Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
“And he crossed into your side,” Vissarion was the one to speak again.
“He hit one of ours,” I replied. “No legitimate backing or clearance. He just went for it to see what he could get away with.”
“He’s either fucking stupid or he thinks no one’s watching closely enough to see who’s calling the shots.”
“Well, he’s being watched now,” I said to Vissarion. “I want everything on him,” I continued. “Money, calls, names, locations, and anyone tied to him, even if it’s indirect. I want to know who he’s using, if anyone is feeding him information, and where he’s been moving.”
“You want full access.”
“Yes,” I replied. “All of it. I don’t care how deep and dark you have to go. If he’s building something, there’s a trail. Find it.”
There was a faint sound on his end, keys moving, systems already being opened.
“I’ll start pulling from the dark channels,” he said. “Private forums, encrypted lines, and anything tied to that name or movement around it. If he’s been making deals, he’s left something behind and I’ll find it.”
“I don’t have time to wait,” I said.
“I’ll have something solid for you soon, Alexei.”
The call ended without anything else needing to be said. I set the phone down, my focus already locked on what came next. Alessio had stepped into something he didn’t understand. He pushed into territory that didn’t belong to him and used a name that didn’t give him the protection he thought it did. That mistake didn’t start a war. It put him directly in my path.
And I didn’t leave problems unfinished.
“I’ll finish this before he thinks he has time to build anything else,” I said quietly to myself.
Because once I found him, there wouldn’t be anything left to question.
Only how far I decided to take it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lucia
The house felt different the next day, and I knew it had more to do with what was sitting in my head than anything actually changing around me.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the questions I wanted to ask Alexei, about the photo album and the glimpse of a version of him that didn’t match the man I knew now.
He had come to bed late, the mattress dipping under his weight before he pulled me against him without a word. His arm had locked around me, holding me close, and within minutes his breathing had evened out.
Alexei had fallen asleep quickly, like his body had reached its limit. It wasn’t just physical exhaustion either. I could feel it in the way he held me, in the heaviness of him, like whatever he was dealing with had followed him into the room and stayed there.
I lay awake longer than I should have, staring into the dark and thinking about it. Not about Alessio, not about the brother I hadn’t known existed until this evening. That should have been the thing keeping me up, the part I couldn’t make sense of. Instead, my thoughts kept circling back to Alexei and what he was going to do next.
I wasn’t worried about whether he would handle it. I was thinking about how far he would go when he did.
And the fact that I cared more about that than anything else should have bothered me more than it did.
The next day I’d woken up alone, but a faint memory of him kissing my head and whispering gruff Russian played at the edges of my mind.
I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn’t think about the conversation I’d broach today. I made coffee I didn’t really want and carried it into the sitting room, then picked up a book and stared at the same page long enough to realize I wasn’t reading it.
My attention kept drifting back to him, to the way he had looked the night before, steady and certain, like nothing about what he was about to do was up for question. That certainty stayed with me longer than anything else.
By the time I gave up pretending I could focus, I found myself walking toward his office. The door was closed, but I could hear him inside. His voice carried through the wood, low and controlled, and even though I couldn’t make out every word, I knew he was still working through whatever he had already set into motion.
I knocked once before opening the door and stepping inside.
His head came up immediately when he saw me. He was behind the desk, sleeves rolled, phone in his hand. His eyes moved over me quickly, taking everything in before he ended the call without hesitation.
“Give me an update in an hour,” he said before hanging up.
The room went quiet, and his attention stayed on me. “You’re up early.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I replied, closing the door behind me and stepping further into the room. I didn’t rush toward him. I gave myself a second, taking him in the way I had started to do more often, like I was trying to understand something that wasn’t obvious at first glance. “I didn’t know if I should bother you—”