Page 74 of Beautiful Ruin

Me.

24

ROWAN

Somehow, some way, Sofia finds a way to contact me.

The message reaches me just after midnight through one of Malyshko’s direct lines.

For a full second, I think I’m hallucinating when a knock comes at the door. Sitting alone in one of the guest rooms Nikolai had temporarily assigned me not doing anything useful enough to justify still being awake except staring at the ceiling and trying not to picture exactly what the next forty-eight hours are going to look like.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be in the war room with three out of the four Iron Pact leaders listening to them discuss how they intend to storm Ivan’s estate and remove him before he can drag the rest of us into whatever ruin he has convinced himself is destiny.

The guest room is warm and beautifully furnished, but I see none of it. This bed is too large for a man who has no intention of getting any sleep. Nikolai’s staff had come around twice after dinner to check whether I needed anything. I refused both times. Mostly because hospitality feels obscene when my stomach is twisted with dread.

So instead, I have been sitting here mourning what hasn’t happened yet. Mourning before death is a strange thing. Like kneeling beside a grave that hasn’t been dug yet and trying to memorize the name on the tombstone that has yet to actually exist.

The knocking jolts me out of my thoughts hard enough that my pulse kicks once in irritation. I scrub a hand down my face and push myself to my feet, every muscle stiff from sitting too long in one position. The carpet muffles my steps as I cross the room.

If nothing else, I assume Nikolai may be on the other side of the door requesting something. After all, I am currently indebted to him for taking me in, even if it’s for temporary access to an ally turned enemy.

He is one of few people in this city I would not ignore at an hour like this.

When I open the door, however, it isn’t Nikolai standing there. One of the estate staff surprises me instead.

She has a phone held out toward me. “For you, sir.”

Me? I nearly say. The word catches in my throat before I can make myself sound quite that stupid out loud.

With a raised brow, I slip the phone from her outstretched hands. It’s one of the internal handsets from the residence. Secure enough for household use, not the encrypted line Nikolai uses for actual business. Which means someone inside the house routed this call directly to the line I’m currently holding onto.

Who in the world would be calling me at this hour? And more importantly, how would they know I’m here?

A thread of suspicion works its way through me as I nod my head to the woman and shut the door slowly. One of Nikolai’s men? Volkov wanting to sink another hook into me for his own amusement? A trap from Ivan, somehow already reaching this far?

My hand tightens slightly around the receiver. I stare at the little star symbols on the LED screen for a full five seconds before bringing the phone up to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Oh, thank God,” Sofia says on the other end. The line crackles briefly from her exhaling sharply. The sound hits me with enough force that I have to brace my free hand against the door. “You have no idea what I had to go through to get my uncle’s damn Rolodex off his desk.”

A laugh tears out of me. One I can’t stop. It rips free and helpless, caught between relief and a kind of violent tenderness I have no idea what to do with.

Of course she found a way to get to me. It wouldn’t matter how tightly locked down Ivan has her. Sofia has never once accepted being forced into submission regardless of who is on the other end trying to convince her it’s good for her. She bites back, questions hard, and learns how to get out of the cage instead of crying over the bars keeping her inside. Even when she’s scared, she moves.

Maybe especially then.

God, I miss her.

The realization blooms so hard in my chest, it almost hurts to breathe around it. I turn and walk farther into the room, putting distance between myself and the door on instinct, lowering my voice even though I know this house is as secure as it gets and that the staff member who handed me the phone is already gone.

I sit slowly on the edge of the bed, my hand tightening around the phone like she might disappear if I loosen my grip for even a second too long. “How the hell did you even do that?”

There’s a rustle on the other end, then the sound of a door shutting quietly. The noise is small, almost swallowed by the static on the line. I picture her slipping into some forgotten corner of Ivan’s house with her shoulders pulled tight to her ears, one hand cradling that battered receiver she’d stolen from one of the guards unaware enough to protect it while she checks over her shoulder to make sure no one is watching her.

She huffs out a short breath. “By becoming a complete menace to my uncle’s staff and abusing the fact that nobody in this damn house likes to mind their own business.”

My mouth curves despite everything.