Kaden
Chapter thirty-nine
Istalk through one of the high-end strip clubs that Ivan has labeled as his main office.
Neon lights glow across the ceiling, illuminating the dancers as they grind on the metal poles making up the stage.
Men who have paid a pretty penny just to get in crowd around the main event, hefty bills being tossed at the women like they’re surrounded by shark-infested waters.
Some pop-techno remix booms through the speakers, the bass making my chest rattle.
The VIP lounge consists of a few of Ivan’s enforcers. They’re crammed into a booth, strippers with massive bared tits sitting in their laps as they drink and converse. One of the guys, Simeon, notices me first. His eyes dart to the bag in my hand as he waves me over.
“Smerti!“ He greets over the music. “Care to join us? We have plenty of whiskey for you.”
“Not tonight,” I sniff, holding up the bag. “I’m working.”
Another guy, Jeremy, the youngest of us and brimming with excitement, laughs. “You’re going to have withdrawals. Take a bottle to go.” He pinches the side of the woman on his lap, making her giggle as she rubs a hand through the collar of his shirt. “Or take Anya. I don’t mind sharing.”
The woman looks over her shoulder at me, her eyes trailing down to my blood-soaked boots. “Hi, Smerti.“ She greets seductively with a bite to her plump bottom lip.
“I’ll pass,” I dismiss rudely. “Is the boss in?”
“Upstairs,” Simeon nods his chin toward the back of the club.
I turn on my heel, leaving them to their evening of debauchery as I scale the steps. Every footfall brings me closer, and the sound tunnels around me. My heart pounds in my ears as I near the office.
Saint is already stationed outside with another guard, smirking as he opens the door for me. “Good luck.”
“I don’t need luck,” I mutter as I step inside, and he closes us in the dim lighting of Ivan’s domain.
The office is quaint enough with a soundproof barrier that eradicates the noise of the club. The Pahkan is seated behind his desk, a mountain of paperwork overcrowding the surface as he works diligently to keep his multitude of businesses in order.
We’ve all grown over the years, but Ivan’s transformation takes the cake. He’s no longer the easy, charming man he used to be. He’s been replaced by someone hardened by the underworld and a beast who doesn’t take no for an answer. His name invokes fear in his enemies, leaving a lasting impression.
But I’ve never been afraid of him. It’s hard to be when you’re conditioned and trained to be the very reason he’s considered the overlord of organized crime. Without me or Saint, he might as well just be another Pahkan lost to the system.
“What?” He snips, shuffling through his expense reports for the month.
I walk forward, slamming the bag down on his desk.
His eyes flicker between me and the leather before he sets everything aside and rips the zipper open. He scowls at the decapitated head of the Sokolov namesake, his lip curling. “Quit bringing me fucking heads in a bag, Kaden.”
I suck my teeth, grabbing the tuffs of gray hair before yanking the face into view. “You didn’t even see who it was.”
Ivan sits back in his chair, rubbing a finger across his mouth. “Huh. You did it…”
I shake the head, making blood drip. “Only took me three years, but the Sokolov crime family is no more.”
“Good work,” he praises before sliding his paperwork back in front of him and bending over it.
I slap a hand over the reports, blocking his view as I taint the logs with bloodied fingers.
“Seriously?“ Ivan groans.
I lean closer to him. “Have you forgotten our deal?”
His eyes snap to mine. “No, I haven’t.“ He eases back in his chair, crossing an ankle over his knee. “What would you like? More money? Maybe another vacation home you refuse to visit? An endless supply of whiskey so you can continue to drink yourself into oblivion? Running out of options here…”
My teeth grind before a humorless smile forms, and my eyes crease. “Funny. You know what I want.”
Ivan stares at me for a heavy beat. “No.”
My head tilts as my eyes round in audacity. “No?”
“No,” he reiterated slowly. “I don’t deal with the flesh market, Kaden. I can’t give you a person.”
I drop the head, straightening my spine. “I’m not asking you to give her to me. I’m asking you to make her stay.”
Something akin to contemplation crosses his eyes. He stares into me, breaking me down to the very fibers of my being. “And what makes you think she’ll go with you to begin with, hmm? It’s been six years.”
That deathly calm washes over me as my eyes become half-fiddled. When I speak, it’s finite and laced with conviction. “She won’t have a choice.”
He runs a hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That’s going to make her hate you—”
“I don’t give a fuck if she hates me!” I cut him off, jabbing a finger into my chest as my eyes become wild and manic. “I haven’t spent the last six years, no contact as you requested, to be denied the only person I fucking want.”
Ivan’s glare turns cold. “She’s healed, Kaden. Why would you destroy all of her progress?”
I lean in close, leveling our noses. “Because,“ I whisper low, my voice splintering. “Her healing was built on a lie, and we both know that.”
Ivan doesn’t flinch. It’s the one thing I can’t stand about him—the calculation and restraint. He’s always three steps ahead, burying bodies I haven’t even created yet. “You staying away wasn’t a lie,” he says evenly. “It was mercy.”
A sharp laugh rips from me, humorless and dry. “Mercy?“ I echo. “You call ripping me out of her life mercy?”
“I call it survival,“ Ivan snaps, baring his teeth at me. “For her and her alone. Without my decision, she wouldn’t be here today.”
My jaw tightens so roughly that I can feel my pulse pounding in my throat.
“For six years,“ I grind out, “I have done everything you’ve asked of me. I’ve disappeared, wiped my whole existence from this fucking rock.
Wiped the lives of faceless men all for the sake of your cause. I let her believe I abandoned her—“
“Because you did, Kaden!” He shouts, slamming a fist down on the desk. “I gave you every fucking opportunity to back down, and you couldn’t think past your own obsession with death long enough to see the broken woman you were going to leave behind!”
I screw my eyes shut tightly, the pain still as fresh as the very first time I felt it all those years ago. “Stop—”
“You ruined her!“ He snarls. “She was left to pick up the fucking pieces you shattered along the way—”
“STOP!” I shout breathlessly, my lips pulling over my teeth as the agony becomes too deep—unbearable.
“I fucked up, and I know that! You don’t think it keeps me awake at night?
” I suck in, trying to get air into my lungs as the weight of my mistakes smothers me.
“You don’t think I haven’t spent every fucking moment since that night reimagining how different my life would be today if I hadn’t killed your father? ”
It’s haunted me for years. How I could have saved us if I hadn’t been so blinded by my own needs…
A tense quiet settles over us, only the sound of my ragged breathing cutting through the silence before Ivan speaks. “And you’re going to unravel all of that trauma for her just to see her again?”
A certainty pierces me as fiercely as it has since the very beginning. It’s a tight grip that I could never shake—the only knowledge that my heart beats just the same as everyone else’s. My features set into something dark and unforgiving. “Yes.”
Ivan blinks away his disbelief before slumping against the backrest of his chair and waving a dismissive hand. “Then I can’t stop you. I’ll relocate you to our New York branch first thing in the morning.”
I’ve won the battle, but I don’t know the cost of it yet. A relief I haven’t felt in years settles into my bones as I rest my head back against my shoulders.
I’m coming, Melody.
“Thank you,” I whisper before lumbering towards the door of the office. I think this is the end until my friend calls after me.
“She’s engaged.”
My blood turns to ice in my veins as I grip the door’s handle. Those words echo through my skull, weaponized as they bounce back at me tenfold.
Engaged.
Melody is engaged.
The word doesn’t just land—it detonates. Fractals shattering and sending every ounce of hope I once had down the drain.
Engaged.
My hand tightens on the handle, the metal groaning beneath my fingers. For a split second, I forget how to breathe.
“She’s engaged,” Ivan repeats softly. It isn’t to wound me further, but to make sure I understand.
As if I could understand that. My Melody is promised to another man.
A slow, hollow laugh leaves my throat. “To who?”
“Dylan Callahan, the CEO and founder of Callahan Software Development.”
Ice freezes through my veins. Dylan.
Always fucking Dylan.
He’s a dead man.
“Thanks for the heads up,” I reply coldly, my plan of attack already unfolding.
“Good luck,” Ivan says quietly.
I don’t need luck. I need a fucking cliff to push Dylan off of.