37. Ruslan
37
RUSLAN
The mansion is finally quiet.
The last of the guests departed hours ago, leaving behind only the ghosts of the day's events.
I run my finger along the rim of my whiskey glass, watching the amber liquid catch the lamplight.
Artyom sits across from me in my father's office—my office now—and his face is fixed in what seems to be a permanent scowl.
"I should've dug deeper, bratishka ." Artyom's voice breaks through my thoughts, gravel-rough with exhaustion. "I should've picked at that thread the same way Tamara must've picked at it."
"You couldn't have known." The words taste like ash in my mouth. "The connection seemed thin, and I was the one who told you to look elsewhere."
"But still." He leans forward, elbows on his knees. "I should've kept picking at that single loose thread. How do you think Tamara figured that out?"
I scoff. "She probably paid the family a visit."
Artyom nods. "I should've done the same."
I close my eyes, seeing Aurora's face when Tamara revealed her true name. The terror in those hazel eyes when she heard that name, like a cornered animal, haunts me.
"There's no point going over what we should've or could've done, Artyom. It's too late for that. We have to focus on things happening now and things yet to come."
"And those are?" Artyom asks.
I take a slow drink, letting the burn trail down my throat. "Nothing changes our position within the Zapadniye Vori . Aurora is my wife now. Even Gregor can't deny that."
"That's not what's really bothering you, is it?" Artyom studies me carefully.
"No, it's not."
I think about Aurora trembling in my arms, her voice breaking as she blamed herself for her family's deaths. She clung to me like I was the only solid thing in her world.
But above all, I remember the fear wrapping around her throat when she spoke that name.
Kristofer Christensen.
The monster who's been hunting her for seven years.
"Ruslan?"
"I want everything you can find on Kristofer Christensen." My voice drops to something dangerous, something that belonged to my father and brother. "His whereabouts. His favorite foods. His usual hangout spots. Everything."
Artyom's eyes widen slightly as he picks up on what I'm about to say. "Ruslan..."
"I want him dead." I set down my glass with deliberate care. "And I want you to bring him to me so that I can do it myself."
"You're talking about killing a cop." Artyom's voice remains steady, but I hear the warning. "That's not just crossing a line. That's obliterating it."
I meet his gaze, letting him see the coldness that's settled in my chest.
"He butchered her entire family and wrote her a message in their blood. He's had her running scared for seven years." I think of Aurora's nightmares, her fear of cameras, her desperate need to stay hidden. "He must die."
"You're not thinking clearly," Artyom says, shaking his head. "Sanctioning a hit on a cop is risky enough, but a cop outside of California? That's not just dangerous, it's suicide."
I clench my fist around my glass, knuckles whitening. "I don't care."
"You should. We have no influence that far east. No connections. No-one who will help us cover it up when it inevitably goes to shit."
"So we make connections." I slam my glass down, whiskey sloshing over the rim. "We find people who can make it happen."
"And leave a trail right back to you?" Artyom drags a hand down his face. "Everything you've built outside the bratva. From your production company, your legitimate businesses. All those are gone the moment this gets traced back to you. And it will."
I rise from my chair, blood rushing in my ears. "So what would you have me do, Artyom? Let him live while Aurora spends every day looking over her shoulder? What's the point of being a fucking pakhan if I can't even keep my own wife safe from her nightmares?"
Artyom watches me. I see the moment he realizes there's no talking me down from this, and his shoulders sag slightly in resignation.
"I'll find him," he finally says. "But if we do this, it'll have to be careful."
I nod once, sharply. "Fine."
Nodding, Artyom stands up and walks toward the door. He pauses with his hand on the knob and glances back at me, something like a smile tugging at his mouth.
"By the way... congratulations on your wedding, bratishka ."
Without another word, Artyom leaves. The soft click of the door punctuates his exit, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I turn to the window, my gaze drawn to the tower where Aurora sleeps. My princess in her tower. The thought comes unbidden, and with it a sharp memory of Aurora's voice in that alleyway when we first met, dissecting the script with her passionate frustration.
" She can't just be a damsel in distress. She'd have to be the one to confront her past, and he has to be the one who empowers her to do so. "
I sigh and drain the whiskey in a single gulp.
How am I supposed to empower her to confront Kristofer when every instinct screams at me to hunt him down myself? How do I give her the strength to face her nightmares when all I want is to eliminate them for her?
The buzz of my phone interrupts my thoughts. I glance down, surprised to see Sienna Voss's name on my screen. After blackballing her from Hollywood, I didn't expect to hear from her again.
I open the message.
It's just a single text to an Instagram link.
Something about that link sends an ominous chill sliding down my spine. I tap the link, and my heart stops.
It's the photo of Aurora that Sienna took at Nikoforov. Her eyes wide with panic as she tried to stop Sienna from taking it. But it's the caption beneath that captures my attention:
Meet Ruslan Dragunov's latest fling: Jamie Fields. Disappeared seven years ago and declared dead until I caught them together at Nikoforov. I always knew this town was dirty, but I didn't realize just how dirty it really was.
My grip tightens until the phone case creaks in protest. My first instinct is to call Artyom back and have him handle Sienna permanently. But I force myself to think clearly through the red haze clouding my vision.
This isn't a problem I can solve with violence.
This accusation, these lies... they're already out there, and Sienna is no fool.
She attached my name to the post both as a threat and as insurance that I won't take any actions against her. She knows that if I do, the entire internet will explode with gossip.
And then all the Twitter sleuths and Reddit weirdos will start looking into Jamie Fields. They'll inevitably find a connection between her and Aurora Castellanos.
All of sudden, I find myself without any room to maneuver.
And I realize just how difficult it's going to be for me to protect Aurora.
From Kristofer. From Tamara. From the world.
From her marriage to me.