his gaze bouncing between his superiors. Like me, the tension in the room makes him uncomfortable. We’re all on edge, not understanding why, but knowing that something is off.
“I need you to be logical,” Kaz murmurs, his eyes set on my father. “I need you to think. He’ll take her if he thinks it’ll put the game in his favor. It won’t matter where we put her or who is protecting her. Unless she’s with me.”
Understanding creeps in slowly, dread coiling in my chest. But he can’t possibly—it would have to be something drastic, something ridiculous, to scare another cartel leader off.
“A fake engagement.”
I stare at him, then burst out laughing, the sound echoing too loudly in the underground room. “You’ve lost your mind.”
Liev doesn’t laugh. His face darkens, fury simmering beneath the surface. Nika is frozen, hand halfway to the holster on his hip, as if expecting chaos to erupt at any moment.
The laughter dies in my throat as reality crashes in.
“No.”
The word leaves me as a gasp.