Chapter 26 Daria
Daria
Pyotr’s voice sounds far away, like he’s speaking underwater.
I’m standing in the kitchen where he left me, staring at the phone on the counter. Bogdan’s face is frozen on the cracked screen. That smirk. Those eyes. The train station platform stretching out behind him like a threat.
He was there.
While I held Kira and promised her everything would be okay. While Pyotr gave her his spy coin and made her a pinky promise, Bogdan was there, too, close enough to photograph my daughter’s face pressed against the glass.
Pyotr is pacing near the window with his phone glued to his ear. “Alexei, listen to me. He was at the platform. He has photos. We need to know if he has people on that train.”
I can’t hear Alexei’s response. I can only watch Pyotr’s face for any sign that my worst fears are about to come true.
“How far out?” Pyotr asks. A pause, followed by, “Good. Keep me posted.”
He ends the call and turns to me.
“The train is forty minutes from Moscow,” he tells me. “Alexei’s men swept every car an hour ago and found no one suspicious on board.”
“But Bogdan was at the station. He could have—”
“He watched from a distance like a fucking coward and made a video. That’s all he did.” Pyotr stalks across the kitchen, grabs me by the shoulders, and hauls me against his chest. “If he had people on that train, he wouldn’t have sent it to you. He would have just taken her.”
The logic makes sense, but I can’t stop picturing the image of Kira’s small face at the window, unaware that her father is watching.
“I did this,” I sob. “I put her on that train. I handed her over and smiled and told her to be brave, and he was right there the whole time.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She asked me to pinky promise,” I snap. “She asked me to promise I’d see her soon, and I did, and Bogdan was standing there recording the whole thing.”
“He’s going to use this,” I continue. “He’ll take everything he has to the custody judge and say I sent our daughter away with dangerous criminals. He’ll say—”
“He won’t get the chance.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“I know exactly what he’s capable of.” Pyotr’s voice is hard.
“I also know what I’m capable of. And Alexei.
And every man on that train and the ones waiting for it to arrive in Moscow.
” He pulls out his phone and shows me a map with a blinking dot moving steadily eastward.
“The moment the train enters the station, Kira will be transferred to an armored car and taken straight to the family compound. She won’t be exposed for more than sixty seconds. ”
“He knew about the train,” I whisper. “He knew the platform, the timing, everything. How?”
“He’s been watching the building for weeks.
His people would have seen Alexei arrive yesterday.
They would have followed us to the station and reported back.
” Pyotr moves to the counter and picks up the phone with Bogdan’s frozen face still on the screen.
“This video is a tantrum. He’s angry that you sent Kira somewhere he can’t easily reach, so he’s trying to scare you into bringing her back. ”
“It’s working.”
“Are you going to call Alexei and demand he put her on the next train home?”
The question cuts through my spiral. I think about Kira at the compound, surrounded by guards and gates and people who would die before they let anyone hurt her. And then I think about Kira here, in this apartment, with Bogdan’s men watching from across the street.
“No,” I admit. “She’s safer there.”
“And Bogdan knows it. That’s why he sent the video. He can’t get to her, so he’s trying to get to you.”
“Well, he succeeded.”
“For now. But panic doesn’t help Kira. Planning does.” Pyotr gestures toward the living room. “Sit down. Breathe. Let me tell you what happens next.”
I want to run to Moscow and wrap my arms around my daughter and never let go, but Pyotr is right. Panic won’t protect her. So, I force my legs to carry me to the couch and sink into the cushions while he takes the chair across from me.
“Alexei’s men intercepted Bogdan’s surveillance team twenty minutes ago,” he begins. “They found three guys in a car outside the train station, the same ones who’ve been watching this building. They’re being taken somewhere quiet for questioning.”
“Questioning?”
He ignores the question and adds, “By the time we’re done with them, we’ll know every safe house Bogdan has access to, every contact he’s been using, and every hole he might crawl into when things get worse for him.
And Kira arrives at the compound in—” He checks his phone.
“Thirty-two minutes, Mila is waiting at the gate with Sofia. They have a whole princess welcome planned.”
Despite everything, a small smile tugs at my mouth. “Kira will love that.”
“She will. And she’ll be so busy playing princess that she won’t even notice the guards. Bogdan made a mistake today. He showed us how desperate he’s become.”
“What do you mean?”
“He tipped his hand because he couldn’t resist scaring you.” A cold smile crosses Pyotr’s face. “Desperate men make mistakes like that. Fatal mistakes.”
I mull that over. Bogdan has always been so careful. Every move is premeditated, and every threat is measured perfectly. The man in the video, waving at the camera like a child showing off, doesn’t match the monster I married.
“He’s losing control,” I realize aloud.
“He’s been losing control since you stopped cooperating. Every day that passes without you giving him what he wants is another day his network crumbles.” Pyotr turns back to face me. “He wanted to hurt you because hurting you is the only power he has left.”
“It did hurt.”
“I know, but pain and danger aren’t the same thing. He hurt you with a video because he can’t hurt you any other way. Kira is beyond his reach.”
“Then why doesn’t it feel like we’re winning?”
Pyotr crouches in front of me, the same way he did the first time I fell apart in this apartment. His hands find my knees, grounding me.
“Because you’re a mother whose child is far away, and three years of terror don’t disappear just because the tide is finally turning.” He slides his thumbs against my legs. “But the tide is turning, Daria. Bogdan just doesn’t know it yet.”