𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐎 𝐔𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 - 𝟏𝟖+

T H I R T E E N

N I K O L A I

Moscow, Russia

Keira was hiding more than what I could've initially anticipated, maybe it was the love still simmering in my veins that I kept giving her the benefit of the doubt, but if the events of the day had taught me one thing—it was that Keira wasn't to be trusted. No matter how much my insides bled for her, I had to neglect the sorrowful screams of my heart to survive because in this world you were either the hunter or the prey, and I couldn't afford to be double-crossed by her all over again.

I was tired of being a pawn in her debauchery. I wasn't a pawn. I was the cheater, I was the killer, I was the fucking mastermind, and it was about time I started exploiting it. I had to save my empire, and if it meant I had to sacrifice Keira, then so be it. She hadn't batted an eyelash before she sacrificed my love for power, she didn't deserve anything but my hatred. She desired me, and I would be a fool to not want her, I did, my cock hardened just with the thought of her, perhaps I should stop denying my needs. Keira wasn't a woman I could break by force, I'd hurt her, but only when she'd beg for it, and beg she would.

Alexei sat in front of my desk, rubbing his hand on her jaw, still surprised that she shot the sniper so easily. Why would she give up the only source of information she had... unless she'd already heard everything she needed to hear.

"I don't get her, Nikolai, she's fucking you over, but then why would she save you...?" His voice faded in the quietude of the room, and I straightened wondering the same thing.

"Perhaps to earn your trust?" Ivan added, his eyes narrowed as he contemplated. I would agree with him, but I just knew it wasn't that. Keira needed me for something, I just had to figure out what.

"No," I forced myself out of my thoughts, "She needs my forces. And I need to find out what she needs it for. It is deeper than what I'd imagined, it has something to do with her parents. What happened to the founders?" I arched my brow at Ivan, knowing he'd have this information for me, or he'd get it for me.

"Do you think it's related to them?"

"I know it is. It has something to do with the twins' father, and Ivan I need you to dig up all the pages of the fucking Pentagon's history. I need to know every little detail, dig up all the skeletons, I need them laid open on my table so I can bury this generation of the Pentagon for good this time." For the first time I had a lead, and this time I would throw Keira's secrets in her face, and watch her walls finally crumble as they'd take her down with them.

"You haven't lost your touch after all," Alexei breathed out, his eyes narrowed at me if only he knew I wasn't fucking Keira. Not yet anyway. She was tied to me by something much worse. Something sacred that turned sinister because of her lies. She tainted our vows, and now I would do the same to her.

"What do you mean?" Ivan probed, he didn't know anything about Alexei's assumptions yet, but he soon would. Alexei and Ivan took more liberties than most of my men and that was because I considered them my brothers, and I knew their loyalty was mine.

"He's fucking her," Alexei turned his head my way, his lips curling in distaste.

"She seems too smart to come to your bed without any ulterior motive, Nikolai," Ivan noted, as always being the voice of reason.

"I know, and I haven't forgotten that she's a snake, but all venoms have antidotes, and I know one for her kind." It was me. It would always be me. I knew that because despite all of her lies, all of the ways she broke me she did it in the name of love, and while I loathed her for it, it was also my leverage over her.