"Forty-eight hours maximum." I pull up the operational framework I've spent months constructing. "Fee will be in Providence with her sister. Lorenzo's security is formidable, but we have been inside similar installations before."
"The fortress complex in Yerevan," Aleh confirms. "Same architectural vulnerabilities."
"Exactly," I continue, opening another file. Hartley's complete life and financial history spread across the screen. "The shipment needs to be compromised at precisely the right moment."
Aleh steps closer, studying the documents with the tactical precision I've come to rely on. "You want the Quinns and Basovs focused on the weapons."
"While I extract Fee and set the trap for Anton." I zoom in on the customs documentation Hartley provided to the Quinns. "Anton will follow Fee anywhere. His obsession makes him predictable."
The opposite of strategic thinking. Love transforms competent operators into emotional liabilities.
"Fee remains untouched." I close Hartley's files and open the extraction blueprint instead. "She's the bait, not the objective. Anton dies. Fee comes with me after."
Understanding dawns in Aleh's eyes. The elegance of the misdirection.
"Yes, Boss."
He leaves without additional questions. That's why he's still breathing. The others I purchased from various hellholes learned quickly that curiosity shortens lifespan. Aleh understood from day one.
I close the laptop, stand, and move to the window overlooking the city.
Volgograd waits. The organization I built from nothing, but Vadim's blood money and my particular skill set. Seven years of consolidating power, eliminating rivals, and establishing dominance across Eastern Europe's underworld.
The Volgograd name carries respect earned through demonstrated competence and strategic brutality—fear cultivated through calculated examples.
I can't let this obsession pull me away permanently. I now have someone to share the throne I carved from the corpses of other men.
Fee would thrive with me; I'll ensure she does. Her intelligence is wasted here, confined to competitions and university courses that teach her nothing she hasn't already mastered. She deserves challenges worthy of her capabilities.
She deserves a partner who appreciates what she is.
Anton sees her as something precious to protect. Delicate. Fragile. Something requiring his constant guardianship.
Insulting.
Fee's a weapon. Sharp, dangerous, devastatingly effective when properly deployed. She shouldn't be hidden behind security protocols and bodyguards.
She should be unleashed.
I'll show her what she's truly capable of. What we're capable of together.
First, Anton dies. Then I collect what's mine.
Fee's involvement simply sweetens the victory.
I see my reflection in the darkened window. The professional mask stares back, precisely calibrated.
Pregnancies can come with complications, complications I will handle to lure Fee out while Anton is falling into my trap.
Chapter 16
Ghosts
Fee:
The assassin emerges from beneath the lover I've come to know. "Seven years," he mutters.
His arm tightens around my waist, the pressure almost painful. I watch the complete change in his features, his eyes hardening to steel.
