"And I'd kill him again without hesitation. Sex trafficking children, that's an automatic death sentence. No negotiations."
"You don't understand. He protected me and our mother. That money—"
"—came from selling children. You should've stayed hidden with your mother. Should've used that brilliant mind for something besides revenge." I tap my temple. "But you couldn't let it go, becoming what killed your brother."
"Vadim told me the money was good," Kirill says. "Said he was protecting us. Our mother. That the jobs were clean, simple transport." A laugh rattles in his chest. "I believed him. For years, I believed him."
"And when you learned the truth?" I keep my voice flat.
"I was already in the business." Kirill's eyes hold mine. "Already had blood on my hands. Already understood that some lines, once you cross them..." He pauses, swallows. "You can't uncross them. You can only decide if it was worth it."
"So you kept going."
"Seven years is not a long time to build a successful international organization from nothing." His defiance shifts into something colder. More honest. "The Volgograd Brotherhood doesn't exist without those contracts. Without that specific revenue stream. It's surprising how much money a man will pay for a particular type of merchandise. And how many men are willing to pay it."
The clinical detachment in his voice is worse than any rage.
"I expanded into that business when your wife died," Kirill continues, watching my face for reaction, "I saw my opportunity. You were distracted. Broken. The perfect moment to accelerate everything." His smile is almost apologetic. "Had to expand operations in that area temporarily. Built the connections I needed. The infrastructure."
"Temporarily." The word tastes like ash.
"I don't deal with minors anymore." He says it like absolution. Like it matters. "Stopped taking those contracts a year ago. Now I just facilitate transportation. Safe delivery for others who do the actual...procurement."
He's compartmentalizing, splitting hairs between doing it himself and enabling others.
"That's your moral line?" I lean closer. "You don't personally traffic children anymore, you just make sure other people can do it safely?"
"We all draw lines somewhere, Anton." Kirill's eyes burn with something between defiance and self-loathing. "You kill for money but won't touch trafficking. I facilitate logistics but don't handle merchandise directly. The Quinns deal in weapons but draw the line at some chemical agents." His laugh is hollow. "Everyone gets to feel righteous about something."
"You became what your brother was."
"No." The word cracks like a whip. "I became better than what he was. More efficient. More careful. More successful." He pauses, breath rattling. "Vadim died because he was sloppy. I built an empire because I learned from his mistakes."
"An empire built on—"
"—on the same blood money you use to buy flowers for Fee," Kirill cuts me off. "Don't pretend your hands are clean just because you draw your line six inches to the left of mine."
He continues, gaining momentum despite the drugs. "You kill fathers, brothers, sons. You think the families you destroy don't create more monsters just like us?" His smile widens. "At least I'm honest about what I am."
He's right. Monsters, both of us. But our lines are drawn very differently.
I don't give him the satisfaction of showing him that his point landed.
"You tried to erase Fee's mind."
"To save her from you." Kirill's voice drops, intimate. "Because dating the ghost means everyone she loves becomes a target. It means wondering every day when the next threat comes. When someone decides she's the perfect leverage." He pauses. "I would have given her a new life. A clean slate. She would have been safe."
"She would have been your prisoner."
"And what is she with you? Free?" Kirill laughs and leans forward against his restraints. "Or is she a twenty-one-year-old girl who thinks love conquers all? Who thinks she's invincible because daddy's Irish mafia and her boyfriend's the ghost? She has no idea what she's signed up for. But she will...when the next threat comes. And the one after that. And the one after that."
He's not wrong. Loving people like me comes with risks most can't comprehend. Fee knows the theory. She's lived in this world her whole life.
But knowing and experiencing are different things. I just hope to God she never changes her mind. I'll make it my life's purpose to make her the happiest woman in the world.
"You wanted to erase everything she is. Rewrite her mind. Make her forget her family. Her life. Herself."
"To protect her," Kirill says.
