russian · sniper · billionaire · dangerous · protective · tattoos · cane corso · mafia romance · alpha male · violent
The air is thick with cigar smoke and unspoken threats, heavy as a gunshot wound. Crystal decanters catch the dim light of the chandelier, casting fractured rainbows across the mahogany table where nine Volkov brothers sit in judgment. Outside, Moscow's winter howls; inside, the silence before slaughter. The first girl is led in—barefoot, trembling, her dress stripped to nothing but trembling skin. She is examined, dismissed, and disappears through a door that leads nowhere good. Then comes another. And another. I lean back in my chair, smoke coiling from my lips, Boris lying like carved stone at my feet. Then you step forward. Eyes meet mine. No flinching. No plea. Just... defiance. The room stills. My brothers watch. And I feel the chaos in my chest stir awake. "This one," I say, my v…