Chapter 27 – Iris
I stood under the shower in the bathroom, the warm water washing over my skin. I rubbed the scented soap over my arms and shoulders, letting the creamy lather melt beneath the steady stream.
My head was full, a million and one thoughts tugging at my mind. A lot was happening at once, and we still had no idea who or what we were dealing with.
Tonight was the first victory we’d recorded since this mess started. At least now we had the box the courier had been moving. Until now, the sound of rapid gunfire still echoed in the back of my head.
I didn’t know what came over me out in the field when I ran toward danger just to secure that package. I guess I saw a window and I took it without thinking twice. If I’d hesitated, we wouldn’t have had the box in our possession.
I still wasn’t sure what was in it because I handed it over to my husband the second we arrived back at the mansion.
I tilted my face toward the water, fingers working shampoo through my hair, and massaging my scalp. Memories of the chase flashed in my mind—Ilya’s reckless driving, the fear in my heart, and the near-death experience at the train tracks.
I’d always known that I married a dangerous man, but the stunt he pulled tonight was way beyond dangerous. I just didn’t have the right word for it yet.
A small grin tugged at my lips as I ran my palms over my curves, reminiscing about the car sex in the middle of nowhere, late at night. It had always been one of my deepest, darkest fantasies: to be fucked in the back seat of a car.
The best part about the sex was that it was spontaneous, driven by the adrenaline rush of surviving what could’ve killed us both.
I tried to lose myself in the memory of the way he fucked me from the back until I almost passed out. I came twice. And even now, the thought of it was making me wet for him.
However, the more I thought about the car sex, the more my mind kept flying back to the unresolved matter in my groin. I knew this wasn’t the right time to get lost in anything that wouldn’t help me find who these people were.
I told myself that since we already had the courier’s box, it was only a matter of time before we’d find something useful.
Once I was done showering, I stepped out in my towel, and while crossing the room, I caught my reflection in the full-length mirror. I stopped in my tracks, staring at the woman looking back at me.
I could barely recognize my reflection because the woman in the mirror had changed so much. She was stronger. Smarter. Braver. This woman had survived multiple gun attacks and had faced death more than once.
A few weeks ago, I would’ve hated this version of me. But now, all I felt was pride.
I changed into some fresh clothes and headed downstairs where Ilya and his brother, Ivan, were going through the files we recovered from the mission.
I pushed the door open, and the minute I stepped inside, the men stopped and turned their heads toward me.
The Tarasov brothers were standing behind Ilya’s desk while Boris and Yuri flanked around them.
“Why are you all looking at me like that?” I crossed the room. “Do I have something on my face?”
They looked away—Ivan first, then Boris and Yuri followed, their eyes returning to Ilya’s laptop screen.
“Find anything interesting?” I asked Ilya, sinking into the chair in front of his desk.
“Actually, yes,” Ivan said, facing me. He paused for a bit, then added, “It appears you were right about the missing funds and the internal leaks.”
“O…kay?” I drawled lazily, waiting for more details.
“I should’ve trusted you when my brother did,” he stated simply. “And for that, I apologize.”
“Apology accepted.” I shifted my gaze across the men. “Now, can someone please tell me what’s going on?”
“We found the culprits,” Ilya said to me. “Yevgeni and Markov.”
“You say their names like I’m supposed to know who they are,” I replied.
Boris stepped forward and slid two photographs of two men in their mid-to-late fifties over to me. I immediately recognized one of them—the same man that Ilya had humiliated at the dinner table some time ago.
“I told you he was hiding something,” Ilya’s voice cut through the silence.
“How did you trace it back to them?” I asked.
“It’s all in here.” He pointed at the flash drive attached to his laptop.
“I don’t understand.”
“The courier we intercepted was hired by Yevgeni and Markov to move this flash drive to their location,” he explained. “Apparently, what’s in here can bury them for life.”
“According to the files, Yevgeni and Markov have secretly been working for a hybrid intelligence-criminal group called Nexum,” Ivan said. “They’ve been moving funds for the organization’s accounts while still selling Bratva information to this criminal group.”
“That’s why they wanted to get hold of the drive before anyone else did,” Ilya added. “They wanted to cover their tracks.”
“Hold on.” I was still struggling to catch up. “So, Yevgeni and Markov were the ones who sent those men to attack the mansion?”
“Yes and no.”
“Okay, I’m lost.” I rubbed my forehead.
“An organization like Nexum is too big to be ordered around by low-level greedy bastards like those two traitors,” Ilya explained. “They might have provided Nexum with the information they needed for the attack. But they didn’t order the attack themselves.”
The realization set in that instant.
“So, Nexum is the real enemy?”
They all nodded.
“The question is, what does an organization like Nexum want with you?” Ivan asked me. There was no accusation in his tone. Just sheer curiosity.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I’ve never even heard of them until now.” My gaze shifted across their faces. “Doesn’t the file say anything about why they might be after me?”
“I’ve read through it multiple times,” Ilya said. “There’s no mention of you in this particular file.”
I thought for a moment. “What about Yevgeni and Markov? They must know something, right? I mean, if we can find them, they should be able to lead us to Nexum.”
“I see why you like her,” Ivan said to his brother. “She thinks like a Tarasov.”
Ilya faced me again. “Our men are tracking their location as we speak. Now that their package has been intercepted and they know we’re on to them, they’ll definitely want to flee the country.”
“Our men are at every airport and seaport that exists in the city,” Boris said, looking at me. “They’re not getting away with this.”
I felt the shift settle over the room as the conversation moved on without my having to force my way into it.
No one looked at me like I was still the outsider who’d been brought in under force. Boris answered my questions directly.
Yuri didn’t hesitate when I asked for clarification on the tracking.
Even Ivan, who’d spent weeks treating me like a liability, spoke to me as if my conclusions mattered.
The change wasn’t dramatic. It just existed now, quiet and solid, in the way they waited for me to finish speaking before they added their own pieces.
I was no longer inside this system because someone had decided I couldn’t leave. I was inside it because I was useful. Because I saw what they missed. Because the same mind that had dragged me into this world was now helping keep it from collapsing from the inside.
The files on the desk, the names on the photographs, the quiet confirmation that Nexum was real—all of it had my fingerprints on it.
I’d found the first patterns. I’d pushed when the others wanted to dismiss them. I’d run through gunfire to secure the package that finally gave them names.
That made me part of this.
And I was so proud of this version of myself.
I was no longer just Ilya’s wife on paper anymore. No longer the woman he kept behind high walls for my own protection. No. I was part of the work now.
I was part of the inner circle that sat in this office and decided what came next. I was part of the organization that would hunt Yevgeni and Markov down before they could disappear.
I, once Iris Hart, was now part of the family that, for better or worse, now had a reason to keep me alive beyond obligation.
I looked at Ilya across the desk. He was already watching me, a hint of pride flickering in his gaze.
“We’ll need to move fast,” he said. “Once we have their location, we don’t wait.”
“You do realize I’ll be tagging along, right?” I leaned back in my chair, lips curling into a mischievous smirk.
He held my gaze for a second, then nodded once. No argument this time. He didn’t remind me to stay in the car. Just acceptance.
Boris closed the folder. Yuri checked his phone. And Ivan said something about additional men at the ports. The room kept moving around me, but I was no longer standing on the edge of it.
I was in it.
For the first time since the night Ilya had walked into my life, that fact didn’t feel like a cage. It felt like solid ground.