“You want to walk into that warehouse and pretend to surrender.”
“I want to walk into that warehouse and make Adrian think he’s won. Draw him out into the open where Boris’s team can take him.” I gesture at the satellite images. “If we show up with an army, he runs. If we show up alone, looking beaten and ready to deal, he’ll want to gloat. He won’t be able to resist.”
“What makes you think he won’t just assume it’s a repeat of last time?” my brother snaps.
Tony speaks up. “Adrian’s ego is his weakness. He didn’t just want to destroy the Kozlovs. He wanted Sasha to watch it happen. Wanted her to know he was the one pulling the strings.”
“And you think he’ll expose himself just for the satisfaction of seeing her grovel?”
“He’s been fantasizing about that moment for two years, so yes. I believe he’ll want to savor it, even if that moment comes with risk..”
Dmitri is quiet for a long moment. I can see him wrestling with the same protective instincts that made him argue against every dangerous plan I’ve proposed since this started.
“Boris,” he snaps, “can your team be in position without being detected? Is that even feasible at this location?”
Boris studies the satellite images again. “The buildings to the north provide decent cover. I can have men there and more near the loading dock. They’ll be close enough to breach within thirty seconds of a signal.”
“What signal?”
“We’ll work something out,” I answer. “A code word, a gesture. Something Adrian won’t recognize as a trigger.”
“And if something goes wrong before you can give the signal?”
“Then Boris breaches anyway and we improvise.” I keep my voice steady despite the fear coiling in my stomach. “Dmitri, this is our best chance. Maybe our only chance. Adrian is wounded, his coalition is fractured, and he’s desperate enough to takerisks he wouldn’t normally take. If we don’t end this now, he’ll disappear again and spend the next year rebuilding.”
Tony moves to stand beside me. “She’s right. Every day Adrian stays free is another day he can recruit new allies and plan new attacks. We need to finish this.”
Dmitri runs a hand over his face. “If anything happens to her?—”
“Nothing will happen to her,” Tony cuts in. “I’ll be right beside her the entire time. And Boris’s team will be thirty seconds away.”
“Thirty seconds is a long time when bullets start flying.”
“Then we make sure the bullets don’t start flying until we’re ready for them.”
Another long silence. I watch my brother’s face on the screen, reading the conflict in his eyes. He wants to say no. Wants to order me back to Moscow where he can keep me safe. But he knows as well as I do that safety is an illusion as long as Adrian is breathing.
“Fine,” he finally concedes. “But Tony,” Dmitri’s gaze bores into the man beside me, “you promised me she’d come home alive. I’m holding you to that.”
“Understood.”
The call ends, and Boris immediately begins coordinating with his team. Tony and I retreat to a corner of the room to discuss our approach.
“We’ll need a convincing story,” he tells me. “Something Adrian will believe.”
“We tell him the truth. Mostly.” I lean against the wall and cross my arms. “Dmitri has pulled back resources, we’re exhausted from chasing dead ends, and I’m willing to discuss terms if it means ending the threat to my family.”
“He won’t believe you’d go back to him.”
“No. But he might believe I’d negotiate a truce. Agree to stay out of his way if he agrees to stay out of ours.” I shake my head slowly. “It’s weak, and Adrian knows it. But that’s the point. We need him to think we’re out of options.”
Tony nods, but I can see the worry in his eyes. “I don’t like using you as bait.”
“I don’t love it either. But Adrian’s obsession with me is the reason we’re in this mess. Might as well use it to end things.”
We spend the next hour refining the plan. Boris identifies positions for his teams and establishes communication protocols. Tony and I rehearse our approach, our story, the signal we’ll use when we’re ready for the breach.
By the time we return to the hotel, it’s nearly midnight. Tomorrow we end this. One way or another.
