“Or they’re being careful about what they say on a line they know might be monitored,” Luca counters. “Durov’s too smart to openly discuss family complicity.”
“No,” I say slowly, pieces clicking into place with sickening clarity. “Sal’s right. They’re using her. They need her emotional investment to be genuine; otherwise, the manipulation will not work.”
“So she really believes she’s helping you,” Gio concludes. “Believes she’s protecting both families.”
“Which makes her either the most innocent person in this mess,” Luca adds with characteristic bluntness, “or the most dangerous.”
I lean back in my chair, my mind racing through every interaction I’ve had with Kira—every conversation, every touch, every moment of vulnerability—recontextualizing it all through the lens of this revelation.
Her insistence that Durov was working alone. Her defense of Alexei despite mounting evidence. Her father’s dismissive attitude toward her concerns. Even her coldness—was it genuine emotional withdrawal, or calculated distancing designed to keep me invested in proving her wrong?
“There’s more,” Sal says quietly, pulling up another file. “Phone records from the past week. Multiple calls between Durov and various Bratva cells in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago.”
“Coordination,” Gio observes grimly. “They’re not just planning to eliminate us—they’re planning to absorb our operations.”
“A hostile takeover,” I mutter. “Disguised as a marriage alliance. Shit.”
“The question is,” Luca says, “what do we do about it?”
I study the intelligence spread across my screens—irrefutable proof that the Petrov family has been playing us from the beginning. Everything we thought we knew about the alliance, the engagement, and their intentions has been carefully constructed lies.
Everything except Kira’s responses to me. Those felt real. Raw. Unscripted.
But then again, I’m hardly an objective observer where she’s concerned. She got under my skin before I had a chance to stop it. First time I did anything for myself… something I wanted… something I still want.
“We need more intelligence,” I decide. “This proves the scope of their planning, but not the timeline. We need to know when they intend to move.”
“And then?” Gio asks.
“Then we tell Vito everything and let him decide how to respond.”
“That means exposing your... involvement with the Ice Princess,” Sal points out carefully.
“I know.”
“Vito won’t be happy about the personal complications.”
“I know.”
Luca studies my face with uncomfortably perceptive eyes. “You’re still hoping she’s innocent in all this.”
It’s not a question, but I answer anyway. “I’m hoping the truth is the truth, whatever that might be.”
“And if the truth is that she’s been playing you from the beginning?”
I think about her face in the lamplight, the way she looked at me like I was something precious. The vulnerability in her voice when she admitted I was her first. The shock and terror in hereyes during the gunfight, emotions too raw and immediate to be fabricated.
But I also think about her cold dismissal. Her clinical reduction of our night together to mere stress relief. Her continued insistence that family loyalty trumps everything else.
“Then I’ll deal with it with her,” I say finally. “But I need to know for certain.”
“How?” Sal asks. “She’s already shown she won’t be honest about her family’s involvement.”
“Because she doesn’t know about her family’s involvement,” I correct. “According to these recordings, they’re keeping her in the dark about the full scope of their planning.”
“So you’re going to tell her,” Luca deduces. “Show her this evidence and see how she reacts.”
“That’s incredibly dangerous,” Gio warns. “If she is complicit, you’ll reveal that we’ve been monitoring their operations.”
