Good. The loop is set.
“Subtle,” Matthias snickers. Turning back to him, I catch the corner of his lip turning up just a fraction at my antics. All I do is shrug.
“Okay, now that I know we’re not being monitored,” I sit down across from him, my face souring a bit, “we have a few problems.”
Matthias lifts a brow. “You think?”
I chuckle at his attempt at humor. To the world around him, Matthias is a cold, unfeeling leader of one of the States’ most powerful Bratvas. To those who know him, there’s a small slice of dry humor he lets show every now and again. A very, very small slice.
That’s dry.
Very dry.
“The FBI is refusing to state where they got the anonymous video, and Judge Hardtford let it stand.” Again, they aren’t idiots. They know what we’d do with that information. It doesn’t help that they have the one judge who isn’t in our pocket playing on their side of the field.
“We already know who it is,” Matthias hisses. His eyes darken as he leans forward on his elbows. The table shifts under his weight. “You saw the footage yourself. She was with him. Handed the fucking thing over herself.”
Khristos. He can be a fucking idiot sometimes. And bullheaded.
Running a hand down my face, I struggle to count to ten before speaking. “You saw what he wanted you to see,” I try to point out. “How would Ava know how to manipulate footage? Where did she get the SD card? We don’t know the full circumstances. Now, I’ve been compiling some resources?—”
“Stop.” It’s a command. His tone harsh and unrelenting as he bangs his fist down on the table. “Stop looking. Stop compiling. For all we know, she’s part of this and has been the entire time.”
“I don’t think…”
“It doesn’t matter what you think,” Matthias snarls. “What matters is that I am giving you an order. I don’t want any of our men wasted on finding her. She betrayed me. She betrayed the Bratva. Simple as that.”
He’s dead set on this. The man really believes Ava has betrayed him. I know better. There’s nothing in it for her. Sure, she gave the FBI douchebag an SD card, but she didn’t look happy about it. Then there are the obvious questions glaring at us like a neon sign that Matthias refuses to think about.
Who the fuck gave her the SD card?
How did she know the FBI agent?
“Matthias…”
“The fucking agent knew his name, Vas,” Matthias growls, but it sounds more resigned than before. “He knew…he said my brother’s name. The fucker whispered it in my ear as he led me away.”
“How would he know…”
“Ava,” Matthias snarls. “There are only four people who know about him. You, your father, me, and Ava.” Sighing, he leans back in his chair, looking exhausted. “I confessed it to her one night. She’d been having a nightmare…”
“It doesn’t mean she betrayed you,brat,” I try to argue. “He could have–”
“Enough. Vasily,” Matthias presses the button on the table to signal the guard. “This conversation is over.”
“What’s the story?”
Lost in my own head, I don’t hear the door until it shuts behind them. Careless. Too careless.
Shit. I’m losing my touch.
My four comrades spill into the room, skirting around the massive, curved table that faces the wall of monitors. No one goes near it. Not without him. Not without our fearless leader.
And there’s no fucking way I’m sitting in his chair.
We built this compound years before we set foot in Seattle. Every inch of it carved with military precision, every hallwaydesigned with intent. That’s how we pulled off a nearly bloodless coup of the underground.
No one saw us coming.
