Page 75 of Twisted Proposal

"All quiet, sir."

"Good. Let me know if that changes or she tries to go somewhere. No one comes in here tonight. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." He nodded, and I headed down to the lobby. There were three more I passed before I got to the man at the front desk. Ivan had worked for my family for years, as had his father. There was no one I trusted more.

"You have your orders," I said, and he nodded and opened the door for me.

The brisk DC air cut through the fine wool of my coat, but I took a minute to savor it. The cold was a welcome relief against my overheated skin. Maybe it would calm the fire raging through my veins.

The cold air was in stark contrast to the heat between Viktoria and me.

With her, I could never tell the exact moment when the heat turned from anger to passion or back again. I was just as swept up in it as she was. Tonight I'd sleep without her body curled against mine. The thought left me aching and hollow.

The shrill ring of my phone cut through the quiet night and I answered it, not even bothering to look at who was calling.

"What?" I said as I climbed into my car.

My mind was still upstairs with her, imagining her stripping off that dress, sliding naked between the sheets.

Pavel's voice was on the other end. His tone was emotionless, professional. That was never a good sign. "We have a problem."

CHAPTER24

ARTEM

"What happened?" I asked, cold and direct as I stormed into Gregor's home office.

Kostya and Pavel were already there, faces tense and arms crossed, staring down at Mikhail and Damien. They looked as pissed off as I felt.

Gregor himself sat in a large wingback leather chair, staring into the fireplace. The red and orange flames cast eerie shadows over his face that were probably very useful when he was trying to intimidate a rival, or even a subordinate who fucked up.

I wasn't a rival; I was family.

My father taught me the same dramatic methods. I also wasn't the one who fucked up, so his little intimidation tricks were fucking useless.

"Solovyov," Gregor answered, his focus staying on the dancing flames in front of him.

"I know Solovyov." I rolled my eyes, not giving a fuck about the sign of disrespect. If there were more than just family here, it would have been different... probably. "What did that motherfucker do now?"

Different ideas and scenarios all flowed through my head. Did he turn someone important to his side? Did he actually kill a congressman or a senator, ruining some lucrative government contract?

Clearly whatever he was up to had made an impact, but I needed to know what the fuck that impact was before I could deal with it. It must have been dire to call me away from Viktoria. I had given strict orders not to be disturbed all night. If the evening had gone to plan, I would've been balls deep in my little princess when the phone rang for this urgent meeting.

The night may not have gone as planned, but Gregor didn't need to know that. Neither did my brothers.

Everyone was silent for another moment, the tension growing thick. Which meant it was bad enough that the others felt it was up to Gregor to tell me, and he was pausing for dramatic flair.

Jesus, next he'd be playing Russian roulette with an unloaded gun again.

"What was so important I had to drop everything?" I said. What little patience I had evaporated.

"He hired a team that we had a contract with."

"Okay..." I said, not understanding why that was so shocking I had to race over here.

We rarely used independent contractors, preferring to keep most business within the family. Even when we hired them, none of our contractors handled the larger, or important, tasks.

Protecting our women, protecting the estate, even the team that ran the drug shipments and the lawyers that handled our business interests were, if not family, close enough. They were part of our crew. Not independent contractors.