“How?”
“A public initiative,” I answer. “One the entire organization will see. One the Moscow cell will see. One Anton’s people won’t be able to ignore.” I let the words sharpen as they leave my mouth. “A unified digital defense expansion. Led by us.”
Harper rises slowly from her seat, eyes narrowing as she catches up.
“Damian—”
“Not us,” I correct softly. “Mr. and Mrs. Ignatov.”
The room freezes. Even the server fans seem to pause.
Iosif’s expression does not shift, but a subtle tension knots the air around him. The strategist in him understands the brilliance. The cousin in him understands the danger.
Harper looks at me as if the ground beneath her has changed texture entirely.
“You want to use our marriage.”
“I want to weaponize what Anton thinks is a weakness.” My voice is low, threaded with something darker than resolve. “He believes you’re a liability. An outsider. But if we present ourselves as unified in public, he’ll be forced to pull his spies out of the shadows to test the threat.”
“And while he’s busy reacting,” Harper murmurs, the wheels turning behind her eyes, “we tighten the perimeter.”
“Exactly.”
Iosif nods once.
“It will work. But it binds you both. Permanently.”
He doesn’t mean romantically, of course.As if.He means politically, symbolically. If we take this step, there is no reversing it without fracturing the entire syndicate.
As if I don’t know this? I want to scoff drily, but I keep that in.
Harper looks away for a second, toward the screens, as if searching for a foothold in the storm. The blue glow haloing her face carves her features into sharp, nearly vulnerable lines.
When she looks back at me, I see defiance and acceptance burning the same behind her eyes.
“If we do this,” she says quietly, “there’s no halfway.”
“I’m not offering halfway,” I reply.
A pregnant pause suffuses the air.
Then she nods once, the smallest motion. An unspoken energy vibrates in the air between us, getting more intense as our gazes refuse to leave the other’s.
Iosif steps back, giving us space he pretends we don’t need. He’s always been perceptive that way, patient where I’m ruthless, calculating where I’m instinctive. A mirrored opposite, cold where I am sharp.
“I’ll initiate the European lockdown,” he says. “Kiro will assist. But Damian—” His gaze flicks between us. “If you do this, the organization will see you differently.Together.”
“That’s the point,” I say.
His point isn’t lost on me. He nods and leaves the room without another word.
Harper exhales slowly, the sound shaky around the edges. She pushes her hair back from her face, fingers trembling just enough that I notice. We’re exhausted, but that’s not what’s making the air between us crackle.
“It feels like we’re stepping into something we can’t step out of,” she says.
“We are.”
She swallows.
