Page 58 of Twisted Pact

“This seems excessive,” she comments as we pull away from the estate.

“It’s necessary.”

“Six armed men to escort me to a class presentation?”

“I’m doing what I need to do to ensure you aren’t kidnapped by people who are willing to pay eighty million rubles for you and your sister.”

She falls quiet and stares out the window. I watch her take in the scenery, trees, and buildings. The normal life happening outside her protected bubble.

“I missed this,” she admits. “Just seeing the world. Being part of it instead of watching from a distance.”

“I know.”

“Do you? Because sometimes I wonder if you understand what isolation does to a person.”

“I understand better than you think.”

She cranes her neck to look at me. “How?”

“My father kept me and Dmitri locked away for six months when I was sixteen. Security threat. Someone wanted us dead. We lived in a compound with guards and no contact with the outside world except through monitored channels.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Most people don’t. My father kept it quiet. But I remember what it felt like. The walls closing in. The desperate need for any taste of normalcy.”

“How did you survive it?”

I shrug. “Books, mostly. And knowing it was temporary. That eventually the threat would be neutralized, and life would return to normal. Though normal is relative in our world.”

We arrive at the university and park in a secure lot near the building where Mila’s presentation takes place. I scan the area while the team forms a protective formation around us.

“Stay close,” I tell her. “Don’t wander off. If anything feels wrong, tell me immediately.”

“I know the drill.”

We enter the building and head to the third floor. Students fill the hallways. Backpacks. Laughter. The energy of people who don’t live under a constant threat.

Mila lights up as we walk. Like she’s tasting freedom for the first time in months.

She greets classmates and smiles at professors. For a few minutes, she’s a graduate student preparing for a presentation instead of a protected asset.

We reach the conference room where her presentation will take place. I position Boris and Nikita at the entrance while Denis and Anton take posts at alternate exits. I remain inside the room near the back.

Mila sets up her materials, connects her laptop to the projector, and runs through her slides. She’s so confident. Completely in her element.

Then, I see him.

A young man enters the room. Mid-twenties. Expensive clothes. The kind of confidence that comes from money and status. He heads straight for Mila with a smile that makes my hands form fists.

“Mila? I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks.”

She whirls around, and her face goes totally blank. “Nikolay. Hi.”

Nikolay.

The name registers immediately. Novikov. One of Maxim’s younger cousins. Part of the family that’s been threatening Mila and organizing bounties for her capture.

From the looks of it, she knows him. Personally.