Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Maxim
I stare at my wife like she has grown two heads. She might as well have. I can’t believe what I just heard.
“Say that again?” I growl, almost hoping my tone will make her backtrack. But no luck there.
“Dmitri is the mole you've been looking for.”
No. That can’t be right. There’s no fucking way. Dmitri, my best friend, the one I’ve trusted with my life for years, betraying me? It’s impossible.
I stare at Calina, my blood boiling. “What game are you playing at? Is this your way of covering your own tracks after I caught you sneaking around?”
She flinches but doesn’t back down. “We’ve had this conversation before. I knew you were not going to believe me right away. That’s why I hesitated to tell you. But Dmitri is the mole, Maxim.”
I laugh bitterly, running a hand through my hair. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She takes a shaky breath and starts explaining.
“Yesterday, I couldn’t sleep. You were already asleep, so I went downstairs to the media room to watch something.
As I was passing the lower floor, I heard someone on a hushed call.
He was saying he would send a document, but he needed more time to get his hands on it.
I didn’t know who it was at first, so I stayed to listen.
Then Dmitri walked out of the room. The way he looked at me…
like he’d been caught doing something wrong…
it stuck with me. But I didn’t want to say anything because I wasn’t sure. ”
I stare at her, jaw clenched so tight it hurts. “Go on.”
“So I… I had his phone stolen,” she admits, voice now a little shaky. “Milana helped me get it while you were all working out by the pool. I asked to give it to one of my brothers’ hackers. They went through...”
Rage explodes through me. “You did what? You took Dmitri’s phone and gave it to your brothers? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The danger you’ve put my entire business in? If your brothers get their hands on the information in that phone—”
“They don’t know,” she cuts in quickly. “My brothers aren’t aware. It’s just the hacker for now.”
I laugh, the sound harsh and angry. “It’s only a matter of time before they find out. He works for them, he could have already tattled to them as we speak.”
She steps closer, eyes pleading. “Maxim, my brothers won’t work against you. That’s not the point. The point is what we found.”
I glare at her, barely holding onto my control. “What did you find?”
She looks at the flash drive in my hand. “Plug it in. See for yourself.”
I stare at the small device like it’s a live grenade. Part of me doesn’t want to look, because if she’s right, it means the man I’ve called brother for years has been stabbing me in the back.
I stare at the flash drive, then at my wife. Calina stands there with a quiet, sure look on her face, but I can see the nervousness in her eyes. My chest feels too tight.
If I plug this into the laptop, what am I going to find? Proof that Dmitri, the man I pulled from the streets, the brother I trusted with my life, has been stabbing me in the back? Or worse… proof that my wife is lying to me and trying to put a wedge between my brothers and me?
I don’t want any of it to be true. Of all people, Dmitri is the last one I would ever suspect. He’s been with me through blood, through fire, through everything. If he’s not the mole, then Calina is playing some dangerous game. Spying on me. Working against me. The thought makes my stomach turn.
Either way, this ends badly.
I swear under my breath and walk over to her bedside drawer. I pull out the laptop I keep there, boot it up, and enter my password with shaking fingers. The flash drive slides in with a soft click.
The files open.
Messages flood the screen.
Most of them are normal conversations between me and Dmitri, Dmitri and Viktor, and my men. But the ones that make my blood freeze are the ones between Dmitri and Adrian.
Dmitri has been feeding him details about my organization in the last months. As I read the messages, I feel my migraine getting worse. Shipment routes. Operational details meant to stay secret. Business deals discussed only between me and my men.
The wedding. My wedding. The attack that almost took my wife from me. It was him.
Denial hits me first. No. Not Dmitri. He wouldn’t. Then anger, hot and blinding, surges through me like wildfire. That motherfucker. After all I’ve done for him.
Maybe it’s fake. Maybe someone planted this. But the messages are too detailed, too precise. A heavy weight crushes my chest as the betrayal sinks in. The man I called brother. The man I saved. The man who knew every secret, every plan, has been betraying me.
He sold me out to Adrian. He leaked the wedding location. He tried to have my wife killed. I almost lost Calina because of him.
Rage like I’ve never felt before floods every cell in my body. I can barely breathe. My hands are shaking so hard I nearly drop the laptop. I want to destroy something. I want to find Dmitri right now and rip his throat out with my bare hands.
A soft voice cuts through the red fog in my head.
“I’m sorry…” Calina whispers, her voice trembling. “I’m so sorry, Maxim.”
I look at her, chest heaving, eyes burning with fury and pain. For a long moment, the only sound in the room is my own ragged breathing.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers again, “I kept this from you. I know we promised no secrets...”
“Damn right you did,” I cut in. “You kept it from me, malyshka.”
Her lips part, like she wants to defend herself, but I cut through it.
“No secrets, that was the agreement. No secrets.”
“Yes,” she breathes. “No secrets. I was planning to tell you… I only found out when I met my sister for drinks.”
“So that’s what the drinks with your sister were about,” I say, voice low.
“Yes,” she admits again, quieter now. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. I know how close you are to Dmitri. I didn’t want it to look like I was accusing him without proof.”
Silence drops between us. I look back at the screen, at Dmitri’s phone, at the messages. And for a moment, I want it to be wrong. I want it to be anything but this. But it isn’t.
I drag a hand through my hair, tugging hard at the strands, not caring about the sting. “What the fuck…”
In this world, you really can’t trust anyone. Even the ones closest to you can stab you in the back. The realization hits like a gut punch.
I’m pulled out of my thoughts when I feel Calina’s small, warm hands on my shoulders. I turn around slowly. She’s standing right beside me, eyes full of worry and love.
“What are you going to do?” she asks softly.
I let out a heavy breath and sit on the edge of the bed. She sits beside me, her hand resting on my thigh. My mind is spinning, Dmitri has to pay. There’s no question about that.
But why? Why would he do this? I treated him like a brother. Better than blood in some ways. I gave him and Viktor everything, money, power, a place at my side. If he needed more, all he had to do was ask. I made sure they had more than they could ever spend. So what the hell was his problem?
And Adrian… that smug bastard must have been laughing in my face the entire time, knowing my own man was feeding him information.
I look at Calina, my voice rough with barely contained rage. “They will all pay for putting your life in danger. Every single one of them.”
She watches me. “Maxim, I know you’re hurt, but you can’t react rashly.
“I won’t,” I say, exhaling slowly, “I’m not going to act like I know anything yet.”
“Okay…”
“When I let them know I’m aware of what they’ve been up to, I want both of them in the same room.”
Her gaze sharpens. “I might have an idea.”
I lean against the headboard intrigued. “Let’s hear it then.”
I listen as Calina lays out her plan, her voice steady despite the nerves I can see in her eyes. She suggests inviting Adrian to a larger, more public event.
She suggests we host a grand reception under the excuse that our intimate wedding was too small and we want to properly introduce her as my wife to our circle.
It would be the perfect trap. Adrian would come willingly, thinking he’s safe among the elite. And Dmitri… Dmitri would have no qualms about attending.
A slow, dangerous smile spreads across my lips as she finishes.
“You’re so fucking smart, malyshka,” I murmur, pulling her on to my lap. “My wife is brilliant.”
For the first time since I saw those messages, the crushing weight in my chest eases just a fraction.
I bend my head and kiss her deeply, tasting the sweetness of her mouth, letting her warmth chase away some of the ice in my veins.
She melts into me, her hands gripping my shirt like she’s trying to keep me anchored.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” I say against her lips. “We’ll make them think we’re oblivious and then make them pay for their sins. Every last one of them.”
When Calina later falls asleep in my arms, I slip out of bed. I can’t rest. Not with this poison festering inside me.
I take Dmitri’s phone and head downstairs, moving silently through the dark house. The outdoor gym by the pool is quiet, the only light coming from the security lamps.
I place the phone carefully among a stack of dumbbells, cracking the screen slightly with the edge of one weight to make it look as if it had been dropped and forgotten. It’s hidden just enough that it wouldn’t be immediately obvious, but not so well that it can’t be “found.”
I stand there for a moment, staring at it, my hands clenched into fists. The betrayal burns like acid in my veins. They are so going to pay.
By the time I return to our bedroom, sleep is impossible. I pace the floor like a caged animal, replaying every conversation, every mission, every secret I shared with Dmitri. The man I called brother. The man I saved. The man who tried to have my wife killed on our wedding day.
I think back to all the times Dmitri had pretended to hate Adrian. Fucking liar! It takes every ounce of self-control I possess not to storm into his room and put a bullet between his eyes.
By morning, I have a full-blown migraine. My eyes are bloodshot, my head feels like it’s splitting open, and exhaustion weighs on me like lead. But I force myself through breakfast with Calina, Dmitri, and Viktor, pretending everything is normal while she watches me with quiet concern.
After she leaves for her day, I call Dmitri and Viktor into my office. I sit behind my desk in the office, every muscle in my body coiled tight as I fight the overwhelming urge to reach across the wood and wrap my hands around Dmitri’s throat.
He’s sitting there like nothing is wrong, jovial, relaxed, cracking his usual jokes as if he hasn’t spent months stabbing me in the back. As if he didn’t try to have my wife killed. Calina fucking liked the idiot!
“Oh, by the way,” Dmitri says casually, “I found my phone.”
I raise an eyebrow, forcing my voice to stay even. “Really? Where?”
“Out at the outdoor gym. It was hidden under some dumbbells. Must have slipped out when we were working out. A weight probably fell on it, the screen’s cracked. And the battery was dead. That’s why I couldn’t find it. I forgot to charge the damn thing the night before.”
Viktor groans, shaking his head. “You still need to be more careful, Dmitri. That phone is not a toy.”
“Yeah,” I say, my voice low. “That phone getting into the wrong hands could have been catastrophic. Everything we do, every deal, every route, it could lead straight back to us.”
Dmitri raises both hands in mock surrender, flashing that easy grin I used to trust. “Sorry, brother. Won’t happen again. Hell, I’ll chain the damn thing to my neck if that’s what it takes.”
In the past, I would have laughed. Now, the sound of his voice makes me want to put a bullet between his eyes. This two-faced bastard. This backstabbing piece of shit who smiled in my face while feeding information to my enemy.
I clench my jaw so hard it aches, reminding myself to keep control. Not yet. The time isn’t right.
I lean back in my chair, forcing a calm expression.
“We’re hosting a party. An after-wedding celebration for the people in our circle we couldn’t invite to the small ceremony.
Since the reception was ruined by the attack, Calina wants to do it properly this time.
We’ll invite members of the Society as well…
everyone, including that scumbag of Adrian. ”
Both of them react. Viktor looks mildly surprised. Dmitri’s face stays carefully neutral, but I catch the brief flicker in his eyes. The fucker is good, I’ll give him that.
“Why Adrian?” Dmitri asks, keeping his tone light. “I thought you couldn’t stand him.”
I meet his gaze steadily. “He’s part of the Society. It would look strange if we invited the others and excluded him. It’s just courtesy. Even if I can’t stand the bastard.”
We spend the next twenty minutes going over security details, guest list, and logistics. On the surface, I’m focused. Inside, I’m burning.
Why, Dmitri?
I gave you everything. A home. Money. Power. Brotherhood. And you sold me out for what? More money? A bigger seat at the table? Adrian’s favor?
I can barely sit still. Every time he speaks, every time he laughs at something Viktor says, I imagine wrapping my hands around his neck until his eyes bulge.
By the time they leave my office, my headache is worse than ever. But one thing is crystal clear.
Dmitri will pay.
And when the time comes, I’ll make sure he suffers for every single betrayal.