Chapter 35 Sasha
Sasha
The bait worked better than we expected.
The intel we planted about Dmitri withdrawing resources to Moscow made Adrian bold enough to surface and rally what remains of his coalition.
“He’s meeting with at least four representatives from the European families,” Boris explains as he spreads satellite images across the conference table in our Shoreditch command center. “The Corsican contingent, two men from Berlin, and someone we haven’t identified yet.”
Tony leans over the photos with his arms crossed. “Security?”
“Six men outside that we’ve counted.” Boris taps the warehouse’s rear entrance. “The building has three access points. Main door here, loading dock on the south side, and an emergency exit in the back.”
Dmitri’s face fills the laptop screen propped at the end of the table. He’s been conferencing in from Moscow since we confirmed Adrian’s location. “I can have twenty men there within the hour. We hit them hard and fast before they know what’s happening.”
“If we do that, Adrian will disappear again the second he hears vehicles approaching.” I shake my head. “We tried overwhelming force at Thornfield. He had escape routes we didn’t know about. He’ll have them here too.”
“So what do you suggest?” Dmitri’s voice carries an edge. “Walk in and ask him nicely to surrender?”
“Something like that.”
The silence that follows is deafening. Tony turns to look at me with one eyebrow raised. Boris stops mid-movement with a satellite photo in his hand.
“Explain,” Dmitri demands.
“Adrian thinks he’s regained the advantage. He thinks you’ve pulled most of your resources back to Moscow and left Tony and me with minimal protection.” I meet my brother’s eyes through the screen. “He believes we’re desperate. Scared. Ready to negotiate.”
“You want to walk into that warehouse and pretend to surrender.”
“I want to walk into that warehouse and make Adrian think he’s won.
Draw him out into the open where Boris’s team can take him.
” I gesture at the satellite images. “If we show up with an army, he runs. If we show up alone, looking beaten and ready to deal, he’ll want to gloat. He won’t be able to resist.”
“What makes you think he won’t just assume it’s a repeat of last time?” my brother snaps.
Tony speaks up. “Adrian’s ego is his weakness. He didn’t just want to destroy the Kozlovs. He wanted Sasha to watch it happen. Wanted her to know he was the one pulling the strings.”
“And you think he’ll expose himself just for the satisfaction of seeing her grovel?”
“He’s been fantasizing about that moment for two years, so yes. I believe he’ll want to savor it, even if that moment comes with risk..”
Dmitri is quiet for a long moment. I can see him wrestling with the same protective instincts that made him argue against every dangerous plan I’ve proposed since this started.
“Boris,” he snaps, “can your team be in position without being detected? Is that even feasible at this location?”
Boris studies the satellite images again. “The buildings to the north provide decent cover. I can have men there and more near the loading dock. They’ll be close enough to breach within thirty seconds of a signal.”
“What signal?”
“We’ll work something out,” I answer. “A code word, a gesture. Something Adrian won’t recognize as a trigger.”
“And if something goes wrong before you can give the signal?”
“Then Boris breaches anyway and we improvise.” I keep my voice steady despite the fear coiling in my stomach.
“Dmitri, this is our best chance. Maybe our only chance. Adrian is wounded, his coalition is fractured, and he’s desperate enough to take risks he wouldn’t normally take.
If we don’t end this now, he’ll disappear again and spend the next year rebuilding. ”
Tony moves to stand beside me. “She’s right. Every day Adrian stays free is another day he can recruit new allies and plan new attacks. We need to finish this.”
Dmitri runs a hand over his face. “If anything happens to her—”
“Nothing will happen to her,” Tony cuts in. “I’ll be right beside her the entire time. And Boris’s team will be thirty seconds away.”
“Thirty seconds is a long time when bullets start flying.”
“Then we make sure the bullets don’t start flying until we’re ready for them.”
Another long silence. I watch my brother’s face on the screen, reading the conflict in his eyes. He wants to say no. Wants to order me back to Moscow where he can keep me safe. But he knows as well as I do that safety is an illusion as long as Adrian is breathing.
“Fine,” he finally concedes. “But Tony,” Dmitri’s gaze bores into the man beside me, “you promised me she’d come home alive. I’m holding you to that.”
“Understood.”
The call ends, and Boris immediately begins coordinating with his team. Tony and I retreat to a corner of the room to discuss our approach.
“We’ll need a convincing story,” he tells me. “Something Adrian will believe.”
“We tell him the truth. Mostly.” I lean against the wall and cross my arms. “Dmitri has pulled back resources, we’re exhausted from chasing dead ends, and I’m willing to discuss terms if it means ending the threat to my family.”
“He won’t believe you’d go back to him.”
“No. But he might believe I’d negotiate a truce. Agree to stay out of his way if he agrees to stay out of ours.” I shake my head slowly. “It’s weak, and Adrian knows it. But that’s the point. We need him to think we’re out of options.”
Tony nods, but I can see the worry in his eyes. “I don’t like using you as bait.”
“I don’t love it either. But Adrian’s obsession with me is the reason we’re in this mess. Might as well use it to end things.”
We spend the next hour refining the plan. Boris identifies positions for his teams and establishes communication protocols. Tony and I rehearse our approach, our story, the signal we’ll use when we’re ready for the breach.
By the time we return to the hotel, it’s nearly midnight. Tomorrow we end this. One way or another.
I try to sleep but only manage a few fitful hours. Sometime after two in the morning, movement beside me pulls me back to consciousness.
Tony is thrashing in the sheets, and his face is contorted and his breathing harsh. His hands claw at the pillow like he’s fighting something I can’t see.
I’ve watched my brothers go through this. Dmitri still has nightmares about our father’s death, about the violence that shaped his childhood. Alexei wakes up swinging sometimes, lost in memories of fights that have nearly killed him.
I know better than to startle a man trapped in his own personal hell.
“Tony.” I keep my voice soft as I reach for his shoulder. “Tony, wake up. You’re safe.”
He doesn’t respond. His body jerks, and a sound escapes his throat that’s somewhere between a groan and a sob. Whatever he’s reliving, it has him completely in its grip.
I shake him gently. “Tony, come back to me. It’s just a dream.”
His eyes fly open, and for a terrifying moment, he doesn’t see me at all. His gaze is wild and unfocused, fixed on something far away. His chest heaves with ragged breaths.
“It’s me,” I murmur. “It’s Sasha. You’re in London. You’re safe.”
Recognition slowly filters back into his eyes. He blinks several times, and his breathing begins to steady. When he finally focuses on my face, I see the exact moment he realizes where he is.
“Sasha.” My name comes out hoarse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Don’t apologize.” I inch closer and wrap my arms around him. “I’m here.”
He’s trembling. This man who faced down Adrian’s guards without flinching, who took a bullet and kept fighting, is shaking in my arms like a frightened child. I don’t ask what he was dreaming about. I don’t need to.
I just hold him.
His arms come around me slowly, tentatively, like he’s not sure he’s allowed to accept the comfort. I press my cheek against his chest and listen to his heartbeat gradually slow from its frantic pace.
Minutes pass. His breathing evens out. The trembling subsides.
“Chechnya,” he finally whispers into my hair. “I was back in Chechnya.”
I tighten my grip on him but don’t say anything. He’ll tell me what he needs to tell me. Pushing won’t help.
“Six men died because I trusted the wrong person. Because I let my feelings cloud my judgment.” His voice is barely audible. “I’ve spent three years trying to make sure that never happens again. And now…”
“Now what?”
“Now I’m terrified tomorrow will end the same way.” His arms tighten around me. “That people I care about will die because I made the wrong call. Because I missed something. Because I wasn’t good enough to keep them safe.”
I pull back just enough to look at his face. Even in the low lighting surrounding us, I can see the fear in his eyes. The guilt he still carries for men who died years ago.
“Tony.” I cup his face in my hands. “What happened in Chechnya wasn’t your fault.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you. I know the man who threw himself in front of bullets to protect me. Who gave up everything he was working toward because he couldn’t stomach hurting my family.
” I hold his gaze. “That man doesn’t make careless mistakes.
That man does everything in his power to protect the people he cares about. ”
“And sometimes everything isn’t enough.”
“Sometimes it isn’t,” I agree. “But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. It doesn’t mean we let fear make our decisions for us.”
He closes his eyes and leans into my touch. “I can’t lose you, Sasha. Not like I lost them.”
“You won’t.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No. But I can promise that whatever happens tomorrow, we face it together.” I press a gentle kiss to his forehead. “I’m not going anywhere, Tony. And neither are you.”
He pulls me back against his chest and holds me like I’m the only thing keeping him anchored to the present. I can feel his heart beating beneath my cheek, strong and steady despite the fear still coursing through him.
We stay wrapped around each other in the darkness, not sleeping, not talking. Just breathing together and holding on.
Tomorrow we walk into Adrian’s trap and spring one of our own.
But tonight, we have this.