I lock the apartment without looking back. The drive is fast. Markov’s mansion still stands lit and guarded. The men at the gate open it as soon as they see me. No one stops me, because stopping me isn’t their job.
I leave the car under the portico and keep walking. I take the stairs two at a time. Halfway up, a man steps into my path. He’s new to the house, and he thinks blocking me will earn him points.
“Dominik,” he says, hands out.
I hit him. Quick, flat, hard. Bone cracks. He drops, blood already in his mouth. A tooth rolls across marble. I don’t stop.
Irina rushes out of the myriad rooms at the sound and stops at the top of the stairs. Her breath catches. Her eyes are wide, stunned. Then she moves, fast, coming down toward me.
“Please,” she says. “Come.”
I follow.
The hallway is too familiar. The door to Ana’s old room is shut. Irina opens it, steps in, waits for me.
Her hands shake. She pretends they don’t.
“Talk,” I say.
Her jaw sets. “That man—Ivan—he’s council-backed. This won’t stay small.”
I say nothing.
She folds.
“She asked me not to watch,” Irina says. “So I didn’t.”
“What did she take?”
“Papers, jewelry, cash. I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
“And then?”
“She left. Out the back.”
Like she planned it.
I look hard at Irina. She doesn’t lower her eyes. If she’s lying, she’s doing it well. It’s a half-truth. She knows more. But she didn’t run. She didn’t warn me. She stayed where she belonged.
“Did anyone touch her?” I ask.
“No.”
“Did anyone follow?”
“No.”
“Did she ask about me?”
Irina hesitates. Just long enough.
“She asked if you’d stop looking,” Irina says. “If you understood.”
I turn away for a moment before she can read what that does to me. Then I tell her to keep it contained. All of it. One loose word and Ana stays gone for good. Her head snaps up. Fear shows before she can hide it. She nods once, hard.
“And don’t vanish,” I add. “If I need you and you’re not here, that becomes a problem.”
“Yes,” she says. Not loud. Steady enough.
