Page 74 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

I look at the photograph for a long moment before I say anything.

“No change in routine,” Yuri says. “But a vehicle registered to one of Kalinin’s shell companies passed the school twice this week.”

Igor looks down at the photograph. “He’s watching the boy.”

“Not closely enough to alarm anyone,” Yuri says. “Closely enough to move him if he needs to.”

Tamara’s son has a piano recital Saturday morning. There are grandparents listed on the school contact forms, neighbors who know his schedule, teachers who have watched him grow up. A whole life constructed around a crime none of them committed.

“We cannot take him out of that house like an extraction,” I say.

“No,” Igor agrees.

“And we can’t alert Kalinin before we control every route he could use to move them.”

Yuri nods. “We’re mapping the shell accounts, school authorizations, the adoption attorney, and everyone tied to the original paperwork.”

“How long?”

“Not long enough to make this easy.”

Nothing will make it easy.

Tamara deserves her son.

Mark deserves not to have armed strangers tear apart the only family he knows.

Anna Morozov deserves not to be punished for believing her husband gave her a child legally.

And David Kalinin deserves to answer for what he did.

The problem is that taking it from him may cost us the infrastructure currently keeping the Colombians out—and give him enough warning to make Mark disappear before Tamara ever reaches him.

My phone buzzes.

Tamara:

Your brother is wearing sunglasses indoors

Despite everything, my mouth almost moves.

Me:

I apologize for my family

Her reply arrives immediately.

Tamara:

He is requesting a company expense account

Me:

Denied

Tamara:

I’ll let him know