Page 26 of Prey of the Bratva

“I promise I will deal with this problem. I want the two of you to man the effort and handle other operations.”

“That’s not how our network works,” Nico said.

“It does now.”

Jarek’s jaw tightened. “You don’t get to rewrite how this family operates just because you think you’re the only one who can handle pressure.”

“I’m not rewriting anything,” I said. “I’m adjusting.”

“At whose expense?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. Because the answer was obvious. Everyone’s.

“Where are you going?” Nico asked.

“Out,” I said.

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

“To do what?”

I held his gaze.

“To finish what I started.”

Silence settled again as he studied me for a long moment.

“Be careful,” Nico said quietly.

Jarek scoffed. “Careful? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“That’s all that will matter if he doesn’t listen to anything else.”

Jarek shook his head, frustrated but out of arguments that would land. I turned and walked out before the conversation could circle back into something worse. The drive back was quiet, and my hands stayed steady on the wheel, but my mind was anything but.

Misha Chernykh was already labeled missing by her family. And almost everyone was thinking that I was the one hunting her. I was her predator. The irony would have been amusing if it weren’t so precise. Her brothers were tearing thecity apart looking for her, and she was sitting inside one of my safe houses, mapping exits and planning her next move like she hadn’t almost bled out on a warehouse floor in front of me.

She didn’t act like prey. That was the problem. She acted like something that had simply changed terrain. She had adapted and survived and was now recalculating. The safe house came into view just as the sun dipped lower, casting long shadows across the property. I parked without hesitation, stepping out and scanning the perimeter automatically. Everything was clear, except the confusion in my mind.

She was still inside. Waiting and assessing. And I was still unsure of what I needed to do with her. Although one thing was now certain. I could not kill Misha Chernykh, but most importantly, I had no desire to even let her go.

Chapter 7 - Misha

“You are going to sit here in front of me and tell me the truth about what happened at the docks on that day, and what exactly you were doing there.”

His voice cut through the quiet before I even turned around. I was at the kitchen counter, one hand braced lightly against the marble as I poured water into a glass. My movements were steady now, and I had better control over them. The limp had reduced to something manageable, and I could walk a little more normally. The brace on my foot was still there, doing most of the work my body was still catching up to.

A week ago, I wouldn’t have trusted myself to stand this long. Now, I barely noticed it. That was enough to tell me that my healing was steady and I would not be caught in this situation much longer. I took a sip before answering, letting the silence stretch between us just enough to irritate him.

“I thought we had moved past all these questions and demands,” I said, setting the glass down with quiet precision.

“You thought wrong. We haven’t.”

I turned then to look at him, leaning back against the counter, arms crossing loosely over my chest. Kliment stood across the room. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes were anything but. There was nothing casual about the way he looked at me. It had been like that for days now, and there was no more pretending that this was temporary. No more silence stretching between us without purpose. He walked towards me, clearly deciding to push. But I, too, had decided not to make it easy. Misha Chernykh would not give in.

“You’ve been asking that question in different forms for three days now,” I said. “You are going to have to get more creative.”