Valentina POV
Nikolai Sokolov looked like a beautiful threat.
That was my first thought when I saw him across the ballroom.
Not handsome, though he was. Not impressive, though the entire room seemed aware of him even when pretending otherwise. Beautiful was the right word, in the severe and unsettling way certain weapons were beautiful before they were used.
He stood beside Mikhail Sokolov in a black suit that fit him with cruel precision, tall enough to make most men around him look smaller by comparison. Broad shoulders. Dark blond hair. A face carved too elegantly for someone with eyes that cold.
And the tattoo.
A black snake curled up the side of his neck, visible above his collar, sleek and deliberate. It should have looked vulgar with the suit.
It did not.
It looked like a w
