Page 25 of Hooked On Victor
Her chest ached.
She didn’t drop her gaze.
“Then who are you?”
He paused.
Breathing hard.
Fingers flexing at his sides.
Finally, with a rough exhale:
“My real name is Viktor Romanov.”
Silence.
Deep. Crushing.
Rose felt the world tilt under her.
The name echoed in her head.
Romanov.
Her heart pounded, uneven, loud enough she was sure he could hear it.
“As in… the Romanovs?”
He nodded.
Slow. Deliberate.
“As in descended from the last Tsar of Russia. As in the secret someone’s been hunting for a very long time.”
She set her mug down carefully.
It rattled once.
She didn’t notice.
“You’re serious.”
He didn’t answer with words.
He just looked at her.
Let her see the years in his eyes.
The weight of bloodlines.
The exhaustion of running.
The guilt of surviving.
She saw him then.
All of him.
