Chapter 20 - Fyodor
For a moment, I considered ignoring the phone, but Viktor did not call at dawn unless something was already in motion.
Carefully, I slid out from beneath her, making sure to not wake her up with my movements.
She stirred faintly, fingers brushing over the empty space I left behind, but she did not wake, and I quietly stepped onto the balcony to answer the phone.
“Yes, Viktor?”
There was no preamble. Whatever was waiting for me on the other end of this call was undoubtedly serious.
“Kliment moved ahead of schedule,” Viktor said.
My jaw tightened. “With what?”
“The port.” Cold settled in my chest.
“What about it?”
“He’s planning a seizure tonight. He wants to make it loud and public, and he wants it traced back to Chernykh territory so other bratvas go against the Chernykhs. He is trying to isolate them and is planning to paint Elisse as the collateral.”
A beat of silence. “How exactly?”
“He expects retaliation from others against the Chernyks, so he is already circulating information that she will be transferred between locations this week and will be easier to kidnap.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Like hell she would.”
“He believes forcing Chernykh to attempt extraction will justify open conflict, and isolating them will help with our own motives. He wants to make everything go in his favor, and he clearly no longer cares that she is a Romanov or your wife. He is going to any lengths to get through with his revenge.”
Of course he was doing exactly that. Kliment never believed in subtlety.
He believed in provocation. In spectacle.
In blood loud enough to echo, and when he was angry, he forgot everything else.
Such as he was forgetting the fact that I was his brother and she was my wife.
I could not just stand and take the disrespect.
“He’s baiting them by using her,” I said quietly.
“Yes.”
The line went silent, but in that silence, something inside me shifted permanently. It was not anger or outrage but something colder instead. Something even more decisive.
“Dismantle the port operation,” I said.
“That will be too obvious. He will know you have done it, and that will only make him angrier. You should not give him any other reasons to lose his mind right now after everything that has already happened.”
“I don’t care, Viktor. Not anymore.”
“And what will we do about Kliment?”
“I’ll handle him.”
“Alright. I will go ahead and dismantle this insanity.”
I ended the call and watched how the city stretched before me, deceptively calm.
Behind me, through the open balcony door, Elisse moved in her sleep, rolling onto her side, searching for warmth.
She was supposed to be leverage and strategic alignment from the very beginning.
She was a temporary piece on a board that I controlled.
But somewhere between intercepted shipments and a midnight dance floor, she had stopped being an asset and had started being something I would burn the board for.
Kliment didn’t believe I would defy him openly because he knew I preferred quiet correction.
It was not as if we had never had fights or disagreements before, and every time I had relented through containment and private disagreements over a public spectacle.
A public spectacle had never been my thing because a united front was all that mattered to me.
He thought this time I would do the same again.
But he was wrong. It took me one hour to change and reach the warehouse on the east dock, which smelled like salt and rust when I walked inside.
Men were already loading crates filled with weapons and fuel.
Everything here was too visible and too deliberate. Kliment stood at the center of it all, issuing orders like a conductor orchestrating chaos. He turned when he heard my footsteps, and a slow smile curved his mouth as if he had been expecting me.
“Little brother,” he greeted. “I was waiting for you.”
“You decided to move early and once again without consultation.”
“You didn’t seem to consult me when you continued to stall, so I didn’t consider consulting you as well.”
“Don’t go ahead with this stupidity, Kliment. Stand down.”
His brows lifted slightly at my tone. I had never talked to him like this before. “Excuse me?”
“Call the operation off yourself rather than making me dismantle it with force.”
He laughed. “You don’t get to override me or my orders, Fyodor. Don’t forget your place in the business of things. I am the head of this family, and I know what is good for us and exactly what we need to do. Unlike you, I haven’t forgotten our purpose behind moving to Miami.”
“I have already given the orders to de-escalate and dismantle this operation, Fyodor. You cannot stop me.”
His expression hardened. “You’ve interfered three times now.”
“Four.” I wasn’t going to deny it. “And I will do it once again because I know you’re using her.”
“She is nothing but a liability, and liabilities are meant to be used.”
“She’s a person.”
“She’s Chernykh.”
“She is my wife.”
He stepped closer.
“This marriage was never supposed to happen, Fyodor. You brought her into our lives and our family out of your own will and I have given you time to prove your loyalty to the family, but you have done nothing but go against our own name. I will not stand here and take this disrespect or watch you destroy us. It is already more than enough. I will not let you choose her over blood.”
“I’m choosing stability over your ego.”
He scoffed. “You’ve grown soft.”
“No,” I replied evenly. “I’ve grown precise, and I am making smarter decisions here. Decisions that will help us stay in the city.”
He gestured to the crates around us.
“This forces their hand and isolates them at the same time, eventually resulting in the war that we need to win and stand out.”
“And what if we lose this war? What then? Will you move back to Russia? Will you forget this mission? From the very first day, I have been asking you to stay calm and make smart decisions, but all you have been aiming for is an escalation that will indefinitely kick us out of here.”
“It won’t. Because we will win this war.”
“You are forcing me to walk away from you, Kliment.”
That silenced him, and the tension between us thickened. The men working nearby slowed their movements, pretending not to listen.
“You would walk away?” Kliment asked.
“If necessary.”
“You built this with me. You have been here since day one, and this belongs to you as much as it belongs to me. You cannot walk away.”
“I know.”
“And yet you think you can simply step aside?”
“Yes.”
His laugh was sharp. “You are a Romanov, and you will always be a Romanov.”
“I am, and I always will be, but that means nothing.”
“That means that you don’t get to resign.”
“I’m not resigning.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I’m stepping out of your line of fire.”
“You think they won’t come for you?”
“They will.”
“And you’ll face that alone?”
“Yes.”
“For her?”
“For myself.”
Silence stretched between us.
“This is weakness,” he said finally.
“No,” I replied. “This is control.”
He studied me like he was seeing someone unfamiliar.
“You love her,” he said flatly.
The word did not feel like a weapon, but it felt like truth. A truth I was not running from anymore.
“Yes.”
His jaw clenched at my reply. “You’ll regret that.”
“Maybe.”
“And if she leaves?”
“I won’t stop her.”
He shook his head slowly. “You’re dismantling your own foundation.”
“No,” I said quietly. “I’m choosing a different one.”
I turned to Viktor, who had been beside me during the whole thing.
“Cancel the port.”
There was hesitation, but it was quickly followed by obedience as orders shifted and crates halted. Phones rang around us, and the plan began to unravel piece by piece. Kliment watched it happen, fury simmering beneath his calm exterior.
“This isn’t over,” he said.
“I know.”
“You walk out now, you walk out without protection.”
“I am aware.”
“And if I move against you?”
I met his gaze steadily.
“Then you move against me.”
For a moment, I thought he might strike me. He had every right. Instead, he stepped back.
“You’ve always been the strategist,” he said coldly. “Let’s see how you survive without the board.”
I left him there. Amid the half-loaded weapons and fractured plans. And for the first time in years, I felt lighter.
***
Elisse was pacing barefoot in the living room when I returned, wrapped in one of my shirts, her hair flowing loosely behind her. She looked up the moment I entered, and something in my expression must have given me away.
“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.
“Whatever was wrong has been handled. You don’t have to worry.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I walked toward her slowly.
“Kliment ordered an attack through which he was planning to isolate the Chernykhs while using you as bait and bringing in a war, so I had to go and dismantle it.”
“And Kliment was okay with that?”
“No, but I did it anyway, and now I am stepping away.” Her eyes widened at my reply.
“From what?”
“From Kliment’s operations.”
The room went very still.
“That’s not something you just do. He is your brother and your family, and you cannot step away from family.”
“I just did.”
“Fyodor—”
“You’re not leverage anymore. I won’t sit here and let him treat you like bait.”
She froze. “What?”
“You’re not a bargaining chip for me, Elisse. Not a deterrent. Not a strategy.”
Her voice softened. “Then what am I?”
I stepped closer. “You are my responsibility.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “Because you married me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I choose you.”
The words left me exposed in a way violence never had.
“You don’t owe me that,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“You don’t have to protect me.”
“I want to.”
“Why?”
Because you laughed. Because you stayed. Because when I imagined the future, it had you in it.
“Because I love you,” I said.
The silence that followed felt eternal. Her eyes shimmered, but she didn’t look away.
“You’re stepping away from your brother for me.”
“I’m stepping away because I won’t let you be collateral.”
“That makes me feel responsible.”
“No,” I agreed. “You are not responsible for anything. This is my choice and my decision.”
“But what if I leave?” she said quietly, “What happens then? What will this sacrifice be for if I leave?”
“If you do want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now.”
Her breath hitched. “You would let me walk away from you just like that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you here unless it’s by your own choice.”
Her hands trembled slightly as they came up to my chest. “I don’t want to leave.”
The words were soft but absolute, and they did something to me. Something I did not even know was possible anymore. Something that made me love her even more and made me want to hold her even closer.
“You don’t have to promise me that,” I said.
“I am not promising because I feel trapped.” She pressed her forehead against mine. “I’m promising because I feel safe here. With you.”
The word hit deeper than any declaration.
“Say it again,” I murmured.
“I don’t want to leave.”
Her lips brushed mine, slow and intentional.
It was different from the night before, as if the fire inside us had calmed and had been replaced by a quiet certainty.
We moved towards the bedroom without urgency, and clothes fell away without tearing.
Hands explored without desperation, and every touch felt deliberate. Every kiss lingering.
“I love you,” she whispered against my mouth.
The words felt like something sacred.
“I love you,” I replied.
There was no violence in this. No collision. Just warmth and closeness and two people choosing each other without strategy. Afterward, she lay against me, tracing absent patterns along my chest.
“You’re terrifying, you know,” she murmured.
“I’ve been told.”
“Not because you’re ruthless.”
“No?”
“Because when you decide something, you don’t waver.”
“I won’t waver on this.”
She tilted her head up.
“On us?”
“On you.”
Her smile was small, but real. Outside, the city continued unaware.
I knew Kliment would regroup, and there would eventually be consequences for the choice I had just made.
Possibly exile, confrontation, or war. But for the first time, I wasn’t calculating ten moves ahead.
I was here. With her. And whatever came next, it would not be because she was a piece on the board.
It would be because I chose her. And she chose me back.