I hadn’t needed to look at the photos. I would have known the man was Luka Malakov immediately. There was an energy coming from him, cold and brutal and immensely strong: you could feel it in your chest as soon as he walked into the room. I felt like a peasant meeting a king and it wasn’t to do with the money, even though supposedly Malakov had billions. It was the power. I wanted to lower my eyes so he didn’t notice me because I knew, in my soul, that this man could decide on a whim whether I lived or died. At the same time, I couldn’t look away. Danny’s cocky smile and green eyes had my heart, but I couldn’t deny Luka was gorgeous. He had high cheekbones, a strong, stubble-dusted jaw and eyes that reminded me of the sky back in Siberia, so coldly blue it hurt.

Next to him was a woman with pecan-colored hair in an updo, wearing a bottle-green dress. She didn’t look as strongly Russian as him…or even Eastern European, really.

A man followed just behind the couple. He was older than Luka, with a scar running along one side of his face. His eyes scanned the crowd and I heard him mutter an order in Russian to one of the other men in suits. He must be the head bodyguard.

The three of them started to move towards the stairs. Danny waited a second so as not to make it too obvious and then began to follow. We had to pass one of the men in suits and his head snapped round as we approached.

We tried to stroll casually but it felt too formal, too fake. “Put your arm around my waist,” I whispered.

Danny let go of my arm and slid his arm around my waist, then snugged me into him. My body crushed against him from shoulder to thigh. “Like that?” he asked.

I looked up at him and, despite everything, he gave me one of those cocky Danny grins, and I felt myself light up like a pinball table, just like the first time. I smiled back, and he smiled more and—God, I want this to be real! Why can’t this be real? I wanted it so much.

I suddenly remembered the bodyguard we were meant to be fooling, and realized we were already past him. We’d done it.

We closed in on Luka and his girlfriend. We were halfway up the stairs, now, dangerously close to the point where we’d lose them. Danny walked a little faster and we caught up, but the head bodyguard was still between us and them. Danny accelerated around him and tried to come in from the side—