Chapter 24 – Lukyan
The moment we enter the hotel lobby, I see Sofia breathe a sigh of relief. But I don’t. I’m immediately greeted by a dozen of my elite guards, all standing at attention, their expressions locked in rigid vigilance. My eyes scan the perimeter, looking for one specific face.
Ben isn’t here.
A cold knot forms in my gut. It’s highly unusual for him to miss my arrival like this, especially after an ambush. He’s supposed to be standing right at the entrance, briefing me the second my boots hit the marble. It’s how we always move. It’s our protocol.
I step into the private elevator with Sofia and Maxim. I’m completely silent as the elevator shoots up to the penthouse. The hum of the machinery does nothing to calm the roaring instinct in my chest telling me that the board has just shifted again.
When the doors slide open at the top floor, four more guards are waiting for us in the corridor. They lead us into the sprawling penthouse suite, tracking the corners with their eyes, and certify that the entire space is secure the moment we enter.
I turn to my wife, placing my hands on her trembling shoulders. “Go in and rest, zaychik. Get some sleep. You’re safe here.”
She looks up at me, a sudden wave of panic widening her beautiful eyes. She grips the lapels of my coat. “Where are you going? You’re leaving?”
“I need to talk to Ben,” I say, keeping my voice low, smooth, and entirely steady to keep her from spiraling. “I assure you, Sofia, you’re completely safe in this room. I’m just going down for a few minutes.”
She searches my face for a long second, her bottom lip quivering slightly before she nods. She lets go of my coat and walks toward the master bedroom.
The moment the bedroom door clicks shut behind her, the warmth leaves my face. I turn on Maxim like a predator, grabbing the front of his vest and pulling him down to my eye level.
“If anyone so much as breathes in her direction, you put a bullet in them,” I whisper, my voice vibrating with raw, lethal promise.
“You protect Sofia with your life, Maxim. If I come back up those doors and she has a single scratch on her, there isn’t a corner of this earth where you can hide from me. I’ll be back immediately.”
Maxim doesn’t blink. He nods sharply, his jaw tight. “On my soul, Boss. I’ll watch her. No one gets past this living room.”
I let him go, turn on my heel, and step straight back into the elevator. When I reach the ground floor, I march up to the security desk, my coat billowing behind me.
“Where’s Ben?” I demand, slamming my palm onto the marble.
The guards exchange a tense look. “He went to his personal quarters as soon as he arrived a few minutes ago.”
“Take me to his room. Now,” I command.
Two of my men lead the way, moving quickly down the corridor until we stop outside Room 102. I step forward and grab the handle. It’s locked.
I lift my fist and knock loudly against the heavy wood. “Ben! Open the door. We need to talk.”
Nothing. Total silence from the other side.
I knock again, harder this time, the sound echoing down the hallway. “Ben! Open the damn door!”
Still, there’s no response. No sound of running water, no footsteps, nothing. My intuition flares violently, a dark, suffocating certainty telling me that something is horribly wrong.
My men notice the sudden shift in my posture, their hands instantly dropping to the grips of their weapons as they read the lethal tension in my shoulders.
“Boss?” the senior guard whispers, his eyes darting to the lock. “Do we—”
“Yes,” I snap, my voice dropping into a dangerous register. “Break the door down.”
When the lock snaps with a sharp, metallic crack, the heavy door gives way, and we all march in, weapons drawn and slicing through the dark room.
Ben is missing.
“Fuck!” Viktor curses loudly, his gun lowering slightly as the realization dawns on him.
The signs of a violent struggle are everywhere. A heavy wooden chair is splintered against the floor, a lamp is shattered across the rug, and the sheer linen curtains are swinging wildly in the freezing air blowing through a wide-open window.
My chest tightens into a suffocating knot of fury.
It becomes instantly clear that Ben was targeted separately, a coordinated strike running parallel to the ambush at the warehouse.
But as my eyes scan the wreckage, a sickening truth settles into my gut.
The books we just retrieved have also been taken.
Of course.
This development shifts the stakes dramatically. The code is no longer just a puzzle Sofia needs to solve—it’s now an active, lethal vulnerability.
In the wrong hands, even a partial understanding of her father’s system could lead to unintended consequences, giving Karl the power to dismantle our entire network or unlock secrets that would bury us all.
Time is no longer on our side. Every second we waste is a second Karl spends cracking the sequence.
I turn to Viktor and the other men, my expression carving into absolute stone.
“Activate my entire network within Russia,” I command, my voice low and vibrating with a terrifying, quiet rage. “Pull in every resource, every corrupt contact, and every dirty intelligence channel we own across the country. I want this city locked down.”
The search for Karl becomes immediate and aggressive.
I look at Viktor, giving him the absolute authority he needs. “Leverage every single connection available. Squeeze our family assets. If anyone is hiding him, burn their houses down. Track Karl, find where they took Ben, and locate any stolen data. No holds barred.”
“We’re on it, Boss,” Viktor assures me, his face grim as he and the guards instantly pull out their secure lines.
Forcing myself to stay entirely calm, I mask the storm inside my chest and return to the penthouse. The elevator doors open, and I find Maxim still standing guard right outside the master bedroom, his hand resting tightly on his weapon, flanked by three other men.
“Take the men and go downstairs,” I tell Maxim, gesturing to the hallway. “Get the new brief from Viktor. Ben’s been taken. I need every single hand on deck. No one sleeps tonight.”
Maxim’s eyes widen in brief shock, but he doesn’t hesitate. He nods sharply, signals the other guards, and they disappear into the elevator, leaving the penthouse entirely quiet.
I push open the heavy bedroom door and find Sofia sitting on the edge of the mattress, her hands gripping the sheets. The moment she sees my face, she stands up, her eyes immediately zeroing in on the tension in my jaw.
“Is something wrong?” she asks, taking a step toward me. “Can we start on the code now? Have Ben bring up the books.”
I cross the room to her in two long strides, reaching out to hold her shoulders firmly. I look down into her eyes, my voice tight. “Ben has been taken. The books have also been taken. We can’t do anything until we find them.”
I brace myself, expecting to see disappointment, fear, or overwhelming pain break across her face. But the vulnerability I anticipate never comes. Instead, a fierce, blazing rage takes over her features, turning her eyes into absolute flint.
“We have to find them, Lukyan,” she says, her voice dropping into a dangerously sharp register. “I won’t let them take this from me. Not again.”
“My men are already on it,” I tell her, my thumbs rubbing soothing circles against her shoulders to ground her. “We will find them for sure. I’m burning this city to the ground until I get them back.”
I pull her into my arms, wrapping myself around her tightly, and lull her against my chest. She holds onto me with a fierce, iron grip, her breathing ragged against my neck.
I hold her for a long moment, feeling the tremor of anger running through her small frame, before I gently pull back to look at her.
“Get some sleep, Sofia,” I urge softly, brushing a stray hair from her forehead. “You need your strength for when we get them back.”
She shakes her head instantly, her jaw set. “I can’t sleep. My mind is racing too fast.”
“It’s okay,” I murmur, guiding her back toward the bed. “We can just lie down together.”
We stretch out on the heavy mattress, her head resting on my chest as I keep one arm locked securely around her waist, my eyes tracking the shadows on the ceiling.
Almost twenty minutes later, a heavy, rhythmic knock sounds at the door.
I gently slide out from under Sofia, signaling for her to stay put, and pull my weapon as I approach the threshold. I open it to find Viktor standing there, his face slick with sweat and his chest heaving as if he had run up the stairs.
“Boss,” Viktor says, his eyes dark with adrenaline. “A lead has emerged. Karl has been located.”
I find myself thoroughly impressed by how quickly my men find answers. My network is lethal on a normal day, but with Ben in captivity, the entire organization is moving with a terrifying, desperate speed.
I look at Viktor, my voice dropping. “Prepare the men. We’re going right now.”
He nods sharply and walks away, his boots echoing down the marble hallway.
I turn back to close the door, but Sofia is already there, standing beside me in a matter of seconds. Her face is pale, but her eyes are blazing with that same unyielding rage I saw moments ago.
“I’m going with you,” she says, her tone completely flat, leaving no room for negotiation.
I don’t even hesitate. “That’s not happening, Sofia. Stay in the room.”
“The books are there, Lukyan!” she snaps, her voice rising as she steps closer, invading my space. “My father’s legacy—it’s all there. I’m not going to sit here like a piece of fragile glass while you go fight for me.”
“I’ll bring the books back to you,” I say, my hands coming up to grip her upper arms, trying to ground her, trying to make her see reason. “And I’ll bring Ben back alive. But you’re staying in this penthouse where my perimeter is secure.”
Sofia tears herself out of my grip, taking a step back, her chest heaving. “No! I want to go confront Karl myself! I need to look at the man who’s been pulling the strings of my misery for years. I’m going, Lukyan!”
“I said no, Sofia! End of story!” I roar, the safehouse walls vibrating with the force of my voice. The fear of losing her, the memory of the ambush, and the ticking clock on Ben’s life all collide inside my chest, snapping my patience.
“Oh, because the great Lukyan Rusnak has spoken?” she fires back, her laugh bitter and sharp as she glares up at me. “Is that how this works? You just slip right back into being the dictator? You completely lock me out the second things get dangerous!”
“I’m trying to keep you alive!” I growl, taking a predatory step toward her, my shadow completely engulfing her frame.
“Karl has an entire tactical team. He just shot up a warehouse, he snatched my right-hand man, and he wants you dead. You’re a civilian, Sofia.
You walking into a live fire zone is suicide, and I won’t allow it. ”
“You won’t allow it?” Sofia’s voice cracks, a dangerous, volatile mix of tears and pure fury spilling over.
“Listen to yourself! You talk about protecting me, but you’re just trapping me in a different cage.
This turns into exactly what it was in the beginning: you controlling my life, deciding where I go, who I see, and what I’m allowed to handle! ”
“This is about your survival, not my control!”
“It’s the same damn thing to you!” she screams, poking a firm finger directly into my chest, right over my heart.
“Every time I try to take ownership of my own story, of my father’s work, you step in and tell me I’m too weak, too fragile, too precious to handle the dirt.
If I sit in this hotel room while you go slaughter everyone, I’m letting Karl win.
I’m letting him keep me afraid. I’m going to that location, Lukyan, whether you put me in the car or I find a way there myself! ”
I run a hand through my hair, the frustration burning hot through my veins. I decide to ignore her. I don’t care if she hates me, and I don’t care if she thinks I’m a tyrant. As long as she’s safe, I can live with being the villain in her story.
I turn on my heel and stalk toward the bedroom door, determined to end this argument by simply removing myself from it. But just as my hand grips the heavy brass handle, her voice stops me cold.
“If you leave this room without me,” she says, her voice dropping to a dead, icy whisper that carries more weight than any shout, “I’ll never forgive you. I promise you that, Lukyan.”
The words strike me like a physical blow, freezing me completely in my tracks.
My hand tightens on the doorknob until my knuckles turn white.
A heavy, suffocating silence fills the room.
I know her. I know the fierce, unyielding pride in her chest. She isn’t throwing a tantrum; she is drawing a line in the sand, and if I cross it, I might save her body but lose her soul forever.
Slowly, I let go of the handle and turn around to face her. My expression is grim, my jaw locked tight as I stare across the room at her standing there, defiant and trembling with rage.
“Okay,” I say, my voice dangerously low as I walk back over to her, stopping until I’m towering directly over her.
“You’ll come with me. But hear me clearly, Sofia.
The second we hit that location, you do exactly as I say.
If a single gun fires, you drop to the floor.
You follow my orders without a second of hesitation, and you stay alive.
Because if you get hurt out there… it is I who won’t forgive you. ”