Page 175 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

Igor’s gaze shifts to me. “We bought her safety with operational exposure. You understand what that means.”

“It means the Colombians get a window.”

“And?”

“And we close it.”

Mikhail lifts his coffee in mock salute. “Wonderful. Very simple. We create a crisis, then solve the crisis.”

“We didn’t create this,” I say.

No one argues.

Kalinin created it when he mistook a child for leverage. When he assumed everyone else would keep treating Ivan Morozov as a movable piece because that was what he had done for eight years.

He was wrong.

Now all of us get to pay for proving it.

Yuri scrolls to the next file. “Anna Morozov’s attorney has confirmed receipt of the documents. She chose her own counsel from the list Tamara provided, not ours.”

“That stays independent.”

“The apartment two floors below has been swept twice. Her key access is independent. Security remains outside the elevator bank, not at the door, per her request.” He continues, “School is paused for the next two days. The head of school received the corrected authorization list and new security instructions. Anna wants Ivan back as soon as it’s safe.”

“She’s right.”

Mikhail stops performing levity. “Is it going to be safe?”

“Eventually,” I say.

Igor doesn’t let that answer pass. “Eventually has to arrive fast. Children don’t do well living under operational review.”

“I know.”

I know because Tamara stood in my living room last night and watched Anna tuck a blanket around Ivan. She sat three feet away and kept her hands folded in her lap like empty hands were the only way to prove love.

I have never seen restraint look so brutal.

Mikhail shifts again, restless now. “And Kalinin?”

Kalinin. Even now, the name takes up space.

Yuri sets a thin folder on my desk. “He can still retaliate. Not quickly, and not through the shared routes without us seeing it first. His signature no longer moves anything important unless one of ours sits beside it. But his own men are already wavering.” He closes the file. “Loyalty gets philosophical when payroll starts looking uncertain.”

“Beautiful,” Mikhail says. “Nothing like financial ambiguity to inspire personal growth.”

Igor ignores him. “And the Colombians?”

Yuri gives us the bad news without decoration. “They’ve noticed.”

Of course they have. Predators always notice when something starts limping.

“They’re testing his outer channels,” Yuri continues. “Secondary storage. Private brokers. Smaller freight relationships he kept outside the shared structure.”

“Anything that touches Tamara, Anna, or Ivan?”

“No.”