“She’s not going to last twelve hours out here.”
He’s right. Mary’s smart, but she’s not street smart. She doesn’t know how to disappear, doesn’t understand that in this world, being invisible is a skill that takes years to master.
She thinks she can run from the Bratva like it’s an overdue credit card bill.
“Maintain distance,” I tell him. “But if anyone else gets close—”
“They won’t.”
I hang up just as my phone starts ringing again. Different ringtone. The one that makes my blood pressure spike.
Igor.
“Pakhan,” I answer.
“Anton. There was an incident this morning.”
His voice carries that particular weight that means he already knows more than he’s saying. Igor’s been running Vegas operations for thirty years. Nothing happens in his territory without him hearing about it.
“I heard,” I say carefully. “Robbery at a laundromat.”
“Four dead. Including a bank manager.”
Silence stretches between us. On the TV, they’ve moved on to the weather. Sunny skies, light winds, temperature climbing.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” Igor’s question is casual. Too casual.
“Should I?”
“The bank manager was David Thornton. Brightside National.” Another pause. “The same bank we’ve been monitoring.”
Fuck.
“Interesting coincidence,” I say.
“Timofey doesn’t think it’s a coincidence.” Igor’s breathing is labored, probably from his morning cigarettes. “He’s been helping me analyze these recent disruptions. Very insightful, my nephew. He thinks we have internal threats.”
My blood chills. Timofey’s already poisoning the well.
“What kind of threats?”
“The kind that develop when trusted soldiers start making unauthorized moves. When they begin to think they know better than thePakhan.” His tone sharpens. “Timofey’s concerned about loyalty, Anton. About people who’ve gotten too comfortable with their positions.”
The words hit like ice water. He’s not talking about external threats. He’s talking about me.
“Your people are loyal,” I tell him, which isn’t exactly an answer.
“Are they? Because Timofey’s intelligence suggests otherwise. He thinks someone in my inner circle has been operating independently. Making decisions without clearance.”
“What do you need from me?”
“I need absolute transparency. Timofey’s flying in the day after tomorrow for a family meeting. All senior leadership. We need to identify these internal threats before they destroy everything we’ve built.”
A family meeting with Timofey present. The perfect setup for a coup.
“The family is everything,” Igor continues, and I can hear the conviction in his voice. “Blood runs deeper than business, Anton. Timofey understands that. He’s the only one I can completely trust right now.”
Yeah. He’s trusting the man who’s about to put a knife in his back.
