Chapter 35 Welcome back, Dimitri
Aleksander's POV
Midnight.
The house was quiet in a way that felt almost fake. Too still. Too perfect. Like the calm before a storm that hasn’t decided when it wants to hit.
I hadn’t even tried to sleep.
I told Maria I would.
But I knew I wouldn’t, because who could sleep when retailiation is on my mind.
My office lights were dim, just the glow from the monitors and the low lamp on the corner of my desk. The south wing camera feed stayed up on the largest screen. Her door. Two guards. Rotating exactly how I ordered.
Everything running like a machine.
And still my chest wouldn’t loosen.
A bottle of vodka sat open beside me. Russian. The good kind. The kind that usually burns clean and quiets whatever needs quieting.
Tonight it wasn’t doing a damn thing.
I poured another finger into the Mikasa crystal glass. Heavy. Sharp edges. I like feeling the weight of things in my hand. Reminds me they’re real.
The ice cracked softly.
I leaned back in my chair and took the shot slower this time.
Still nothing.
No calm.
Just the same tight pressure behind my ribs.
Viktor was too patient.
That’s what was bothering me.
He doesn’t test something unless he already knows the answer.
My phone vibrated against the desk, sharp in the silence.
Adam.
I answered immediately.
“Yes.”
“Dimitri is here.”
I didn’t ask why.
Dimitri doesn’t show up at midnight for casual updates.
“Send him.”
I ended the call and stood up, grabbing the glass again. The vodka hit my tongue, but it may as well have been water.
Thirty seconds later the office door opened without a knock.
Dimitri stepped inside.
He didn’t look rattled.
But he looked serious.
That was worse.
“What?” I asked.
He closed the door behind him.
“We confirmed it.”
The room felt smaller.
“Confirmed what.”
“Lennox.”
My jaw tightened.
“Speak clearly.”
He exhaled once.
“Viktor had surveillance inside Lennox Mall. Not random cameras. His own men.”
The glass in my hand stilled.
“How.”
“One of the cleaning contractors is on his payroll. They’ve been feeding him footage for months.”
Months.
I felt something cold slide down my spine.
“And?” I said quietly.
Dimitri didn’t hesitate.
“He saw you. With her.”
Silence stretched so tight it felt like it might snap.
“How much did he see.”
“Enough.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“How much,” I repeated.
He met my eyes.
“Enough to know she matters.”
The air in the room shifted.
No more background hum. No more distant house silence.
Just a pulse in my ears.
“He has footage of you holding her hand. You pushing her against the wall outside. The way you looked at her.”
My fingers tightened around the glass.
“He’s not guessing anymore,” Dimitri continued. “He knows.”
I stared at him.
“Knows what.”
“That she’s not collateral.”
The words landed like a bullet.
“She’s leverage.”
The pressure inside my chest exploded.
Before I even registered the movement, my arm swung.
The Mikasa crystal glass left my hand and shattered against the far wall, exploding into a spray of crystal shards and vodka. The liquid splashed down the cream paint, dripping slowly to the floor.
The sound cracked through the office like a gunshot.
Neither of us flinched.
Vodka slid down the wall in thin streaks.
“Say that again,” I said quietly.
Dimitri didn’t blink.
“He knows she’s more.”
My hands were empty now, but they were shaking with contained force.
“How sure are you.”
“One hundred percent.”
I stepped toward him.
“One hundred percent isn’t enough.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“One hundred and ten.”
Silence.
That’s what did it.
Not the yelling.
Not the threat.
The certainty.
“He had two men tracking your vehicle after you left Lennox,” Dimitri said. “They lost you once you hit I-85 north. But they know you didn’t go back to Alpharetta.”
“Do they know we’re here.”
“No.”
I moved away from him, running my hand through my hair, pacing once across the office.
“Tell me everything.”
“They enhanced footage. He’s been replaying it. Pausing. Zooming. Watching body language.”
My stomach twisted.
“He told one of his lieutenants, and I quote, ‘Aleksander finally has something worth bleeding for.’”
The room went very, very quiet.
I could hear my own breathing.
Worth bleeding for.
I laughed once.
It wasn’t humor.
It was promise.
“He thinks that’s weakness,” I said softly.
Dimitri watched me carefully.
“He thinks you’ll hesitate.”
I turned to him slowly.
“Do you?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
“Not hesitate,” he said. “But you’ll be different.”
Different.
Yes.
More dangerous.
I stepped back to my desk and planted both palms against it, leaning forward.
“Did he say anything else.”
“He’s increasing his movements. Quietly. Moving cash. Relocating two properties.”
Preparing.
“Is he mobilizing men?”
“Not openly.”
Of course not.
Viktor doesn’t charge headfirst.
He squeezes.
“Does he know her name,” I asked.
Dimitri paused.
“We don’t think so.”
Not good enough.
“You don’t think,” I repeated.
“We intercepted chatter. They refer to her as ‘the girl.’”
I exhaled slowly through my nose.
Still time.
But not much.
“He’s confident,” Dimitri said carefully. “Too confident.”
“He believes I will protect her instead of retaliate.”
“Yes.”
A slow, cold smile spread across my face.
“Then he does not know me.”
Dimitri’s expression shifted.
Because he does know me.
I walked toward the monitor wall and pulled up the south wing camera again.
Her door.
Closed.
Still.
Asleep.
Unaware.
The vodka dripped from the wall behind me, hitting the floor in soft, steady drops.
“He wants to make me defensive,” I said quietly. “He wants me reactive.”
Dimitri nodded.
“Then we don’t react.”
I turned to him fully.
“We escalate.”
His eyes darkened slightly.
“How.”
“We make him feel watched.”
“He already feels that.”
“No,” I corrected. “We make him feel hunted.”
The word hung between us.
I walked past the shattered glass, crunching a piece beneath my shoe.
“Activate secondary teams,” I ordered. “I want eyes on every property he’s touched in the last six months.”
“That’s aggressive.”
“Yes.”
“And Maria?”
My jaw tightened at the sound of her name in this context.
“No changes,” I said. “She stays here. No movement. No deviation from protocol.”
“And if he tries to send a message?”
I looked at Dimitri long and slow.
“If he sends a message,” I said calmly, “I send one back.”
He held my gaze.
“And what does that look like.”
I stepped closer to him.
“It looks like Viktor waking up to discover something he loves has disappeared.”
Dimitri didn’t argue.
He didn’t need to.
He knows what I am capable of.
He also knows I don’t threaten without follow-through.
Behind us, vodka continued to drip down the wall, soaking into the rug below.
I glanced once more at the monitor.
“On dumayet, chto nashol moyu slabost,” I muttered under my breath.
He thinks he’s found my weakness.
Dimitri’s voice was low when he answered.
“But he found your line.”
Exactly.
And no one crosses my line without consequence.
Not even a rival boss.
Especially not one who thinks he understands me.
War had just shifted from possibility to certainty.
And Viktor had no idea what he had just set in motion.