35. Katya
Katya
Katya
The woman in our doorway looks like she could kill us with her bare hands and still have time to redecorate the penthouse.
“Sasha,” Dmitri breathes. For the first time since I’ve known him, he sounds genuinely terrified.
“Don’t you ‘Sasha’ me,” she snaps as she shoves past him into the living room. “What the fuck is wrong with you two idiots?”
Sasha Kozlov is nothing like I expected.
She’s petite where her brothers are tall and imposing, with blonde hair pulled back in a severe bun and green eyes that could cut glass.
She’s wearing a black business suit that screams expensive and practical, and she moves through the room like she owns everything in it.
“How did you know—” Dmitri starts.
“Boris called me the second Alexei showed up here with a goddamn tactical team. Then Maxim called me from the hospital, where they’re digging a bullet out of my other brother’s shoulder.
” She whirls around to face him, and the temperature in the room drops ten degrees.
“Care to explain why you shot your blood?”
He waves in my direction. “He was going to kill Katya.”
“And instead of talking to him like a rational human being, you decided violence was the better option?”
“Talking wasn’t working.”
“Did you try harder than five fucking minutes?”
Dmitri opens his mouth to argue, then thinks better of it. Smart man.
Sasha’s gaze lands on me next, and I resist the urge to take a step backward. “You must be the famous FSB agent who’s caused all this drama.”
“Katya,” I reply, tilting my chin up.
“I know who you are.” She tilts her head, eying me like I’m a museum exhibit. “Must have been quite the shock when you remembered who you were.”
“Something like that.”
“And you?” She turns to Anya, who’s been trying to blend into the background. “You’re not part of this soap opera.”
“Anya Sokolova. I was Katya’s therapist.”
“Was?”
“I’m also FSB. Long story.”
Sasha nods like this information doesn’t surprise her. “Of course you are. Because why would anything about this situation be simple?”
She stalks to the window and stares out at the city for a long moment before speaking again. “Do you three have any idea what you’ve done?”
“We’ve been trying to survive,” Dmitri replies.
“You’ve been tearing apart everything our father spent his life building.” She doesn’t turn around, but her voice carries enough venom to kill a horse. “Three generations of Kozlov men who understood that family comes first, and you decide to throw it all away over a woman.”
“Some things are more important than business.”
“Nothing is more important than family,” she snaps. “And right now, you and Alexei are destroying each other instead of protecting what matters.”
Anya clears her throat. “Maybe I should give you some privacy for this conversation.”
“Stay,” Sasha commands without looking at her. “You are a part of this mess, which means you’re a part of cleaning it up.”
“I don’t think?—”
“I don’t care what you think. I care about fixing the damage you’ve all caused.”
I’ve been quiet through this exchange, but watching Sasha tear into her brother like he’s a misbehaving child gives me a new perspective on family dynamics I never had growing up. This woman is furious, but underneath the anger is genuine fear that she’s losing the people she loves most.
“What do you want from us?” I ask.
“I want you all to stop acting like teenagers and start thinking about consequences.” She walks to the center of the room, where she can see all of us clearly.
“Dmitri, you shot your brother to protect a woman who was sent here to spy on us. Alexei thinks that proves you’re compromised beyond recovery.
Neither of you is completely wrong, but you’re both being fucking stupid. ”
“I wasn’t going to let him kill her.”
“So instead of finding a solution that protects everyone, you decided to have a gunfight in the hallway.”
Dmitri runs his hands through his hair, and I see the frustration building in his stance. “Alexei wasn’t interested in compromise.”
“You tried to explain while he was pointing a gun at her. Maybe the timing wasn’t ideal for a complex intelligence briefing. You should’ve told him the moment you found out. The second she got her memory back. Everyone’s been trying to protect someone, and look where it’s gotten us.”
I run my thumb along my crescent moon tattoo while I watch Sasha pace the room like a caged animal. She’s right, but I’m not sure what solution she thinks exists.
“What do you propose we do?” I ask.
“You’re going to tell Alexei everything. About Viktor, about Pavel, and about the corruption and the unauthorized operations. You’re going to explain why Katya isn’t the threat he thinks she is.”
“He won’t listen to me. Not after I shot him.”
“He’ll listen because I’ll make him listen. And because the alternative is watching our family destroy itself over misunderstandings and pride.”
Dmitri looks skeptical. “You think you can convince him to hear me out?”
“I think I can convince him that self-destructing over wounded feelings is the kind of weakness that gets everyone killed.” Sasha pulls out her phone and starts dialing. “Which is something Father would have drilled into both of you if he were still alive.”
Dmitri sneers. “Don’t bring Father into this.”
“Father would be ashamed of both of you right now. He spent years teaching you that family loyalty was the foundation of everything we do. That protecting each other was more important than being right, more important than pride, more important than anything else in the world.”
“I was protecting my family.”
“You were protecting Katya. Which is admirable, but you did it by attacking Alexei instead of working with him to find a solution that keeps everyone safe.”
Someone answers Sasha’s call, and she switches to Russian to arrange a meeting. Her tone suggests that declining isn’t an option.
“One hour,” she says when she hangs up. “Neutral location, both of you present, and this gets resolved today.”
She turns to me next, and I brace myself for another verbal assault.
“You’re coming, too.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“This fight is partially about you, which means you need to be part of the solution.”
“Alexei wants me dead. My presence won’t make him more reasonable.”
“Maybe not. But it’s going to force them to confront the reality of what they’re fighting about instead of hiding behind abstract principles.
One hour,” Sasha repeats, looking at each of us in turn.
“Warehouse district, building twelve. You show up, you tell the truth, and you start acting like family instead of enemies. Right now, the biggest threat to this family isn’t Viktor’s network or the FSB or rival organizations.
It’s the two of you tearing each other apart over a situation that could be resolved with honesty and compromise. ”
She heads for the door, then stops and looks back at us.
“Don’t make me choose between my brothers. Because if this keeps going, that’s what will happen, and none of us will like how that turns out.”
She slams the door behind her, leaving the three of us staring at each other in stunned silence.
“Well,” Anya says finally, “she’s terrifying.”
“She’s also right,” I reply, though the admission tastes bitter.
Dmitri sinks into his chair and puts his head in his hands. “This is going to be a disaster.”
“Maybe. But it’s also the first chance we’ve had to solve this problem instead of just managing it.”
“You think Alexei will listen to reason?”
I offer him a one-shouldered shrug. “I think Alexei loves his family more than he hates me. And I think Sasha is scary enough to make both of you behave like adults long enough to have a conversation.”
“What if she’s wrong? What if telling him everything just convinces him that I’m more compromised than he thought?”
“Then at least we’ll know where we stand. Right now, we’re fighting shadows and assumptions. Maybe it’s time to deal with facts.”
Dmitri looks up at me, and I see the fear in his green eyes. Not fear of his brother or the coming confrontation, but fear of losing something precious that he’s only just realized he has.
“Whatever happens in that warehouse, I want you to know something. Shooting Alexei to protect you was the right choice. Even if it costs me everything else, even if it destroys the family, even if it was the stupidest decision I’ve ever made. It was the right choice.”
“Why?”
“Because some things are worth more than strategy or family loyalty or organizational survival. And you’re one of those things.”
I lean over and kiss him, tasting the fear and determination on his lips.
“Then let’s go make sure we don’t lose everything else in the process.”