Ivan’s POV
I was deeply engrossed in some office work while my head throbbed with a headache I chose to ignore. Over the past week, I’ve been working nonstop. I’d gone back to Norway for a short period to work from the head office. It’s been a rough month for my family, so I was back here to help with some work stuff before heading back to Russia.
The glass double doors to my office opened, and Sidorov walked in carrying a stack of folders tucked under his arm. “Still haven’t gotten any feedback from our guy?” He asked, dropping the stack of folders on the end of my desk and making himself comfortable in the chair across from me.
“No,” I said. “It’s been just three days, he needs to be careful spying on Smith and I need to be smart about this.”
“Don’t you think you could send an assassin to haunt him down? I don’t think you need to capture him, he’s very important in his country. If we take the risk of taking him alive, we could get busted.”
I pin him with a glare. “I want to torture Smith myself, sending an assassin is way too easy for a man like Smith. I want to cut off his balls and have him eat them, watch him die slowly from the wounds I would inflict on him.”
Since Sidorov had started working for me, I’ve let him in on my plan for Tom Smith. Not willingly though. Seeing as I’d cut ties with Maxim, he and Sasha needed to know what went down, everyone knew Maxim and I had been close since we were teenagers, so making up a silly excuse about our fallout wasn’t an option.
He grinned widely. “You’re brutal and dangerous when you’re cranky,” he said, crossing an ankle over his knee. His expression turned serious. “But let’s be honest, you’re not thinking rationally about this.”
Sidorov was hardworking and he caught on quickly with things around here. He was smart also, but a pain in my ass. My moods and presence didn’t intimidate him at all and he often pretended he didn’t know I was pissed at something.
“Sidorov, I am thinking rationally about this. He’s the reason Andrei is dead and I lost tons of money and owed favours from people I never wanted to associate with so I could cover up the mess he’s made. Killing him off is far too easy. I will not have this conversation again,” I said in a low growl and he threw up his hands in mock surrender.
He pulls out his phone and hands it out to me. “There is a reason I want us to think this over and act rationally. Tom Smith now has a powerful family on his side. One wrong move and we are busted.”
I glanced at the article on his phone screen. And it’s taking me everything not to fling the phone across the room.
There’s a picture of a man who seemed a few years younger than me and across from him was the very person that haunted my dreams. Her stunning face and pretty eyes looked better than I remembered. And she was smiling at her company, my stomach twisted.
Flashes of our time together flood my brain. Memories I’d desperately tried to bury as soon as she had escaped. I’d stayed away from contacting her because I didn’t think it was necessary.
It was just a phase it would pass. I’d told myself.
The information beneath the picture infuriated me even more. “Lord Harry Windsor and Sophia Smith in a relationship? There have been speculations going around about these two. An anonymous source said both of their families had agreed to this union and they might be getting married soon. If this is true as they say, then this was going to be the biggest wedding of the year!”
My grip on the phone tightened as anger coursed through my veins. I didn’t know what made me angrier. Tom Smith outsmarted me by creating this alliance and giving himself a bulletproof or the marriage itself.
Strong hands snatched the phone from my tight grip. “Might want to take it easy there, Ivan. You almost broke my phone,” he groaned.
“How true is this?” I gritted out.
“It is very accurate. I already dug in. Apparently, their engagement party is in two weeks. Once these two get married, Tom Smith will not only have a powerful name as backup but killing him off won’t be easy as an in-law to the Duke, Prince Philip.
Sidorov doesn’t know that wasn’t the only reason I was pissed but he doesn’t need to know that. I already got a lot of shit from Sasha after Maxim had contacted her and told her the whole truth (while asking her to talk me into forgiving him), not the half-truth I fed her and Sidorov.
“Doesn’t matter if he has the devil as his backup plan. He will die by my hands,” I said firmly.
He lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Alright, big guy. Whatever you say, but be careful.”
“You underestimate me, Sid.”
I had made a reservation to travel to London in two weeks to attend Sophia’s engagement party. I wanted to let Smith know he would never be free of me. It doesn’t matter how many alliances he makes, doesn’t matter how powerful he gets. I will get what I want. I wanted to see for myself how he would squirm with discomfort and fear when he saw me. Smith is a coward and he was scared of me, I was sure of that.
“You don’t mean that, do you?” Sasha asked, she was standing in front of me akimbo while her face flushed red with anger. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“You know me better than that,” I said calmly, while I continued reviewing emails on my iPad.
She paced around my bedroom for a few seconds, stopped, and walked up to me. “You can’t just walk into their engagement party! Need I remind you that you were once interrogated about Sophia Smith’s kidnapping? I mean you did kidnap her but that is by the way. Fortunately, she didn’t give your name to the authorities and we have something on Smith so he might not say a word. But for how long? It’s unwise to go to London!”
“I have made my decision, Sasha, do not tempt me. I had a strong alibi, I was interrogated only because I had met up with her on the day of her disappearance. Where’s the proof I was involved? It’s their words against mine and my alibi.”
“Why do you keep getting tangled with her, this is a recipe for disaster!”
“Leave Sophia out of this!” I ordered. “She is not the reason I will be attending. I already explained this to you.”
She huffed. “I didn’t think I’d see the day you become obsessed and smitten with someone.”
“Fuck you! I’m not obsessed or smitten,” I gritted out. “We only had sex, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Mmhmm, I’ll believe it when I see it. What are you going to do? She’s getting married, going there is pointless.” She pointed out.
“I’m not going there because of her. She can marry whoever she wants. I don’t care, I don’t even give a damn about relationships. This cat-and-mouse game with her father will end soon enough and that will be it.”