Page 9 of Beautiful Ruin

He sets the documents down in his lap and then looks up at me.

“I’ll find who sent them,” I say.

The promise leaves my mouth before I fully think about it because there was never going to be another answer. Not from me. Whoever orchestrated the ambush and dug up Sofia’s existence thought they could use my Pakhan’s relative as leverage against him. They thought wrong. I will find them. And when I do, there will not be enough left of them to bury.

Ivan studies me for a long moment before saying, “No.”

I frown. “But⁠—”

He exhales slowly, the sound thin and pained, as if even that much effort irritates him. “Bring her home.”

For a second, I just stare at him. “She’s safe in Italy.”

His gaze pins me in place. “Clearly, not anymore.”

I open my mouth to argue and find that I can’t.

Because he isn’t wrong.

Sofia’s information in anyone else’s hands is already a dangerous problem. For this much to have been gathered, documented, and then handed off to a pair of assassins sent after Ivan is something else entirely. It means her existence is no longer a secret. Someone found her and decided she was relevant enough to gather intel on for whatever purpose. That alone changes everything.

Whoever found her needs to be hunted down, but he’s right about the order of priorities. If her cover is compromised, then Italy is no longer a safe place for her to be kept. Our first objective has to be moving her into protective custody before the same hands that armed those shooters reach for her directly.

“Effective immediately, Sofia returns to Moscow,” he says.

I nod once, the motion automatic. “I’ll send a team to Italy. She’ll be under strict rotations the second her plane lands. Enforcers only.”

I’m already moving the pieces by the time the words leave my mouth. Rotating shifts, restricted access at the estate. That will be how we keep this contained. Any outside whisper of her being at the estate, let alone existing, will only complicate things further. Ivan’s gone to great lengths to keep her away from the public eye.

Now that she will be back in Russia, she will be kept behind a perimeter so tight, she won’t be able to sneeze without at least three of our men hearing it.

His eyes lock on mine, unblinking. “The moment her plane touches down on Russian soil, you will be her guard.”

For one rare moment, I do not answer immediately.

Me?

Not a rotation or a detail specifically put together for this task alone… he wants me? What sense does that make? A bodyguard assignment would be time wasted with someone like me. I’m far more valuable elsewhere.

Hunt the men responsible for nearly killing him, trace the leak and tear apart the network that unearthed her, that is useful. Guarding a sheltered woman pulled from a university in Italy because someone finally learned of her existence is not.

“There are far more useful things for me to focus on than babysitting, Pakhan.” The protest comes out quietly.

Ivan does not look away. “You are the only one I trust with this, Rowan.”

My jaw hardens.

While he doesn’t mean for it to feel this way, this job feels less like an assignment and more like a leash being placed around my neck as a punishment. The order hangs between us with no room left to argue.

I stare at him, at the man who pulled me from nothing and made me into something feared and useful. The man who has never once asked me to do something he did not believe I could accomplish.

Every instinct in me reaches for resistance.

Every instinct in me obeys anyway.

I nod only once. “Yes, Pakhan.”

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