Chapter 35 #2
“It was always the same. I wake up to raised voices, angry ones. Men’s voices that didn’t belong in our apartment.
I climb out of bed, scared and confused, and peek through my bedroom door.
” The memory makes my hands tremble around the mug.
“I see my mother with two men I’ve never seen before.
Big guys, menacing. And I’m standing in that doorway too terrified to move. Too terrified to breathe.”
“My mother is crying, begging them. I can’t make out most of the words, but I hear the name they call her clearly.
Marina Voronina. Not the name I knew her by.
” I wait for the name to register but his expression doesn’t change.
“The last thing I remember clearly is one of them grabbing her arm, and all I could focus on was the tattoo there. Three cathedral domes.”
Kirill’s expression shifts, something dark flickering in his eyes.
“I spent the rest of the night hiding under my bed, clutching my stuffed sheep, sobbing. I was convinced those men were going to kill my mother before coming back for me. My father found me there the next morning. I’d wet myself.
I was practically catatonic.” A tear escapes, trailing down my cheek, and I swipe at it angrily.
“My therapist explained I dissociated that night. My brain completely blocked out the memories because they were too traumatic for a child to process. It’s a survival mechanism. ”
Kirill stands and rounds the counter, pulling me up and into his arms. I go willingly, collapsing against his chest as the sobs I’ve been holding back finally break free. He holds me while I fall apart.
“That’s why you freaked out when you saw Abram’s forearm at the poker game.”
I nod against his chest. “At first, the tattoo was all I had to go on. I researched its meaning and discovered it’s the mark of the Kupola Network.”
“Christ, Dinara. I’m sorry that’s how you found out. It’s deeply fucked-up.”
“It is,” I agree. “But everything about this is fucked up. I did a deep dive on the dark web. What I found suggested these women were brought to Velour and auctioned off.” I wipe my eyes.
“That’s all I had to go on. Online information was scarce.
It’s why I moved to New York and got a job at the club.
And… it’s why I…” I bite my lip to stop myself from saying too much, but he knows what I mean.
“It’s why you got close to me,” he says matter-of-factly, but I sense the sting underneath his words as he takes a step back from me.
“At first, yes. Before things… changed.” My feelings became real somewhere along the way, and I think he knows it too.
“I would have done the same in your position. Except for the stripping part.”
A laugh bubbles out of me despite everything. “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent hacker, but I wasn’t trained as a spy. I did spend months taking pole dancing lessons though. I was so disappointed when you wouldn’t let me dance.”
Every trace of humor vanishes from his face. “Like I’d ever let you dance for another man. You were mine from the moment we met.”
I roll my eyes as a warmth pools low in my belly. I felt it too. That electric pull between us hasn’t let up.
“Well, you didn’t give me much choice in the matter.” I hold up my hand bearing his mother’s ring. I can’t deny how beautiful it is, and how perfect it looks on my finger. “Now that we’re in a sharing mood, maybe you can tell me what this marriage is actually about?”
“I need your help to catch this… Ghost.”
“The Ghost, right. You thought I was working for them.”
“It was a theory when I found you standing over Spider with his throat slit open. But … I don’t know who or what we’re dealing with.
They’ve hit every major crime family in the city.
No one’s been spared. Hijacked shipments, blown warehouses, sabotaged operations.
They’re costing us millions every week and we can’t find a single trace of them. ”
I shake my head. “Your tech guys can’t track them?”
“My tech guys are good, but not as good as you.”
“And how do you know that?”
“My men hacked into your MTI files when you first started working for me. Let’s just say you should be teaching those classes, not attending them.
And now that I know you’re a hacker for the Syndicate, I know you must be one of the best.” His thumb rubs circles over the ring on my finger.
“Here’s the thing. I made a deal with my father to catch the Ghost in 20 days.
If I fail, my father arranges marriages for my sister and me to strengthen bonds with allies who can help us take it down.
Katya will be married off to Elio Valenti.
And me… to whoever serves his business interests the best.” Something hard enters his expression.
“Ruslan recently introduced me to the Morozov family, maybe you’ve heard of them—oligarchs with shipping routes and political connections my father wants access to.
Their daughter Varvara was there. Seated right next to me. ”
Understanding clicks. “The bride he picked for you.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw. “He’s so convinced I’m going to fail, he tried to set me up before the deadline was up.
So marrying you solves several problems, including blocking an arranged marriage.
But this ties us together. What benefits me, benefits you.
What hurts me, hurts you. That’s how it works. ”
Disappointment curls in my stomach and I don’t know why. What did I expect? A declaration of love? “You want a real marriage, yeah, but this isn’t real. You can’t force me to marry you and expect a true alliance.”
He reaches across the counter and takes my left hand, thumb stroking over the ring on my finger. “Maybe not, but how about we make a deal. Help me find the Ghost, and I’ll put every resource I have into learning what happened to your mother.”
It’s a good deal, but something still bothers me. “So this is all just a strategic play.”
“Fuck, no.” He rounds the counter, closing the distance between us until I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.
His hand settles at my waist, thumb tracing small circles against my hip bone.
“I did it because I want you. Because the idea of you belonging to anyone else made me want to paint this city red. Because sleeping beside you last night was the closest to peace I’ve found in a long time. ”
There’s something stripped-bare in his expression, raw and unguarded in a way I’ve never seen from him. Like he’s letting me past every wall he keeps up.
I kiss him instead of answering. Hard and desperate, because this is the only truth I can give him right now.
He kisses me back like he’s trying to consume me, one hand tangling in my hair while the other grips my waist. When we finally break apart we’re both breathing hard.
“So we have a deal,” he says, voice raspy.
“I can’t resist a challenge,” I admit, and that’s exactly what hunting the Ghost is. A puzzle I’d love to solve. But tracking down and eliminating the Ghost is only part of this.
Finding my mother is where things get complicated.
Spider told me things I haven’t shared. My mother wasn’t just a victim, she was the daughter of Aleksandr Voronin. The Voronins partnered with Ruslan in the Network until something went wrong.
Kirill thinks my mother was just another trafficked woman.
But there’s much more to this story. And when the truth comes out, I know I’ll want blood. And if that blood belongs to Ruslan Baronov, if Kirill has to choose between his father and me, I don’t know whose side he’ll be on.