Page 114 of Twisted Proposal

It was the best meal of my life, and not just because the food was incredible.

Over dinner, we talked. Really talked.

He told me about how he had met Dima, and what he thought. I shared a few childhood memories. He even asked me why I wanted to study Political Science.

This dinner was everything our first dinner wasn't.

There were no servers scared of him, no bellboys keeping their heads low, reminding him who he was. No talk of creepy professors or drunk frat boys.

The dinner would have been perfect, except no matter what we talked about, there was still this tension that I wouldn't let go of. I had to constantly remind myself who he was and what he did.

There were little reminders everywhere. The shifting of the light under the door as the security guards on the other side moved. The way his gestures just seemed a little too calculated.

At first I thought they were to disarm me, but the longer the night went on, the more it seemed like he was trying to show interest, to show affection, and they weren't calculated as much as unpracticed.

The entire night, he was attentive and caring; by the end, something fundamental between us had changed.

When I looked at him, I didn't see the monster who traded lives like they were playing cards.

I saw the man who loved his family, who created jobs and often beat people at their own game.

I saw the man who was born into a violent life who had to make hard choices.

Somehow, he had made me see beyond the bloodshed to the man.

I couldn't tell what was real, what was a carefully constructed manipulation, or what was his true self.

That terrified me more than anything else—the possibility that I was falling for a fiction, a calculated performance designed to break me.

Or worse, that I was falling for the real man behind the monster.

CHAPTER36

ARTEM

The silence of the estate shattered with the sharp crack of gunfire.

The sound jolted me from my sleep. Instinctively, I reached for Viktoria, but she wasn't there.

She should have been in bed next to me, fast asleep, but she was gone. My heart pounded as more shots were fired.

I grabbed the pistol that was fixed to the bottom of the bedside table and checked that it was loaded.

First, I had to find Viktoria; I had to get her safe, secured, and then I would deal with the intruders.

My phone buzzed on the table. I grabbed it to see a message from Gregor.

Gregor: The compound has been compromised.

No shit.

Gregor: Damien says there is a guard they paid off, so they got past all of security until they reached the house you're in. I'm sending backup, once the others are secured.

I didn't bother with getting dressed.

After dinner, Viktoria and I had more wine and talked late into the night.

When I brought her to bed, she was more than a little tipsy.