My gaze flicks to Daria, and I measure my next words.
A lump lodges in my throat, but I reply with conviction anyway. “Clear.”
“Good. Get the evidence. And keep my cousin and her daughter safe until this is over.”
As he hangs up, Daria stares at me in both hope and terror. Her teeth sink into her bottom lip, and I have to look away before I do something stupid like cross the kitchen and bite it myself.
“What did he say at the end?” she asks.
“He gave me authorization to proceed.”
“That’s not all he said.”
I toss the phone on the counter. She doesn’t need the reminder of what I’m risking; she’s swimming in enough guilt as it is. “We have seven days to build a case strong enough to satisfy Yevgeny and redirect the federal investigation. It’s tight, but it’s enough.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve built cases like this before. Tony is one of the best forensic analysts in the organization, and Bogdan isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. Men like him leave trails. They get comfortable and stop being careful. We just have to find the threads and pull.”
“And if we can’t find enough in seven days?”
“We will.”
“But if?—”
“Then I’ll figure something else out. But we’re not there yet, so stop borrowing trouble.”
“My grandmother used to say that all the time. ‘Don’t borrow trouble, Daria. It charges interest.’”
“Smart woman.”
“She was. She died when I was sixteen. Sometimes I wonder what she’d think of all this.”
“I think she’d be proud of you for surviving it.”
From down the hallway, a small voice calls out. “Mama? Can I come out now? The dinosaurs finished their meeting, and Mr. Rex said he was sorry for eating the snacks.”
Daria laughs and sniffles before replying, “Yes, baby. You can come out.”
The door bursts open, and Kira barrels down the hall with her T. Rex clutched against her chest. She skids to a stop in front of us and looks between our faces with the uncanny perception children have.
“Were you talking about something sad? You look like you were talking about something sad.”
“We were talking about grownup things,” Daria tells her. “But it’s all sorted now.”
Kira turns to me and tugs on my sleeve. “Pyotr, will you play dinosaurs with me? Mama’s bad at it. She makes the plant-eaters just stand there and get eaten.”
I glance at Daria. She nods, and something in her eyes tells me she needs a few minutes while she works through everything.
“Sure, malyshka.” I crouch to Kira’s level. “Show me which ones are the fighters.”
She grabs my hand and drags me toward the living room, explaining the complex social dynamics of her dinosaur collection. Behind us, Daria moves to the kitchen sink and turns on the water. She’s probably splashing her face, composing herself before her daughter notices anything wrong.
I’ve got seven days to destroy a man who’s been destroying her for years.
I’ve worked with less time and worse odds.
As Kira hands me a triceratops and instructs me on proper dinosaur combat etiquette—apparently, there are rules about biting, and the stegosaurus is a notorious cheater. I start running through the evidence we’ll need. Financial records linking Bogdan to organizations that threaten Lebedev interests, communication logs proving he acted alone, and a paper trail that leads to him and nowhere near Daria.
