Chapter 396: In Your Heartbeat, I Find My Peace

[BRATVA]

Alek watched, waited.

The first hour went by.

Then the second.

By the seventh, he knew they were still studying him. And out of sheer spite, he called the governor.

"How long is this going to take?" he asked impatiently, like the freedom that the Romanovs and Moskowskys were enjoying was not worth it.

"It’s done. You should start generating buzz for it," the governor said, and Aleksandr smiled creepily at the information. It was finally time.

Time to push the right hands.

Because even after everything, Aleksandr knew something else.

He knew what he had released before was only enough to point suspicions, and the government bodies were still trying to figure out what was real and what wasn’t. Because this wasn’t just some lowly corporation they had been pointed toward.

This was Moskowsky Holdings and the Romanov heir.

One mistake and Mr. Romanov would have them questioning their lives. It didn’t help that both empires had something in common.

The bond of family.

Which was why hours later no one had lifted a finger despite the negative buzz in the social spaces. The romance that the public had been fed indirectly by Alek was now replaced with something far more sinister.

The distrust in the Romanov heir.

The man who paraded himself as kind and yet was just as bad as the Moskowskys.

The man who walked around with his head held high, making everyone feel like he was just another naïve omega to the filthy businesses, when in truth he was right here.

At the center of it all.

"Everyone, make sure this is at the top of the trending list. The government couldn’t act on the others, but this is direct domestic terrorism. Even the mighty Sergei will not save his precious omega from this," Alek said, pride in his voice as he watched the madness he had initiated.

Frankly, he was playing with fire, but then he was simply returning what had been sent in his direction.

The Moskowskys had fucked with his brain.

Pried open a wound that didn’t have any reason to be touched. For thirty years he’d stayed silent, yet they revived a wound that was thirty years old and pretended like it was just what life was for them.

Alek was not going to stop.

Expectedly, the moment the torture video demanding the nuclear codes was sent out, the authorities got out instantly.

It wasn’t even a matter of warrants and procedures. This was the Moskowskys touching on things far worse than the underworld, and they had to stop him.

They split into two groups.

One went to Romanov Steel to find Svetlana, Katya, and Andre.

The other...

The other was larger than the group sent to Romanov Steel.

Armored cars, bomb squads, elite teams who looked like they could squash people with just their fingers. They were many. Way too many. And maybe the force matched the person in question.

Because Sergei Moskowsky was the devil himself.

Sergei Moskowsky was not someone to be apprehended by one person.

Sergei Moskowsky was the danger that even the devil himself was terrified of.

Beneath the masks every officer wore, even those from the prosecutor’s office, were people who understood the man, the myth, the legend.

Nothing could contain Sergei Moskowsky.

It wasn’t even an assumption anymore.

Yet when they got to Romanov Steel, when the first team set foot there, there was no resistance. Nothing that could be used to say that the Romanovs had refused to cooperate. In fact, they let the prosecutors do their thing. Try to get whatever it was that they needed.

Mr. Romanov had stood on the side and encouraged them.

"You can check our prototypes too," he said like his son wasn’t being implicated in the greatest act of domestic terrorism.

"The grinders are out there. You can go check with your teams. No one within Romanov Steel will stop you," he added, stepping back as his men who had arrived stayed back too.

The authorities had full access to everything.

"Where are the trio? Miss Vasilieva, Mr. Romanov, and Mr. Stepanov?" they asked Mr. Romanov, staring at the man like they were waiting for him to deny the whereabouts of his son.

"Moskowsky Holdings," he said calmly.

"I can accompany you in case you guys are terrified of Sergei," Mr. Romanov added, as if that was simply another task on his list. Like everything else was already fucked up, and even worse, that the lives that were at stake were probably not at stake as much.

It was terrifying in every way, and no one knew what the fuck was supposed to happen.

This level of cooperation was unnerving.

Mr. Romanov may have had a legitimate business and not have been involved directly in crime and the underworld, but it was stupid for anyone in their right mind to even think that the man was just a meek old man who had a steel empire he’d been begging his son to take over.

Back at Moskowsky Holdings, the eerie atmosphere was chilling.

Unarmed men in black stared at the men in armor. Warriors against each other, only that the fight hadn’t even begun yet. Hundreds of soldiers had been deployed by the government, each with their own machine guns in case the Moskowskys opened fire.

Instead, there was nothing.

No one opened fire from the end of the Moskowskys.

In fact, just like the Romanovs had let the officers in, the Moskowskys had done the same.

They didn’t even try to hide shit. Even the most dangerous of men just watched because Sergei hadn’t given the order.

Sergei hadn’t told them to fight.

Because one thing was certain.

If Sergei said to fight, none of the men outside with armor and everything would remain standing. Even if a good number of the Moskowsky team would be injured.

"I shall lead this myself," Governor Morozov said as he stared at the huge building that seemed to be summoning him.

He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d expected of Moskowsky Group and the damn empire, but shit, this place was wide as hell. It had cost the governor over three hundred soldiers just to cover the perimeter in case the Moskowskys made a run for it.

In case Katya Romanov was hidden away to travel later.

"Sir, this is the fast public elevator," Rahim greeted the governor in the lobby.

Today she looked like a harmless mundane secretary, lipstick on, hair tied up in a bun, smile on her face like she knew what this was about.

For a moment, the governor was creeped out. This was not what he had been thinking he’d get.

When Rahim opened the elevator for him, the governor refused to get in at first.

"Why should I trust you?" he asked, and Rahim, ever so polite, just smiled at him.

"Sergei... is waiting on the seventieth floor, sir," Rahim said, the mention of Sergei something that unsettled the governor. There was something about the way that Rahim had said that name.

Or maybe the governor had grown so paranoid, right?

"You’re coming with me... I do hope you are not suicidal," the governor said, like he had been told that everyone in Moskowsky Group was willing to die for the psycho he was being told was waiting on the seventieth floor.

Would he survive this, though?

"Sergei gives us very great health packages and pays us well. I assure you, sir, neither of us is suicidal," Rahim said, smiling meekly at the governor.

The governor breathed out a sigh of relief.

At least the clueless secretary was making the atmosphere better.

Right??