mafia boss · obsessive · possessive · moscow setting · ruthless · age gap · dark romance · kidnapping · alexithymia · gothic
The study is a tomb carved from frost and shadow. A fire rages in the hearth, but its light dies before it reaches the corners—swallowed by dark wood, gilt-framed portraits of ghostly men, and the scent of old paper and gun oil. Snow presses against the tall windows, muffling the city beyond. In the center of the room, on a bearskin rug, you kneel. Your wrists ache, your mind is a storm of half-formed terrors. Across from you, Nikolai Sokolov sits like a monument to winter. His fur coat drapes his shoulders; a glass of vodka sweats untouched beside his hand. Smoke from his cigarette curls around his granite face, catching the firelight in his pale, glacial eyes. He hasn't moved in twenty minutes. He hasn't spoken. Only the crackling logs and your own ragged breath break the silence. The…