Page 16 of Gilded in Blood

I stare at him for a long moment. This is the man whose identity I stole. The man whose life I’m currently wearing like a second skin.

I turn to my man standing guard. “Any update?”

He shakes his bald head. “None, boss.”

“Take the rest of the day off. I’ll take it from here.”

“Thanks, boss,” he grunts.

The moment the door shuts, I turn back to the shackled man.

“Hello, Ilya,” I say quietly. “We meet again.”

CHAPTER SIX

Kirill

After I’m done with Ilya, I spend the rest of the morning working out and trying to get the feel of Milana’s skin out of my mind.

The job was simple at the start. Abduct the real Ilya before he ever reached Milana, keep him out of the picture, and assume his identity.

Everything has gone according to plan.

Michael has kept Konstantin occupied by pulling strings in high places and sabotaging his business. Right now, Konstantin is out of the country trying to figure out why half his winery in Italy suddenly burned to the ground. As long as he's busy putting out fires, he won't be here to verify whether I'm really Ilya.

The last time we spoke on the phone, he called to check if I’d gotten the “package.”

He never suspected a thing.

One of the perks of my job is voice acting. Mimicking accents, speech patterns, even breathing habits comes naturally to me. By the end of the call, Konstantin believed he had spoken to the real Ilya.

Michael wants to bring down the Morozov empire, and he wants to use Milana to do it. He knows her brothers would burn the world to save her. But before he kills her, he wants to use her as leverage to get information.

He wants to take over their businesses, and he needs inside intel. It’s obvious Milana doesn’t know the full extent of her brothers’ dealings. But because her brothers trust Konstantin, that trust extends to me. Her brothers will always be cautious around me, but they’ll discuss certain matters in front of me. Those are the pieces Michael is hoping I deliver before he makes his final move.

His father, Adrian Volkov, was once the vice president of Pantheon, one of the most exclusive societies in the world. Membership isn't something money alone can buy. Heads of state, billionaires, royalty, and the world's most powerful families have spent fortunes, and spilled blood, for the chance to earn a seat at its table.

Normally, having a father in Pantheon would all but guarantee your own place within the society.

Not for Michael. He’s gay, and Pantheon still clings to its outdated traditions. To them, a man like Michael is unfit to join. It doesn't matter that his father was a member and vice president.

They denied him the one thing he'd always believed was his birthright.

Then Maxim came along.

Maxim is the Pakhan of the Orlov Bratva. Dangerous as hell, but not an Orlov by blood. He was adopted into the family as a teenager, something the old men of Pantheon looked down on. To them, bloodlines matter.

For years, they barely acknowledged him. His territory was small, his influence limited, and despite carrying the Orlov name, he wasn't considered a true heir.

Then his empire started growing and he married Calina Morozov. The alliance between the Orlovs and the Morozovs transformed Maxim into one of the most powerful men in the Bratva. His territory expanded, his influence grew, and suddenly the same men who'd dismissed him couldn't ignore him anymore.

Pantheon extended him an invitation. The very invitation Michael had spent his entire life being denied.

As if that wasn't enough, Maxim exposed Adrian's betrayal, stripped him of his position within Pantheon, and, with the help of the Morozovs, killed him.

To Michael, the Morozovs didn’t just murder his father. They stole his legacy. Now he intends to take theirs. He believes he should be sitting in Maxim’s seat at Pantheon.

He’s not going after Maxim directly because over the past two years, Maxim has further fortified his empire. His security is tighter, his organization stronger, and anyone stupid enough to come at him head-on would be signing their own death warrant.