Page 104 of The Bratva Betrayal

The silence that follows is different.

Something moves behind Colin’s eyes that I catalog carefully, because there are a few things it could be, and the difference between them matters.

It could be fury with Misha, or for me for knowing.

It could be calculation: him deciding how much this information changes the value of every piece on his board.

I watch him work through it, and I think about Cady standing in her bedroom with a black eye and a steady voice, and I feel something in my chest that I keep very carefully off my face.

“And you handled it.”

I nod. “I handled it.”

He picks up his glass again and takes a long sip, and I watch him accept what I’ve done.

That tells me more about Cady’s life than anything she’s said to me.

“Lucas Manifold.” I move forward because sentiment isn’t why I’m here. “Misha had a debt. Three million dollars. Manifold was holding it. But you already knew that.”

This son of a bitch would risk his daughter’s life to save his legacy.

That makes me want to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze.

“With Misha gone,” I continue, “Manifold loses his leverage over my brother, but he still wants what he wants, and your family is still in his crosshairs. The buffer is gone now, and there’s still a possibility he redirects his attention to Cady.”

“And how,” Colin says carefully, “Do you plan to fix that, boy? You’ve already ruined what I’ve fuckin’ planned.”

“I’ll handle Manifold.”

“You’ll handle him.” Skepticism roughens his tone. He’s heard promises before. “And in the meantime, my daughter is exposed, the alliance is broken, and I have nothing to show Benedikt Volkov except a broken engagement and … what?”

“Keep Cady out of Volkov business. That’s the other thing I came to say. Whatever you had planned for her, whatever her next assignment was going to be, it stops. She’s done.”

He glowers at me and, maybe if he were thirty years younger, he could take me. “You don’t give orders in my office, Makarov.”

“I’m not giving an order. I’m telling you how it is and how it’s going to be.”

A few of his men shift, but I keep my eyes on Colin because he’s the only person in this room whose decision matters.

Colin laces his fingers on the desk and looks at me with flat, calculating eyes. “You came in here, broke my arrangement, and told me to keep my daughter out of the business she was placed in at my direction.” He tilts his head. “Since you’ve decided to take all of this into your own hands, Makarov, you can marry her. That solves every problem on the table. Alliance intact. Benedikt satisfied. Cady protected. Manifold neutralized by association.” He spreads his hands. “Simple.”

“No.”

“No?” he repeats the word like it’s a novelty. “Boy, you’re on my last fuckin’ nerve right now.”

“She doesn’t want marriage. She made that clear.“

“I don’t give a shit what she wants. I care about what she was made for.”

“You speak about what’s mine like that one more time, Gallagher, and you’ll regret it.” I hold his gaze. “I will not hand her something she’s been trying to get out of and put my name on it instead.”

Colin studies me for a long moment.

He’s not wrong to look. He just won’t find what he’s expecting.

“What are you offering me?” he asks.

“My name. Not on a license. Not at an altar. Just behind hers, where anyone who needs to know can find it. She’s under my protection. That’s the arrangement. Anyone who wants to get to her goes through me first, and nobody who knows anything about what that means would try.”