But I don’t want to.
This isn’t just data anymore. It’s the beginning of something that might’ve already cost people their lives. And Yuri deserves more than a spreadsheet with my initials in the corner.
I open a fresh thread and begin typing.
I think I found the first contact. February 2019. Isla Verde Capital. Transfer’s small, but it’s clean and quiet. Too clean. There’s a matching line in a cartel ledger from Colón. Could be nothing. But it doesn’t feel like nothing.
I hesitate, then type one more line.
We should talk. Tonight, if possible.
I hit send.
The screen glows softly in the darkness, throwing long shadows across the walls. I close my laptop and gather my notes, suddenly aware of how loud the quiet is now that I’ve made the choice.
Because that’s what this is—a choice. To bring it to him. Not just as someone helping on the edges but as someone in it.
CHAPTER 31
ASTRID
The second the message sends, I know I can’t wait.
It’s not just a gut feeling. If I’ve found the beginning of a financial trail between a cartel financier and a corrupt FBI agent, and if Elena’s just been locked out of the system that holds the rest, then the clock isn’t ticking. It’s already ticked.
I slip the highlighted data onto a USB drive. The plastic clicks softly into place, a sound that feels too small for the weight it carries. My hands move on autopilot—encrypt, eject, label it with a red dot from Elena’s drawer of stickers.
My mind’s already ahead of me, planning the route. Rehearsing how I’ll explain it and wondering how Yuri will look at me when I tell him.
Not with suspicion, I hope. Not this time.
As I start to stand, something tugs at me, a flicker of memory more than thought. My thoughts drift to the nightstand beside my bed.
I know what I have to do.
Soon, I’m back in my room, my eyes on the drawer where the other USB drives are hidden.
I step over to the nightstand and slowly slide out the drawer. The false bottom lifts with a little pressure, just like Elena showed me. She helped me carve the space out weeks ago, saying every smart woman in a house like this needs somewhere no one else can reach. But she has no idea what’s hidden there.
Beneath the panel, tucked against the cool wood, are three USB drives.
The ones I never told Yuri about.
I stare at them for a moment, breath caught between decision and doubt. They gleam faintly in the low light. Silent. Waiting.
I hesitate.
They’re backup copies of old documents I pulled during our early searches. Some tagged with asset maps, others with internal Ivanov Holdings metadata. It’s information that could do damage to the Bratva if the wrong people were to get a hold of them.
I never planned to use them against anyone. That was never the point. They were for me only. For the version of me who still thought she might need a way out.
And maybe I did think that, once. Maybe some part of me needed to know I had leverage. That I could walk if I had to.
But I don’t want to walk.
Not from this. Not from him.
This world is brutal, complicated, and nothing like the life I thought I wanted. But it’s real. The choices matter. The stakesaren’t abstract. And Yuri—whatever darkness he carries—has become my axis. The fixed point everything else orbits.
