Chapter 21
RENATA
I stare at Ollie—my protector. The monster. My husband.
The tension is so thick it’s choking me. He stands over the slumped man, blood on his hands, and yet somehow I’m the one who feels like I’m drowning.
Is he dead? I can’t tell. Maybe it doesn’t even matter anymore. He was just a tool, punished by the man I married. The man I thought I could love.
He was a means to an end, and Ollie did what he had to—wrung him out until there was nothing left.
The man’s screams still echo in my head, each one like a dagger twisting in my gut.
Ollie’s face is a mask of control—impassive, but there’s something in his eyes that looks like a plea.
He blinks, and whatever humanity I imagined is gone.
The same darkness I’ve come to expect is in its place, the inhumanity I’ve tried so hard to ignore.
The unease turns into a cold, hard knot in my belly.
He’s here. It’s too late.
A chill wraps around my spine, my worry burrowing into my mind, feeding on my deepest fears. “What does it mean?” I ask, but the words taste bitter. I don’t even know if I want the answer anymore. What’s the point of a next step if every move feels like a death sentence?
Ollie straightens, the lone wolf, the protector who would tear the world apart for me. But even as he promises safety, I wonder. What happens when the threat isn’t out there, but standing right in front of him?
I’ve only ever loved three people—Isabella, Carlos, and Ollie. The three most unhinged, ruthless people to ever walk this earth. What does that say about me? Why do I gravitate toward the ones that burn everything they touch?
What in the actual fuck is wrong with me?
“First, we assess who’s still here. You.
My mother and my sister. Lev and Isabella are at the hospital, and everyone else has gone home.
Next, I contact Aleks. We need to find out where he is.
” He draws me closer to him with one beckoning of his finger.
I step closer to him even though I don’t want to.
The smell of another man’s blood still lingers on him.
At my resistance, Ollie’s expression shifts, the concern he showed for me moments ago slipping away like clouds through fingers.
Maybe it was only an illusion, something I thought I could hold.
His eyes are cold, merciless, his posture rigid.
The man I love is gone; the cold, calculating murderer now stands before me.
“I need to keep you safe,” Ollie orders, his voice cold and devoid of any comfort. There’s no tenderness or reassurance, just command. He’s not my husband right now but a general issuing orders.
I swallow, trying to steady myself as the reality of what happened settles in. We’re not safe. The man who’s haunted us has found us, and there’s no time to waste. My only salvation is the man who stands before me now.
“You’ll do exactly what I say while we make sure everyone is secure,” he says harshly. Cold. He speaks to me like I’m one of his soldiers, but I’m not one of his men—I’m his wife, but right now, it doesn’t seem as if he cares.
I shake my head. What matters is doing what he tells me and making sure that we stay safe.
“Keep barking orders at me, Ollie,” I snap, my voice tense with anger. “Keep whispering sweet nothings in my ear and see how far that gets you.”
“Renata,” he says in a growl, his patience threadbare. “Behave yourself. Do not test me right now.”
I grit my teeth because a part of me knows he’s right. This is not time or place.
I follow him out of the room, even though I don’t really have a choice because he’s gripping my arm tightly.
My legs are jelly as I will myself to keep going.
My mind races, thoughts spinning out of control as I try to process everything.
The house that’s supposed to feel like a fortress feels like a trap, every creak of the floorboards and whisper of the wind outside making me jump.
We gather in a second room, thankfully, because the one beside the living room still holds the body of a man bleeding out… or dead.
Tension is etched on everyone’s faces as Ollie stands near the window, his hand hovering near his gun as he scans the grounds outside.
Ekaterina stands close to him, her fingers twisting nervously around the hem of her shirt. “Renata,” she says gently, “Are you all right?”
I shake my head and don’t answer.
“What’s happened?” Polina asks, her face pale.
“We’re locking everything down,” Ollie snaps, his words clipped and sharp.
He’s already shifted into commander mode, the warmth he showed me earlier buried under layers of cold calculation.
“No one leaves until we know the house is secure. I questioned the man who infiltrated us. He told me that Carlos is here.”
“Here?” Polina’s voice wavers, her face a mask of barely contained fear. We all feel it—the unspoken terror that Carlos could be in the very walls around us.
Ollie laughs mirthlessly. “Unfortunately, that’s as far as we got. Your guess is as good as mine.”
Polina and I share a glance.
“I wasn’t able to get more information out of him. He could’ve been referring to New York for all I know.” His stance tells me there’s no damn way he believes that to be true.
But we all know the greatest threat is if he’s in this house.
“Bring it,” Polina says as she pulls out a gun.
“Who the fuck gave you that?” Ollie asks.
“You think only the men in this family carry weapons? Where have you been? Oh, right. Moscow. Paris. Colombia. Guess what, brother? While you were globe-trotting, Isabella trained us in self-defense, and Harper recently gave us shooting lessons.”
I’ve heard that Harper is a master with guns, and I love that she’s shown them how to use one.
I’m next, girls.
“You know how to use that?” Ollie asks. I cringe.
The sound of outrage from me, his sister, and his mother all at once makes him put up his hands like a little boy. “Okay, okay. I just want to leave with my balls intact, thank you.”
“Say something like that again, and I will show you exactly how good I am at using this gun!” Polina says, glaring at him.
“Which part?” he says. “The part about using the gun or my balls being intact?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Fine, so you know how to use a gun,” he mutters. I’d think he was being a dick if I didn’t know he was worried about us. “Mom?” he says.
“I’m not as good as Polina,” she says. “But there’s no one who can get me in a chokehold that I can’t get out of.” She smiles sweetly at him.
His eyes widen slightly. She’s so badass.
Ollie turns to me. “Renata?”
“I’ve only just begun lessons, but Isabella tells me I’m a quick study,” I say. Somehow, being around his mom and sister reminds me that we are part of something different, something bigger. I get one little glimpse of what it would be like to be truly one with this family.
“We need to lock everything down,” Ollie says. “Aleks is going to check for biometric markers. I want a full sweep, inside and out.”
He has a hurried conversation on his phone in Russian.
“Are they at the bunker?” Ekaterina asks quietly. Ollie gives her a short nod.
“Is he inside this house?” She doesn’t ask how he got here, but if he’s here.
I see the fear in her eyes, in the way Polina clings to her, and I know this isn’t the first time they’ve been in a position like this.
The question hangs in the air, the unspoken terror we all feel is undeniable.
If he’s in this house, we’re sitting ducks, and I fucking hate that.
Ollie speaks almost mechanically. “We’re going to scan now. For now, everyone stays right in this room. No one goes anywhere alone.”
“For how long?” Polina asks.
“As long as it takes,” Ollie snaps.
“Relax, Ollie. I know the woman you love is here with us. We all know that. Guess who else knows that?”
He pinches his lips together and doesn’t reply.
When Polina turns away from him, tears are shining in her eyes.
Ekaterina wraps an arm around her, whispering something in her ear that sounds like Russian, but I can see the fear in her eyes too.
It isn’t just me anymore—it’s all of us, making sure none of us become collateral damage in the twisted game between Carlos and the Romanovs.
A sudden crash outside the room makes me jump, but it’s just Aleks returning from his sweep of the house. I have to remind myself to breathe.
“I don’t see anything. I checked every room. There’s no sign of forced entry and no sign of anybody here but us. If he’s here, he’s damn good at hiding.”
“That’s because he’s not here,” Viktor adds, his tone frustrated. “There’s no indication that anyone is in this house. He said that just to scare us.”
Ollie doesn’t look relieved, as if he doesn’t even believe them.
His expression remains hard and unreadable.
“I’m not convinced. I’m not taking any chances.
We stay locked down until I’m certain,” Ollie commands, his voice a low growl.
He won’t’ be satisfied until he’s torn apart every inch of this house, hunting for shadows.
“What will you do?” Polina asks.
“I’ve already checked and told you there’s no evidence of anybody else in this house. He must be in The Cove. We know this.”
“Get in touch with Toschi,” Ollie says.
Who is that?
Will it always feel like I only see half of what’s going on around me?
“I did,” Ollie says. “He’s in The Cove, but he hasn’t revealed his location to anyone.”
“Fine, then. Everyone stays here. We will find him.”
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” Aleks says, obviously frustrated. “Can’t you see that?”
“What would you have me do?” Ollie explodes. “You know he’s after Renata.”
His brothers leave when they realize no one can talk sense to him.
Hours pass, each one feeling more interminable than the last. Polina and Ekaterina try to lighten the mood with small talk, but even they eventually fall silent. It seems pointless to force conversation when we're all here, tense, wondering what the next moment will bring.