That tracked. Dmitri’s employees handled almost everything. And, strangely enough, he trusted his workers with whatever he instructed them to do. And they all obeyed him, regardless.
“Akim hates me,” I said, mostly to myself, but Caitlin caught it.
“He hates me, too. I thought it was personal.” She was already pulling into the mall’s parking lot. “That man is allergic to human warmth.”
“And the worst part is Cole gets along with him perfectly.”
“Maybe he hates women specifically.” She added
We both laughed at the same time, the easy kind that didn’t need a warm-up, and we unbuckled together.
“I just ignore him entirely.” Caitlin climbed out. “I mean, who is he anyway? I give him a middle finger in my head every single time.”
“I’m thinking that’s the right approach.”
The mall opened up in front of us, and I slowed, taking it in.Every storefront had a name I recognized from the bags I never owned. The boutiques didn’t have price tags visible from the window because the price was never the point.
“You need something good for tonight,” Caitlin said, falling into step beside me. “Is it your first time meeting Madam Regina?”
“Yes. Who is she exactly?”
“The boss’s grandmother.” She tilted her head. “I’ve met her twice. She seems cool, I think. You’ll have a better read on her than me after tonight.”
I absorbed that this was a family dinner. Dmitri was not only running this fake marriage at full speed; he was running it toward his family. That meant it was serious, or it was supposed to look serious. I was going to be sitting across a table from a woman who had known him his entire life and pretend I was his wife.
Caitlin’s commitment and strategy showed that she really loved shopping. We moved in and out of boutiques for hours, bags accumulating. Somewhere between the third and the sixth store, I stopped tracking prices and started enjoying myself. She delivered opinions without apology. She would agree with me when she was satisfied, argue when she wasn’t, and laugh at dresses that had no business being on my body.
By the time we pulled into the next mall, I had forgotten that my life was a complete disaster.
The security check at the entrance made us open the trunk for inspection. A guard walked around the car while another approached Caitlin’s window.
“Imagine if they actually found us carrying guns in the trunk,” I said, watching the guard bend to peer inside.
Caitlin pressed her lips together, barely containing her laughter, just as the guard reached her window. “Ready to rob the mall,” she said under her breath.
I looked out my window and concentrated very hard on keeping my face still.
“Ladies.” The guard bent to look across at me, scanned the interior, and straightened. “You’re clear. Enjoy your day.”
“Thank you so much. Great work out here,” Caitlin said, and rolled the window up the moment he stepped back. She pulled forward into the parking lot, and the second we were out of his line of sight, she laughed.
“It’s a new mall,” she said, finding a space and pulling in. “Let’s see what they have.”
“I’m excited.” I meant it, because this felt like a life I would choose over working shifts just to make a living.
Chapter Fifteen
Dmitri Konstantinov
Some things were worth investigatingsimply because they refused to leave you alone. I didn’t have a reason to dig into Inna’s family beyond what was useful to me. Iker was the target, and that was supposed to be the beginning and end of my interest. But the more I pulled on her father’s case, the harder it became to put back down.
Her father was a ghost of a man who lived on the island. He never built friendships or held conversations longer than it needed to be. He moved through his days as if being noticed was a risk he couldn’t afford.
Akim spent considerable time pulling some footage. The records were scrubbed, not carelessly but deliberately. Akim reached into cloud backups and pulled fragments out piece by piece, reconstructing a picture from what was left behind.
Someone wanted this family erased. Not just the father. The whole family.
And here I was, sitting in my office like I had nothing better to do, watching fragments of a man’s ordinary days on a screen.I had an empire to run and a trap to finish closing around Iker, but he hadn’t moved yet. Men like Iker didn’t sit on a provocation. You scratched them, and they reacted. I scratched him at the auction, and he smiled and walked away. That wasn’t restraint. He was most certainly building something.
