Page 107 of Blood Code

With mafia men, it was impossible to tell.

The other good thing about tonight was that I looked stunning.

A black velvet dress clung to my curves and swept the floor. It was a white-tie affair—apparently royalty was in attendance—so I wore long white gloves and a diamond choker that complemented my diamond hairpiece.

I was the perfect arm candy for a charming billionaire.

We’d walked in together, but as usual at these events, he’d disappeared to conduct man business.

A.K.A. smoking cigars, pretending to make deals, and discussing either Bratva affairs or other billionaire business, and leaving me to the sharks wearing couture.

The ballroom was built on a facade of rotten charm. Everyone in here was either using someone or being used. And every one in the room loved gossip and drama.

Chief among them was Alina Orlova, who apparently hadn’t learned a single lesson from the garden party.

She was coming straight for me, but I had literally zero interest in speaking with her. So I pivoted on my heel and disappeared into the crowd, where I found my fucking fiancé flirting with one of the most famous actresses in Hollywood.

I probably couldn’t threaten to pluck out her eyeballs, right?

But I didn’t really have to. Severin stood apart from her, his hands locked in his pockets and a scowl on his face.

Not humoring her one bit.

And while I knew this was an arrangement, a fake engagement at best, rage still tore through my bones.

Because fuck her for smiling at my man.

Because he had been my man since I was twenty—honestly, since I was eight years old—despite everything, and no woman would ever touch him again.

I would fucking cut their hands off.

It didn’t matter if I fucked him, married him, or killed him. He was mine to do with as I pleased, and I didn’t give one flying fuck what he wanted.

It was about what I wanted.

And I wanted to rip this woman’s skin from her face.

Nope.

No.

Nope, Xeniya. You’re letting your Fury take over. Calm yourself. Take a deep fucking breath. You cannot kill a Hollywood starlet for simply smiling at your man.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Then another. And another.

It didn’t fucking work.

Fury still poured through my veins. And perhaps it shouldn’t have been because Severin was being the perfect gentleman. The perfect fiancé. He hadn’t even smiled back at her, and he was only in that group because he wanted to make a deal with her oil-tycoon brother.

I knew all of it.

And yet, it still made my blood boil, and I was fucking losing my mind.

I never should have gone with this plan. Never should have let Severin get close to me or speak to me.

I should have kidnapped him, gagged him, tortured him, and killed him. Then infiltrated his computers and found another head of the hydra. Because the Order was a hydra, and every compound I took out, every head I cut off, five more sprang up.

Because men were horrible.