Page 138 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

Business.

After everything else, I give him business.

“Yuri verified it this morning,” I continue. “We removed the manager at nine. He is alive. He will remain that way if he answers questions honestly.”

Kalinin takes too long with the file.

“You see? Necessary things are rarely clean.”

“No,” I say. “They are not.”

I give him nothing else.

The door opens. Yuri stands beyond it, silent. Kalinin glances back once, then returns his attention to me.

“Tell Tamara that I hope she will come to understand.”

I don’t answer.

Kalinin steps out. Just before the door closes, he looks at me one last time. “You should ask yourself what happens to the boy if you turn this into a war.”

When he leaves, Yuri closes the door behind him.

“How much?” he asks.

“Enough.”

“He threatened the boy?”

“He explained himself.”

Yuri’s jaw tightens once. “That bad?”

“Worse.”

I cross back to the desk and open the drawer. The Morozov file waits where I left it. I take it out and set it beside Bellweather. Two kinds of leverage. One dressed as business. One disguised as family.

“Double coverage on the school and the house,” I say.

“Already have one team on each.”

“Make it two.”

“That may become visible.”

“We have to risk it.” I look down at the photograph tucked inside the file. “If Kalinin even thinks about moving him, I want to know before the thought finishes forming.”

“Something changed.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

I close the file.

“He is justifying himself.”

Yuri understands immediately. Men like Kalinin don’t explain old decisions unless they are preparing new ones.