Chapter 33 HER FLUSHED CHEEKS.
\~~~LUCIANO MORETTI.
Viktor stood in front of my desk, his shoulders squared, and his hands behind his back like he always did.
He was calm, silent, and yeah, deadly.
He was my perfect shadow.
I leaned back in my chair, tapping my fingers on the armrest.
“Well?” I asked.
“We found him,” Viktor replied, his voice low and steady. “He tried to cross the border last night.”
Of course he did.
“And the others?” I kept my eyes on him.
“Handled,” Viktor said with no flicker of emotion. “There won’t be any more loose ends.”
I nodded once. Viktor had never failed.
I have known this dude for over a decade, and he is still my best man.
“Is he at the warehouse?” I asked. “I want to talk to him myself.”
“Yes, boss.”
Silence stretched between us for a moment. Viktor never spoke unless spoken to. He was trained that way, shaped that way and it was one of the reasons I had kept him close.
Finally, he looked at me.
“You seem… off today.”
I raised a brow. “Off?”
“Distracted,” he clarified. “Not like you.”
I scoffed quietly. Viktor was the only man who would dare say such a thing in my presence and still live to see another sunrise.
“It is nothing,” I said.
But he didn’t look convinced. Viktor wasn’t stupid.
He had seen Raina storm out to work this morning without so much as glancing in my direction.
He had seen the way my jaw clenched.
Viktor shifted slightly. “Want me to keep an eye on her?”
“No,” I said sharply.
Then, after a moment…
“No. Not yet.”
Another second of silence.
“Is it the Monroes?” Viktor asked. “Their little stunt yesterday? Heard you visited.”
My jaw tightened.
“Arthur Monroe thinks he can hide things from me,” I muttered. “He thinks lying is a sport.”
Viktor’s lips twitched, the closest thing to a smirk he ever showed.
“Do you want me to dig?”
“Dig,” I said. “And bring me whatever you find.”
Not like he hasn't done all the digging that he could.
Viktor nodded.
He turned to leave, but paused with a smack.
“And your wife?” he asked. “Should I—”
“She is not your concern,” I cut him off. “I will handle her myself.”
He nodded once and then turned to leave but my voice stopped him again, “Viktor.”
“Boss,” he returned to me.
“What did you think about her?”
Viktor’s facial expression remained the same as he shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“Boss.”
I didn't need anyone to tell me what was going through his head.
Viktor, just like me, noticed immediately that Raina was fake.
He knew instantly that she was not Talia, and after the wedding, he told me.
And then, I told him I knew too.
“I don’t like her.”
“Have you ever liked anyone?” I raised my brows, chuckling darkly.
“You are not taking me seriously. We need to torture her. She will spill the truth if you let me interrogate her.”
“She is my wife, Viktor."
“And yes, I respect her as your wife and my madam.”
“But it doesn’t change the fact that her family had switched the bride. And you know, boss, you know that Monroe has never been up to any good. After everything they have done to your family, I think…”
“Viktor,” I cut him short.
Viktor was a man of few words, but if prompted, he would explain to you why the moon comes out at night, and not during the day.
“What if she is like her father?” His tone softened.
“And I’ll treat her the exact way I’d treat her father.”
Viktor hesitated again.
That alone irritated me. Viktor never hesitated.
“Boss,” he said quietly, “I am afraid you are not thinking this straight.”
My jaw flexed, slow and deliberate.
“Careful.”
“I am being honest,” he said, lifting his eyes to meet mine as I stood up. “You are protecting her too much for someone we both know is a threat.”
I stepped toward him.
Just one step, enough to force him to drop his gaze.
“You think I don’t see the way she lies?” I asked.
“No, boss. I think you see it too well.” He looked at me. “But you don’t care.”
A slow, humorless smile curved my lip.
“Viktor… if I didn’t care about the lies, Monroe’s entire bloodline would already be fertilizer.”
He swallowed.
“She is not Talia,” he reminded me.
“I know.”
My voice dropped.
“And yet she is still my wife.”
Viktor nodded once, firm, professional again.
“I will keep an eye on her.”
“You will keep your distance,” I corrected. “She answers to me. Only me.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, but he obeyed.
“As you wish, boss.”
He turned to leave , but something tugged in my mind, a quiet, persistent thought I didn’t trust.
Raina wasn’t Talia.
She wasn’t honest.
And she wasn’t innocent.
But the real problem was simple.
She didn’t fear me the way she should.
And I didn’t hate her the way I needed to.
For the first time since morning, I allowed myself to think about her.
Her flushed cheeks, her trembling hands, and the way her voice cracked when she tried to tell me off.
Raina Marielle fucking Monroe.
A headache. A complication. And a problem I should have never entertained.
So why the hell couldn’t I stop thinking about her?