"It's a terrible idea." The sing-song way she says it makes my stomach churn. I have no clue what this woman is up to or why she's doing it, but I don't get a good feeling about her.
"The detective assured me it would be safe," I lie smoothly. "The station will be mostly empty that evening. No one will even know I'm there."
"Still." Linda seems genuinely agitated now. "You should reconsider. Tell them you can't make it. Tell them you don't remember anything clearly."
"Why are you so concerned about this?" I tilt my head. "It's my decision whether or not to help the police."
"Because I don't want to lose another staff member to gang violence." Linda scowls and purses her lips. "This casino has enough problems without our servers getting caught in the crossfire."
"I'll be fine." I step around her. "But I appreciate your concern."
I walk away before she can continue arguing. My heart's pounding and my hands are shaking again. Linda is too invested in talking me out of meeting with the investigators for my gut feeling to be a coincidence at all, and after that weird interaction, I've made up my mind.
She's the mole. I'm almost certain of it now.
I make my way across the casino floor and stop at the bar to pick up another order. While Timofey mixes drinks, I glance up at the security camera mounted above the bottles. I know Dimitri's watching. He promised me he wouldn't take his eyes off me all night, so I know he saw my conversation with Linda.
I look directly at the camera and give a small nod. Subtle enough that no one else would notice, but clear enough that he'll understand.
The message is sent. Linda's our target. She's the one feeding information to the Kozlovs.
Now we just have to wait and see if she takes the bait.
Timofey slides drinks across the bar, and I load them onto my tray. My hands are steadier now. The plan is in motion and there's no turning back.
Friday evening, I'll walk into that police precinct pretending to meet with investigators. The Kozlovs will be waiting because Linda will have told them exactly where to find me. And Dimitri will be ready to protect me while the rest of his family tears apart every Kozlov stronghold in the city.
It's a good plan.
I just have to survive long enough for it to work.
29
DIMITRI
The security feed shows Tatiana's subtle nod, and I'm already grabbing my radio before she looks away from the camera.
"Matvey," I bark into the handset, "get into the employee locker room now. Linda's phone needs a bug planted immediately." We can't risk her making contact with anyone before we can trace what she says and to whom. I'd never have suspected it, but I trust Tatiana. We can always plant multiple bugs. We can't backtrack and untell the secret to capture someone who isn't caught the first time.
"On it." Matvey's response is immediate. "Which locker?"
"Uh, hold on," I say as I pull up the employee records on my computer. "It's thirty-seven. Plant the tracker and the listening device. I want to know everywhere she goes and everyone she talks to."
"Understood."
I watch the feeds while Matvey moves through the building. He's been doing this kind of work for years and it shows. Within three minutes, he's in the locker room and within five, he's out again with a thumbs-up to the nearest camera.
"Done." His voice crackles through the radio. "Device is active and broadcasting. You should be getting signal now."
I switch to the monitoring software and see Linda's phone light up on the grid. Perfect. If she's the mole, we'll know the second she makes contact with the Kozlovs, and we'll hear every word she says.
"Good work." I lean back in my chair feeling just as tense as I was when Tatiana started this shift. "Keep your eyes on her for the rest of the night. I want to know if she makes any calls or sends any texts."
"Copy that, Boss."
I return my attention to the casino floor feeds and find Tatiana at table nine serving champagne to a group of women celebrating something. She's smiling and laughing with them and from this angle, she looks completely normal. It reminds me of when she was just a waitress and I would purposefully sit in her section. Now she's so much more, and I don't know what I'd do if she weren't here.
Watching her through cameras all night is pure torture. Every drunk who gets too close makes my blood pressure spike. Every time she has to dodge wandering hands, I want to storm down there and break fingers. Every table she serves makes me want to drag her back upstairs where she's safe and I can actually protect her.
