Chapter 4: Artem

Shame. I was just starting to enjoy her company, the beauty who had mistaken me for a certain Chris.

At first, I didn't know I was the one she was looking at—the one she was headed toward. I did see her walking in my direction, but I assumed that there was someone behind me she was getting ready to meet. She seemed rather nervous, and I noticed that the heels she had on were hurting her feet even though she did an excellent job at masking how uncomfortable she was in them.

It took me less than a second to recognize that she was the same girl—the innocent one with a beautiful face who I had seen standing all by herself before Yuri stole my attention.

My brows rose when she stopped in front of me and flashed the prettiest smile I'd seen in a long time. She called me Chris; I didn't know who the fuck that was, but she thought I was him. The girl looked at me with a puzzled expression like this Chris guy was supposed to have known who she was.

I decided to be this character; I was Chris, and there was a gorgeous girl who needed me to remember her. I had to play along. I wanted to play along. Yuri was still getting things ready and would inform me once it was time, meaning right now, I was free to be this Chris for her.

"I'm Madelyn's best friend, Sierra. That should ring a bell," she said, clearly hoping I would remember her now.

This was my window to jump into character and see where this would go.

"Ohh. Sierra. Right," I said, grinning at her innocence and naivety. "How are you?"

It was fun indulging her in a conversation in the disguise of someone I'd never met before. From what I could tell, this Madelyn girl was Chris's girlfriend, and Sierra was supposed to come over and say hello to him.

She was so cute and charming, oblivious to my games.

This little time we spent talking was enough to get a better look at her. She was definitely shy, but her skin was glowing, and her eyes had a spark in them that ignited something in me. Her lips were cherry red, and her dentition was perfect. She smiled a lot, and each dose made an attempt to melt my stone-cold heart.

Sierra was absolutely stunning and elegant in every way, and although she stuttered at intervals, I knew that was only because she was nervous. The girl was divine and had somehow managed to bring out the improv actor in me. It felt good playing this Chris—whoever he was—but my mind was still on the mission. She was so gorgeous that I couldn't stop staring at her.

I watched her cheeks flush when I told her that her friend had told me she was beautiful.

"She told me you were beautiful. But she didn't tell me you were this beautiful." I meant every single word I said.

"Thank you." A radiant smile spread across her face. "You're not so bad yourself."

"Oh, I highly doubt that," I said, catching those green eyes of hers.

They were a beautiful few seconds, and we both stared at each other in silence. However, this was just a little distraction, no matter how comforting it might seem. I jerked my eyes toward the couple walking up to us.

"Sierra," the girl, whose arm was locked in a young man's, called out.

The moment Sierra turned to answer, I spotted Yuri across the room. He'd found Nelson McCall, and now, it was time for business. Without a word, I left Sierra and walked away.

"Where is he?" I asked Yuri, adjusting my suit as we stepped out of the club.

"The men have him in an alley at the back," he replied, leading the way while I quietly followed.

"Do you know who I am?" The arrogance in Mr. McCall's voice was glaring as he struggled against my men who had him held down in the darkness of the alley. "I will fucking kill you! You're as good as dead, you hear me?!"

"Shut the fuck up." One of them threw a punch that turned the man's head, silencing him in an instant.

" Pakhan ," the one who had thrown the powerful blow said, acknowledging my presence.

I halted in from the target with Yuri by my side.

"Hold on, ‘ Pakhan ?'" Mr. McCall's voice trembled at the realization of whom he was dealing with. "Fuck, you're Russian Bratva."

"And you're a fucking dead man," Yuri said to him.

All at once, his demeanor changed. "No, please. I'll do anything," he began, his figure shuddering in the dark. "Whatever they're paying you, I'll double it—triple it! Please ."

"Where's your arrogance now?" I asked him.

He swallowed hard and attempted to get to his feet.

"Stay the fuck down." The previous guy threw another punch that knocked out Mr. McCall's tooth.

" Please ," he slurred, spitting out both the tooth and blood. "Show mercy."

"Mercy?" I asked, kneeling down to his level. "You mean like you showed that girl you killed at the hotel?"

"Wh—what?" he stuttered.

I was silent, giving him some time to recall the incident.

"Fuck!" He slapped his forehead. "Are you talking about the incident with the stripper?"

My silence was a yes.

"That was five months ago! Jesus Christ, I thought—"

"You thought what?" I cut him off. "Hmm? That you were going to get away with it?"

"What does it matter anyway? She was just a fucking stripper, no one of consequence," he said defensively.

Yuri laughed lightly. "You're even a bigger idiot than I thought."

He was right; Nelson McCall was indeed a fool to still think the girl he'd murdered was a nobody, considering that we were there for the death of that same girl.

"You fucked and murdered the wrong girl, Mr. McCall, and now our client wants you dead for it," I declared.

His face paled further, and his eyes bulged as he scrambled for another excuse. "I swear, I didn't think that anyone would even come looking for her! I didn't know anyone would trace her death back to me!" The words burst out of him in a nervous rush.

"You really are an idiot," Yuri said.

"Fuck, it was five months ago," he said. "Why wait that long to exert revenge?"

Our client wanted it this way so he would think he was in the clear, that he was safe, and that he had gotten away with it. They hadn't wanted him to see this coming, and it worked; he hadn't.

"Do you even remember her name, Mr. McCall?" I asked.

He started stuttering in an attempt to recall it, but he couldn't. "I swear, it was an accident. I didn't mean to kill her! Please, you have to believe me," he begged.

"It doesn't matter what I believe. What matters is that you pissed off a lot of powerful people, Mr. McCall. And that comes with a price—a heavy one," I said.

"Please, name your price! I'll get it for you. Name anything you want, any amount at all, and I swear to God, it's yours. Just don't kill me."

I hated cowards, especially pigs like Mr. McCall, who was so arrogant and proud, but in the face of danger, he was nothing more than a pussy. I had dealt with his type countless times before, those who thought they could buy their way out of everything. Idiots.

With a nod in Yuri's direction, he walked over to Mr. McCall and halted behind him, placing a blade to the man's throat.

"Come on, you don't have to do this. We can settle this like civilized people. I have the money," he said, his voice wobbling with fear for his life.

"Your money is useless, Mr. McCall," I said. "It can't save you this time."

"No, no, no! Please…."

" Ubey yego ," I gave the order, and it literally meant, kill him .

Yuri nodded, and while Mr. McCall was still begging for his life, he slit his throat with one deep slice across his neck. Reflexively, Mr. McCall's hands flew to his bleeding esophagus as he choked on his own blood, his mouth filled with the same. He was struggling, wheezing, and straining as his body trembled.

I watched the life drain out of him, and soon, his now limp body fell face down at my feet.

There was suddenly a fearful gasp from the other end of the alley, followed by the sound of something dropping out of a hand. Someone had watched this happen, and I frowned at whoever was unlucky enough to have witnessed it.

The witness stepped on a twig, and it snapped beneath their foot, forcing my eyes to turn in their direction.

Yuri was about to go check it when I signaled him to stand down.

I wanted to handle this on my own, so I headed out of the alley. I was just in time to catch a girl bending over to pick up her phone. Her hands were shaking, as was her entire body. For her sake, I hoped she didn't get that on camera—it was dark in the alley anyway, so she couldn't have seen anything.

She picked up her phone and tried to run away when I grabbed her wrist and spun her around under the overhead lights.

Fuck. It was her, the girl from inside the club.

She looked at me with terror in her eyes as I tugged her close to me.

"Curiosity isn't a sin, Sierra," I said, tightening my grip around her wrist. "But it kills the cat."

"You…you killed that man," she whimpered with tears in her eyes. "You killed him in cold blood. You're a monster." She tried to squirm out of my hold, but it was impossible to do so.

I scoffed. "I've been called worse, trust me. And you shouldn't tell a monster to his face that he's a monster. Unless, of course, you wanna die."

"Let go of me," she said, her voice almost a whisper, as she hit me with her free hand, fighting to escape my hold.

"Can't do that, sweetheart." I caught her flying hand, joined it with the other, and placed my large palm around them.

Both her hands were trapped behind her back, and I pulled her closer to myself, her breasts grazing against my chest with each move she made.

"What're gonna do to me?" she asked, searching my eyes as though they held the answers she needed.

I smirked and revealed my pistol.

"Oh, my God." She gasped, and her eyes widened as she resumed her feeble struggle against my strength.

"Stay put," I said, positioning the barrel of the gun under her chin, and she immediately stopped moving. "I'd hate to squeeze this trigger and blow your brains out. Literally."

She swallowed hard, and I could almost smell her fear. Her heart was racing, and her breathing grew heavier by the second.

Even when scared, she still looked so beautiful.

I flashed her a sly grin, and the next moment, I knocked her out with the base of the gun. "Nightie night, Sierra."

Her eyes shut, and her head fell backward as she drifted unconscious, out like a light.

**********

"Take her to the room upstairs," I instructed the man carrying Sierra on his shoulder.

He nodded and dematerialized.

I noticed the way Yuri had been looking at me since I handed her unconscious body to my men, but I wasn't ready for a sermon from him about what I should or should not do.

Settling on the plush sofa in my living room, I signaled the maid to fetch me a bottle of vodka. Yuri sat on the couch across from me, and although he was silent, his countenance was speaking. I just wasn't listening.

"She should be in the grave, not in a master bedroom," he said, finally opening his mouth to speak actual words. "That's the rule, and you know it. No witnesses."

The maid returned and poured me a glass before disappearing.

I ignored him and took a sip, crossing my legs as I relaxed on the sofa, its fine leather crunching under my weight.

He was right about the rules. Bratva operated by a set of rules—codes—and one of them was that we never left loose ends. Our assassination jobs were always done in high secrecy, and whoever was a witness would eventually end up as collateral damage. There were no witnesses.

"You've always respected the rules, Pakhan , never broke any." Yuri leaned closer. "I'm just curious why you're breaking one now."

I still didn't respond.

"The men look up to you as an example, and this…this isn't a good example."

I frowned at him; he was starting to overstep.

" Pakhan , Nelson McCall was a fucking politician, a public figure," he said, trying to remind me of the gravity of the situation. "If word gets out that we did it, it could lead to an all-out war, and don't forget that I was the one who killed him." He sighed. "We should end her life, not treat her like a damsel in distress."

I'd had enough, my heart now racing as my stomach churned with irritation.

"Enough, Yuri!" I snarled, tossing him a stern look. "You've made your point. You can shut up now."

Clearly, he saw that I was annoyed by his words and immediately apologized. "I never meant to question you or undermine your authority. I just wanted to remind you of what's at stake here."

"Here." I dropped her ID card on the table between us, slamming it down harder than necessary. "It was in her purse. I need you to run a background check on her. I want everything you can find on Sierra Lane. Everything ."

He picked it up and gave a subtle nod.

Sierra Lane had walked into my web and was now tangled up in it. When I finally had the answers I needed, whatever decisions I made would happen. For now, let her rest upstairs.