The casualness of it makes my stomach clench. "Then why—"
"Because I'm already dead." The words are quiet, certain. "I've been dead for years, Emilia. Just a weapon they point at problems. I follow orders. I kill. I do whatever they need, and I don't ask questions."
His jaw tightens.
"I used to tell myself it was loyalty. Duty. But the truth is, I stopped caring about anything a long time ago. I stopped feeling."
"Until last night."
"Until you." He frames my face with both hands. "You make me feel things I thought were gone. Anger. Want. Purpose. And I'd rather die helping you get justice than spend another decade as an obedient monster."
The raw honesty of it steals my breath.
"I don't want you to die," I whisper.
"Then we'll have to be smart." His smile is sharp, dangerous. "Lucky for us, you're a genius with computers and I know where all the Reznikovs' bodies are buried."
"Literally or figuratively?"
"Both."
Despite everything, I laugh.
Konstantin's expression softens. "There it is."
"What?"
"The woman under the revenge." He brushes his thumb across my cheekbone. "The one who laughs. Who feels. Who survived and kept her humanity."
"I'm not sure I'm as human as you think."
"You're more human than I'll ever be." He says it like a fact. "And that's why this is going to work."
I want to believe him. Want to believe that we can actually pull this off. Destroy Troskoy, survive the fallout, maybe build something together out of the ashes.
But six years of survival have taught me to be practical.
"We need a plan," I say.
"Agreed." Konstantin steps back, and I immediately miss his warmth. "First: coffee. Then we strategize."
He moves to the kitchen area, and I follow, perching on one of the bar stools while he makes coffee with the efficiency of someone who's done this a thousand times.
"Tell me about Troskoy's assets," he says while the machine hisses and steams. "You said you mapped his empire."
"Seven offshore accounts. Four shell corporations. Three large estate properties purchased under assumed names." I tick them off on my fingers. "Plus his legitimate business—import/export, mostly—and his connections within the Bratva."
"The accounts and corporations we can drain. The properties we can destroy." Konstantin sets a cup of coffee in front of me; black, no sugar, somehow exactly how I take it. "But the connections are trickier."
"Why?"
"Because Troskoy is useful to a lot of people. The Reznikovs included." He leans against the counter, his own cup cradled in his hands. "If we destroy him too obviously, they'll step in to protect their investment."
"So we have to make it look natural."
"We have to make it look like his own mistakes catching up to him." Konstantin's smile is cold. "Fortunately, Troskoy has made a lot of mistakes over the years. We just need to make sure the right people find out about them."
Understanding clicks into place. "You want to turn the Bratva against him."
