Chapter 310: A Witness To The Burning Within

[ROMANOV]

"Yeah, I probably deserved that," Alek said as he pulled the knife off the wall and set it on the nearest surface.

Svet hadn’t said another word. In fact, she had been looking at Alek, studying the man like something had changed. Like, there was more to what she was seeing, and she hated that feeling.

The way the man hadn’t blinked at the knife whirring past him and into the wall had Svetlana intrigued. And it wasn’t the good kind.

At all.

"What are you doing here, Alek?" Masha asked flatly.

"Little rose is not picking up my calls. I want to explain myself. I need him... I need him to understand I did it for him. So, he’d be free from the contract," Alek said, his voice lowering in shame.

He looked remorseful, like he didn’t know where to start, and frankly, it was an easy sell.

It would have worked. But there was one problem.

More like two.

"And touching on the lowest point in his life was your way of letting us know about your insecurity, what a smart politician," Andre said, a katana in his hand, as he drew a circle around Alek like he was about to perform some spell.

Mr. Romanov looked at the katana, then he looked behind him to where he always displayed his swords.

This was his.

And it wasn’t a good show because it meant Andre was a little over the apologies and shit.

Would they stop him, though?

"You don’t understand... He is trapped in that marriage," Alek insisted, and Svet just grabbed the nearest stool and sat on it.

"Right. Because just waking up and releasing a presser that says, ’Mr. Moskowsky is holding my boyfriend captive, and I need help saving him before he hurts him.’ It’s such a complex statement, no?" Svet wondered as she dug into her hair.

At first sight, it looked like she was scratching an itch this early. But then she pulled out a laser pen from her hair like it was nothing. As if that wasn’t enough, the pen itself was simply a holder for something more unhinged.

"Michka isn’t here. You left him in that explosion and disappeared for five whole days, and now you’re back? What the fuck did you think would happen, Aleksandr?" Mr. Romanov asked in disappointment.

He hated how things were for his son and even worse that this senator was here acting like the world’s most terrific boyfriend.

This shit would have worked the day of the explosion.

Not five days after it.

Not five days after so much had happened, and there wasn’t a soul outside the Romanov and Moskowsky camps who knew where Katya was.

"I need to find him, please," Alek pleaded, and Svet just sighed.

"Wow, Aleksandr. If I didn’t know any better, I’d be sad for you and your disappeared boyfriend," Svet said as she opened the head of the laser pen and pulled a familiar syringe.

"Remember this?" Svet asked, and Alek side-stepped along the wall.

Of course, he knew what that was.

Of course, he understood what was in there.

And of course, he knew she was determined to use it on him.

"Don’t, Svetlana," Masha reasoned, but would she listen?

"My friend ended up in the hospital because of it and your bratva, Petrov. And you used his misc— you used his greatest wound to play politics with Sergei freaking Moskowsky.

"Tell me why I shouldn’t use this on you," Svet said, too pained to even spell out the hurt.

Aleksandr stared at the syringe again, and he knew there were very limited options out of this.

Frankly, he hadn’t been expecting these two psychos to be in here, because now he had to face the fact that he could either die or be chopped before he got to even breathe a different answer.

"I love him. I love little rose with my life," Alek insisted, trying to reason with Svetlana.

"Yes, yes, and the sun shines out of my ass to brighten your world," Svetlana said, playing with the syringe.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn’t use this on you. As you may have noticed, no one here is opposed to me using it on you," Svet pointed out, and Alek sighed.

"Katya is trapped, and you’re about to use your freaking cocktail of experimental drugs on me? What the fuck is wrong with all of you?" Alek boomed in disbelief.

He couldn’t really understand.

He had come to reveal the truth so Katya would be free. Surely that had to count for something, no?

Maybe it was that simple, but was anything ever simple with the two friends?

"Michka hasn’t come home in five days, Aleksandr. He’s not picking up our calls either," Masha said quietly, and everyone turned to her.

"Masha?!"

"Mrs. Romanov!"

"Now, why would you tell him the truth?"

The trio glanced at her with different concerns. They looked at her like she had revealed the greatest secret of all time, and they hadn’t intended for it to be out there, much less to Aleksandr.

Then again, the key was to make Alek believe the charade they were feeding him, and Masha was helping, wasn’t she?

"What?" Alek said, his voice shaking and his composure faltering for the first time.

Maybe it was the pure grief on Masha Romanova’s face that had him faltering. Or how everyone had turned to the woman as if that was a secret she wasn’t supposed to tell him.

"We need all hands on deck to find my son. I don’t care who we have to deal with. I just want my child back, Romanov," the woman said, her tears free-falling as she wiped them angrily.

Then she stepped between Alek and the trio that looked like they were about to smack the living lights out of Aleksandr.

"You made me a promise, senator. You told me my son would be safe with you. You... You promised he’d be happy with you," Masha sobbed, slapping Alek’s chest like a grieving mother.

She looked like she was done being composed, and the fact that Svet returned her syringe into the laser pen and back into her messy hair bun had Alek’s heart breaking for the woman.

"I’m sorry, Mrs. Romanov," Alek said apologetically, his eyes softening as he gently pulled the woman away.

"I’ll find him. I’ll bring him back even if it’s from the contract he was forced to sign," Alek said in earnest, believing that this was his chance to be the hero of the Romanov family.

"Why did you do it? Why did you talk about his pain like that? Why... Why did you turn my... My Michka into a circus like that?" Masha asked defeatedly, her tears free-falling this time.

"I... I thought it was the only way to get Sergei to release him. I figured after the presser that barbarian would have released him back home for positive press," Alek said in earnest.

This time, Andre pushed the man against the wall, the katana so close to his throat, ignoring the shriek Masha let out.

"Are you saying Sergei Moskowsky is holding my friend captive and you... Fuck, what the hell are you... If he hurts him, I’ll kill you, Petrov!" Andre growled.

"He won’t."

"What?"

"Sergei is in love with Katya," Alek said sadly.

Mr. Romanov fell, feigning unconsciousness, as if they all didn’t already know the information Alek had come with.

Like they didn’t know that Katya was with Sergei all this time.

"Mr. Ro—"

"Move, and I take your head," Andre warned.