Page 31 of The Bratva Betrayal

"How are Killian and Rian handling Manifold?" I ask.

She blinks. "They're handling it. Like everyone else."

Lucas Manifold forces decisions nobody wants to make. He’s a politician who built his campaign on cleaning up organized crime, and he has been pushing harder lately, stepping into territory that's been left alone for a reason. He's a disruption. And disruption makes people sloppy.

"Handling," I repeat. "That's one way to put it."

"I'm not involved."

"Of course not. You're just spying."

"Artem," Misha grounds out. "Stop."

Cady sets her fork down. "If you truly thought I was a threat, I don't think you'd be here."

"I make it a point to be if you are."

I take another sip of wine and let it go. She understands. I'm not here to settle anything. I'm here to make sure she knows she's been seen.

"It's good." I nod at the food.

Not praise or approval; just enough to let her think I'm settling in.

Because I am. Just not in the way she wants.

Misha reaches for her hand under the table, and she lets him take it without hesitation.

"I hope you like the dessert I picked out," Cady says proudly.

"What is it?" Misha asks.

Her blue eyes find mine and stay there. "Sharlotka."

I stop chewing.

The surprise hits before I can stop it, and I go from caught off guard to quietly furious in the span of about two seconds. Furious at her for knowing, and furious at myself for letting it show.

She's been looking into me the same way I've been looking into her. Both of us building a file, learning everything we can to use against the other.

"Where did you hear about that?" Misha is amused. "That's Russian, babe."

"Googled it," she says simply.

She doesn't take her eyes off me.

It's a warning delivered over dessert, and I'd call it well played if a dessert were enough to matter.

It isn't.

But it tells me everything I need to know about who I'm dealing with.

8

Cady

Shopping bags dig into my fingers as we empty my trunk, their thin handles biting into my skin in a way.

Misha said he’d help, and he did.