"Because of what I told you? About their operations?"
"Partly. We've been cross-referencing your information with our own intelligence. Some of it has already proved useful." He paused, and something almost like respect flickered in his expression. "You've given us an advantage we didn't have before."
Keira nodded slowly. "What else can I do? There must be more I can help with."
"For now, the best thing you can do is stay safe. Stay here. Let us handle the tactical side." He turned back to me. "I need to speak with you. Alone."
I looked at Keira, who was already sliding off the stool. "I should get dressed anyway. Find me when you're done."
She left, and I watched her go, tracking the way she moved through my space like she was starting to belong there.
"You slept with her," Kirill said when the door closed behind her.
"That's none of your business."
"It is if it affects your judgment." He moved to the window, his back to me. "I'm not telling you it was wrong. I'm telling you to be careful. Emotion clouds thinking. And right now, you can't afford clouded thinking."
"My thinking is fine."
"Is it?" He turned to face me. "Because from where I'm standing, you're more invested in this woman than I've ever seen you invested in anything. That's a vulnerability. Our enemies will exploit it."
"Let them try."
"That's the second time you've said that this morning. It's not a strategy."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "What do you want me to say, Kirill? That I'll stop caring about her? That I'll treat this like a business arrangement and nothing more?"
"I want you to be realistic about the situation."
"I am realistic. I'm also not going to apologize for giving a damn about someone." I held his gaze. "You should try it sometime. Might do you good."
Something flickered in his expression—too fast for me to read, gone before I could analyze it. "We're not talking about me."
"No. We never are."
Silence stretched between us, the particular tension of two brothers who loved each other but didn't always like each other. We'd been doing this dance our whole lives—Kirill pushing, me deflecting, both of us too stubborn to back down.
"I'm not your enemy, Rodion," he said finally. "I'm trying to protect you."
"I don't need protection."
"Everyone needs protection. Even you." He moved toward the door. "I'll be downstairs if you need me. I have more calls to make."
He left without another word, and I stood alone in my kitchen, thinking about what he'd said. Emotion clouds thinking. He wasn't wrong. I was invested in Keira in a way I'd never been invested in anyone. And that did make me vulnerable.
But it also gave me something to fight for. Something beyond territory and money and the endless chess game of criminal politics.
I found her in the bedroom, dressed now in clothes Nina had sent—simple jeans and a soft sweater that made her look younger, more approachable. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring out the window at the city below.
"Everything okay?" she asked when I entered.
"Fine. Kirill being Kirill."
"He doesn't approve. Of us."
"He doesn't approve of anything that isn't perfectly logical and strategically sound." I sat beside her, close enough that our shoulders touched. "That's his way. He'll come around."
"Will he?"
