Chapter 9 - The Blacklist Gala
By evening, the penthouse was transformed into a bustling command center. Designers, tailors, and jewelers were paraded into the guest suite under heavy armed escort, laying out racks of haute couture gowns and velvet cases filled with diamonds.
"Tonight is the annual Solstice Summit at the Grand Continental Hotel," Roman had explained earlier while reviewing tactical maps with Viktor. "Every syndicate boss, corrupt politician, and cartel envoy in the state will be there. Petrov will attempt to rally support against me by claiming I have grown weak and sentimental over an unknown girl."
Roman had walked over to me, tilting my chin up. "Tonight, we show them that you are not my weakness. You are my queen."
Now, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror, I barely recognized the woman staring back.
I wore an emerald-green silk gown that clung to every curve of my body, with a dramatic slit running up my left thigh and an open back that exposed golden skin. Around my neck rested a vintage diamond choker worth more than my entire family's generational earnings. My hair fell in soft, elegant waves down my shoulders.
The door clicked open. Roman stepped inside, dressed in a midnight-black tuxedo that broadened his powerful shoulders.
For the first time since I met him, Roman stopped dead in his tracks. His gray eyes swept over me from head to toe, darkening with undisguised desire and lethal pride.
"Perfection," he breathed, walking slowly toward me.
"I'm terrified, Roman," I confessed, my voice barely above a whisper. "I don't know how to act around these people. They kill for fun."
Roman stood behind me, meeting my gaze in the mirror. He rested his large, warm hands on my bare shoulders, his touch sending an electric jolt straight to my core.
"You don't have to act, Elena," Roman whispered against my ear, his lips brushing the sensitive skin of my neck. "You just hold your head high, look down on them like the insects they are, and remember one thing."
"What?"
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"Every man in that room has a gun," Roman said with a chilling smirk. "And every single one of them knows that if they look at you the wrong way, I will execute them where they stand."
***