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Josef Vinogradov—head of the security team that was in charge of protecting Venera samples and overseeing its circulation.
Andrei Belov—my logistics consigliere. The man responsible for recruiting an entire apparatus of dealers and delivery services to inject Venera into the lifeblood of the city.
All of them have something to lose by working against me, so it doesn’t make sense that they would fuck up an operation with massive personal payouts. Still,someonehad a motive. It may not be obvious right now, but that’s only because my perspective is incomplete. I don’t haveallthe information.
But I can smell it.
Right there in front of me.
Just out of reach, but getting closer by the day.
“I’m not accusing anyone in this room. Yet. But I do think that we need to keep a close eye on Adrik Makarov.”
“Wasn’t Kirill supposed to be doing that?” My father meets my eyes for the first time during this meeting. “Speaking of your second, he’s not here. He’s never missed a meeting before.”
He’s right. Kirill should be here. And he better have a good fucking reason for—
Speak of the devil.
When the door swings open to reveal him, Kirill’s face is somber. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone as he walks in and heads straight for me. He doesn’t make apologies, either.
Which can only mean one thing—trouble.
He leans in, his lips close to my ear, and whispers, “Something came up.” I nod, giving him permission to continue. “It’s Emma.”
That’s all he needs to say. Before I know it, I’m out of my seat and flying towards the door.
“Ruslan?” Vadim’s voice is stunned, but I ignore it and storm out of the boardroom.
Kirill trails right behind me, shadowing my furious walk down the hall. I wait until we’ve turned the corner and there’s no chance of Vadim or anyone else in the boardroom being able to spy on us. Then I whirl around to face Kirill.
“What the fuck happened?”
He holds up his hands to pacify me. “First of all, she’s okay. But she did have a fainting spell.”
Kirill’s reassurance ought to calm me down, but as it turns out, it doesn’t do shit.I need to see her myself.“She fainted?”
“Yes. I had the doctor come to give her a check-up when she came to.”
“And?”
“Her blood pressure is high. There is a risk—to both her and the child.”
An angry growl bursts through my clenched teeth. I need to fuckingdosomething. I need to break shit. I need to use my fists. I need to do some real damage. Every time I think I’m in control, something happens—almost always involving that frustrating littlekiska—that reminds me it’s all just an illusion.
I can’t even fucking yell about it because, other than Kirill, no one knows that Emma’s pregnant. I have no doubt Fyodor and Vadim will be pleased, albeit for very different reasons, but it’s not information I’m inclined to share just yet.
It’s all too much right now and I don’t want any of my uncle’s unsolicited advice or my father’s long-winded speeches about the importance of family.
What I need right now is to make sure Emma is alright.
But considering the way I left things…
“Fuck!” I snarl as I resume moving down the corridor towards my office.
“Ruslan,” Kirill snaps, chasing after me, “wait!”
I don’t wait. I’m already pissed off that Kirill was the one to handle this situation.Ishould have been there.Ishould have been the one to call the doctor.
