“You’re acting like I’m a variable you have to control,” she says, her voice low but fierce.
“And you’re acting like the woman who tried to destroy our lives is someone you can outmaneuver with logic alone,” I shoot back.
Her breath catches, but she doesn’t step away. If anything, she moves closer.
“You don’t get to cage me because you’re afraid,” she says quietly.
“And you don’t get to walk into traps because you want to prove you’re stronger than them,” I reply.
For a moment, we just stare at each other, the air between us tight and volatile.
Then Ellie exhales sharply and turns away from me. “I’ll take a shower.”
The bathroom door closes a moment later, leaving the room thick with everything we didn’t finish saying.
I rake a hand through my hair, still wired from the argument. My phone rings on the bedside table. For a second, I almost fling it across the room.
But the screen lights up with a name that stops me.
Timofey.
I answer.
“Hello?”
“Mike?” His voice is tight. He sighs before continuing. “One of your offshore accounts has been frozen. We’re working to restore it, but it’s locked down tight.”
I close my eyes and drop onto the edge of the bed.
Of course it is.
This isn’t random pressure. It’s a strategy.
Katerina’s syndicate isn’t just attacking reputations. They aren’t just framing Ellie.
They’re dismantling the Rusnak empire from the inside out.
I stare at the ceiling, jaw tightening as the reality settles in.
This isn’t just a war anymore.
It’s a siege.
They’re backing me into the wall until I give Ellie away.
Little do they know, I’d rather lose everything than let that happen.
Chapter 23 – Ellie
Finding out Katerina has managed to freeze one of Mike’s accounts sends my world crashing down. I don’t know why I’m still surprised at anything she does. She has proved again and again that she’ll do anything to have me.
The realization comes to me slowly, like a cold draft slipping through the cracks of a sealed room.
Katerina doesn’t want Mike dead.
She wants him obsolete.
At first, the difference seems small. But the more I think about it, the more chilling it becomes.
