Page 33 of Dark Embers

Syd blinks from behind him, stunned that I knew she’d been tailing me for over a week.

Oleksi doesn’t answer. He just watches me.

I spin on my heel and walk to the elevator, hoping he doesn’t see how my legs tremble. I hold myself together until I reach my car. Once I’m out of the Diamond Hotel’s reach, I pull into a quiet spot near the block and burst into tears.

I don’t cry because I lost my job. I cry because I now know exactly what he’s capable of.

And the worst part?

I still wanted him to be someone different.

But this is who he really is. And I’ll never forget it.

CHAPTER 15

Oleksi

I stand there like a fucking statue, rooted to the polished marble as Sabrina walks away from me. Her head held high, her hips swaying with the kind of defiant grace that makes me want to grab her and pull her back. But I don’t. I just watch.

Something fractures inside me, clean and sharp like glass under a boot heel. It’s not rage, not exactly. It’s not jealousy either. It’s something deeper—something I haven’t felt since I was twenty-two years old, standing on the edge of a fountain with a diamond ring burning a hole in my hand and Judy Volkov telling me no.

I thought that was the worst feeling in the world. That twist of humiliation. The bitterness of rejection.

But this?

This is worse.

Because with Sabrina… I didn’t just want her. I needed her. I’m obsessed with her.

And I underestimated her.Badly.

I thought I could mold her. Train her. Possess her. But she’s nothing like the girls I’ve broken before. She’s intelligent, feral in her strength, fucking brilliant when backed into a corner. That damn video footage. The legal jargon. The way she didn’t even flinch when she dropped her threats like a blade across my throat.

She’s got me by the balls and we both know it.

I can still feel the echo of her voice in the room. The way her lips curled around the word, “Checkmate.”

And what scares me more than her threats? What rattles me to the core?

She just walked away.

She walked the fuck away—and I had nothing to hold her here with.

Unless…

My mind drifts.Elena. The daughter I never knew Sabrina had until this morning. She’s another mystery. Sabrina’s protective armor cracked when she mentioned her.Could Elena be the key? Who is the father? The mysteriously dangerous Marco?

The name makes my spine stiffen. I don’t know who the fuck Marco is, but whoever he is… he scares me just as much asshe does because now I have some fucking black hat’s eyes on me. As if I didn’t have enough to contend with.

I’m still reeling, trying to stitch my thoughts into something resembling a plan when—

“Are you out of your fucking mind?”

The sharp female voice cuts through the air like a whip. I turn slowly, my jaw ticking.

Judy Volkov stands just inside the suite, arms folded, eyes blazing.

Speak of the devil and you’re sure to tramp on his tail. “When the fuck did you get here?”

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