Chapter 264: He’s Crazy… But He’s Mi—

[FROLO]

A new routine was slowly forming for both Katya and the senator. It seemed harmless, one so simple, yet one that was starting to prove dangerous.

They made time for each other, sure, but they spent their time quieter around each other than before.

Dinners were lonelier when they were together than when they were alone. It was a stark contrast to what they had both hoped it would be like.

The relationship that had since been strong was now almost a replica of what had once existed for them.

Alek was barely home thanks to his association with the Bratva, and the fact that he was a senator didn’t help either, because his schedule was more packed than ever.

Honestly, Katya should have seen this coming, but he’d lulled himself into a false sense of hope. That all would be better. That they had basically gone through everything at this point, and there was nothing that could pull them apart.

It was every partner’s dream.

To finally have stability.

To finally live life in love.

But that was not how it was going for both Alek and Katya.

"I’ll be home early today," Alek had said one too many times, only to come home in the morning of the next day, exhausted out of his mind.

Alek came home to Katya’s penthouse more than he went home to his senatorial residence. Katya had no questions about it because this man was his boyfriend.

What could go wrong, no?

"Let’s have lunch later today," Katya would suggest, and Alek wouldn’t even show up. Worse, he would forget that he’d had plans with Katya.

And slowly, they got used to each other’s absences. Transitioned into the kind of normal that was frightening. The kind that they were desperately still trying to save their relationship through.

Alek got busier.

The kind of busy that Katya couldn’t even compete with. The Senate reforms needed a lot of the senators’ time, especially with the by-elections for the dead senators already gearing up.

It was the right expectation, but frankly, Katya hadn’t imagined what life with a politician would be like eventually.

He’d fallen in love with Aleksandr the person years ago, not the senator. And they’d been steady for almost three years now.

But lately...

Lately, it was damn hard to even find time to be with each other.

"Do you have a minute?" sometimes Alek would call, and Katya, however angry he was with the distance growing between them, always had time.

Of course, the man was his boyfriend.

Of course, he still loved him.

Of course, he wanted their relationship to work. But relationships took a lot of effort, and with both of them slowly getting busy, it wasn’t an easy thing.

So, Katya, in his loneliness, found solace in the one thing he’d tried not to let consume his life.

His job.

Took on more responsibilities because cold dinners and an emptier house without Alek were just hell for him. Even if the penthouse was his.

Katya even went to live at the senator’s residence for a month, but it was all the same.

And now they lived in their respective homes.

Homes that stayed empty on both ends because their owners were too busy to even fret about the cold beds anymore.

Around them, the Frolo landscape was changing, as Katya had noticed.

Maybe because for the first time, Katya wasn’t standing on the other side of the protective door of the marriage he’d been a part of for five years.

Maybe because this time he was seeing things as they were.

That, beyond the colorful, beautiful city of Frolo that only had Sergei Moskowsky to worry about, was a darker, more insane world that not many knew of or even talked about.

A world that he’d been introduced to the moment he learned of the Bratva.

Katya had done his homework alright.

He’d made sure to know everything there was to know about the Bratva in case he needed to save Aleksandr again. Or in case things got so bad and the Bratva needed things from Alek.

He was doing it to protect his boyfriend.

To find enough leverage and even to understand the way the bratva worked, so he could prepare himself and make sure his boyfriend was safe.

But what he found there stripped away every ounce of innocence he’d been holding when he did a simple search of the Kumarin Bratva.

He’d learned about syndicates, about murders for hire, about the dark side of Frolo.

Funny how all those resources were on the internet all this time, and he’d never paid attention to them.

But to be fair, he never had any reason to be scared or worried about there being a whole other side of the madness in Frolo.

And in his research that had led him to discover the dark side of the city, Katya discovered one more thing.

Even the dark, dangerous underworld, for all it stood for, for all it reeked of, for all it reigned and claimed insanity for...

Was terrified of one thing.

One person.

One name.

Sergei.

Not Sergei Moskowsky.

Not the Devil of Frolo that people had grown to call him.

Sergei.

Just Sergei.

He knew he should have ended his search there. He knew it was a dangerous rabbit hole to get into. He knew it was not right because he’d already had enough history in there.

Yet the more he learned about Sergei, the horror of the underworld, the more he learned about the man everyone hated and feared in equal measure, the more he was intrigued.

Katya should have been scared.

Should have stopped.

Yet through the histories and mad scenarios...

He’d only seen someone else, too.

Vladimir.

His Vladimir.

Not their Sergei.

Perhaps that was why Katya stopped his research weeks later.

Because the difference between the man that horrified the underworld and the man who brought him protein bars, the man who made sure he had hot coffee waiting for him and cookies from his favorite café every morning...

That difference was insane.

He didn’t stop because he was running from that reality and the man who still had a contract on him. No.

He stopped because he wanted to know the man on his own.

The good.

The bad.

The horror.

He wanted to know Sergei for all he was.

Even if chances were that he’d only ever get Vladimir forever.

But he wasn’t complaining, was he?

Even if the man had been too busy in the past weeks.

"Chairman, you have three meetings today on the executive floor," Rahim greeted once Katya settled in his office on the research floor that morning.

She had the usual folder in her hands.

And on the table was Katya’s coffee and cookies, with a little S on the napkin to tell him that they were from Sergei.

Today...

There were even lilies on his desk, with a faint rainforest scent on them.

Sergei had been here.

And for some reason, that was enough to lift Katya’s mood for the day.

No matter how dangerous the waters he was crossing at the moment.

"When is the first meeting?" Katya asked, staring at the lilies fondly.

"In fifteen minutes."

"That’s just enough time," Katya said, looking at the coffee.

"Alright, I’ll be there. Thank you," he added, then Rahim left for her desk, leaving an omega starved for rainforest, breathing the lilies in like he’d developed an addiction.

And boy was it not going to be good for anyone, at all.

In a dimly lit, tunneled dungeon under the Moskowsky building, Sergei smiled at his phone as he watched Katya drink his coffee.

The man was in a grey suit, one that was now covered in blood thanks to his very gracious pastime activity. He looked like a butcher, only that he was an elegant one, with blood all over him like he’d been swimming in a butcher’s catch of the day.

"You tried to take that smile away yesterday when he went to visit the orphanage," Sergei said, turning his phone to the men who were writhing in pain in front of him.

"And last week you followed him into the CHURCH of all the places. You couldn’t even let my beautiful Solnyshka have his time with the deities.

"Y’all don’t even have mannerisms. But I’ll teach you some today, if you forget, I’ll be back with better lessons, alright?" he said as he walked toward the only table in the far end of the dungeon.

"Great. Now that Solnyshka is having breakfast, I can have fun too," he said, putting his phone on the table with torture tools, then looked at the pile of injured bodies.

"Where were we?" he asked, grabbing a bloodied machete.