Page 85 of Bought By Sin

She’s submitting and she’s getting to the understanding that she’s mine.

That we were one.

I squeezed her hand, grateful that I had her to complete me. To know me. And to want to comfort me and help me however she could.

“I don’t know…” Adrik shook his head, uncomfortable with the precise plans we were laying out.

“You don’t know what?” Alexei asked.

“I’m not sure about this so far,” Adrik said.

“To take action?” Alexei scoffed. “You want to sit and twiddle your thumbs a little more and wait for Gregori to strike out at us again?”

Carina rolled her eyes. “Do you have to turn every question into something antagonistic? He’s not saying he doesn’t want to act. He’s not sure about what we’re saying so far about how to act.”

“I didn’t ask you,” Alexei drawled.

Carina smirked right back at him. Maksim shot Carina a look like asking for patience, but he didn’t rush to defend her. She didn’t need him to. She was sassy and opinionated but not for the theatrics of it.

“What aren’t you sure about?” Maksim asked him. He was the one to drive into the conflict, to the specific cog in the machine that needed attention in a plan.

“I’d rather not waste the resources to hunt down Yusef Antonov,” Adrik said plainly. “I’d rather go for Gregori.”

I nodded. “Yes. We have to approach this strike—any strike we make—from the top down.”

“Then how do we do that, Lev?” Viktor challenged with a point at the screen that showed the last image of where Yusef might have been found on a grainy surveillance feed near the ocean, at a dock warehouse. “We have some leads to tracking him, thanks to you.” He looked at Mila. “But we have no leads on finding Gregori.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t find any,” I argued, wishing we could do as Adrik seemed to want, to direct resources toward hunting down Gregori himself.

“It would take time and effort we might not be able to spend now,” Nikolai said.

“And taking out Gregori might just mean that Yusef Antonov will step into his place.” Alexei shrugged. “A power vacuum, and he’s poised as the next in charge.”

“Have there been rumors or speculation about a planned coup like that happening?” Elena asked timidly. “Anything to suggest that Yusef Antonov might be planning to get Gregori out of the way because he wants to be in charge?”

Adrik sighed heavily and shook his head. “No. I know what you’re thinking. That if we let Yusef Antonov take out Gregori, that’s one problem handled for us.”

She nodded, skeptical, but that wasn’t anything new. She didn’t like knowing many details. I wondered when she’d realize she was basically the queen of this family now and she did know all the details.

“And if that were possible, we’d still be back to the same problem of needing Yusef Antonov gone.” Alexei held his hands up in a truce.

“Fuck it.” Adrik rubbed his face. “We’ll go after him. We’ll set up a task force to eliminate him.”

“Yusef?” Maksim asked.

Adrik nodded and looked at me. “Who are you thinking of taking?” I’d be expected to hit up the team.

Before I could speak, Mila cleared her throat. “Me?”

I furrowed my brow, whipping around to face her. “You’re still recovering from the last⁠—”

She shook her head, determination too bright in her eyes to dismiss it. “I’m fine.”

“Are you?” Adrik asked, looking at me after he studied her. “Because if you are able to handle this⁠—”

“Hold on. No.” I shook my head. “She’s not handling this. She’s not an assassin.”

“I can go with you, then,” she said simply, like it made all the sense in the world.