Chapter 16 – Maxim #2
“What if Dmitry isn’t the traitor? What if he’s just another asset being manipulated by someone higher up the food chain?”
The thought was even more chilling than the idea of a simple betrayal. If someone with enough influence to control our logistics coordinator was pulling strings, if our entire organization was being played from the inside….
“One thing at a time,” Rafael said, reading the direction of my thoughts. “First, we figure out if Dmitry is compromised. Then we worry about who might be pulling his strings.”
His tone made it clear he doubted my suspicions, but he was willing to go along with the investigations for the organization’s sake.
I nodded, but my mind was already racing ahead, calculating contingencies and responses. If we had a traitor in our midst, everyone was at risk. Eleanor, Anya, every person who worked for us or depended on us for protection.
“I want everything,” I said. “Phone records, financial transactions, travel logs, personal associations. If Dmitry Chertov so much as jaywalked in the past five years, I want to know about it.”
“That level of investigation will take time,” Cassandra warned.
“How much time?”
“Forty-eight hours for the basics, maybe a week for the deep dive.”
“You have twenty-four hours.”
“Maxim….”
“Twenty-four hours, Cassandra. Eleanor almost died today because someone betrayed us. I won’t give them another chance.”
She nodded, understanding the urgency. In our world, hesitation was often fatal, and second chances were luxuries we couldn’t afford.
Rafael stood up, straightening his jacket. “What about Eleanor? She’s obviously a target now.”
“She’s not leaving the house, except for work. Full security detail, armed escort even to move between rooms if necessary.”
“She’s not going to like that.”
“She doesn’t have to like it. She just has to be alive.”
“And if she refuses? She’s not exactly the type to accept confinement gracefully.”
I thought about the woman upstairs, the one who’d looked at me covered in blood and called me hers. The one who’d demanded to be included in my world instead of protected from it.
“She’ll understand,” I said finally. “She saw what happened today. She knows the stakes.”
“I hope you’re right. Because if we’re dealing with a traitor in our ranks, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.”
After they left, I sat alone in my office, staring out at the city lights and trying to process everything that had shifted in the span of a single day.
This morning, I’d been worried about keeping Eleanor safe from external threats.
Now I was facing the possibility that the danger was coming from inside our own organization.
The intercom on my desk buzzed. “Sir?”
“Yes, Lev?”
“There’s someone here to see you. Says it’s urgent.”
“Who?”
“Dmitry Chertov.”
The name hit me like ice water in my veins. Speak of the fucking devil.
“Send him in.”
Dmitry entered my office with the same calm confidence he’d always displayed, his ash-blond hair perfectly styled and his gray suit immaculate.
But now, knowing what I knew, I found myself studying him differently.
Looking for tells, for signs of deception, for anything that might confirm or deny my suspicions.
“Maxim,” he said, extending his hand in greeting. “I heard about the attack on Eleanor. Thank God she’s safe.”
I shook his hand, noting the firm grip, the steady eye contact, the perfect balance of concern and professionalism. Either he was genuinely relieved that my wife had survived, or he was one hell of an actor.
“She is,” I said. “Thanks to quick thinking and good intelligence.”
“Rafael mentioned that I was the one who flagged the anomaly in her movement pattern. I’m glad my vigilance paid off.”
“About that,” I said, settling behind my desk. “Walk me through exactly what you saw, what made you suspicious.”
Dmitry took the seat across from me, his posture relaxed and open.
“Eleanor’s car deviated from its expected route back to the house around 1:47 p.m. Instead of taking the direct path home, it stopped in the downtown area for approximately ninety minutes, then began moving toward a sector that’s known for gang activity. ”
“And that triggered your concern?”
“Of course. Any deviation from expected patterns gets flagged automatically, but this one was particularly worrying. The destination area has been the site of several violent incidents in recent months.”
“So you called Rafael immediately?”
“Within minutes of the pattern recognition alert. I know how protective you are of Eleanor, and I didn’t want to take any chances with her safety.”
Everything he was saying sounded reasonable, logical, exactly what a conscientious security coordinator should do. But something about his manner was setting off alarm bells in my head. Too smooth, too perfect, like a rehearsed performance.
“I appreciate your vigilance,” I said. “Eleanor could have been killed if we hadn’t responded quickly.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. These attacks on Bratva associates have been escalating lately. It’s like someone has detailed intelligence on our operations, our personnel, our vulnerabilities.”
The statement was delivered with just the right mix of concern and speculation, but I caught something in his eyes when he said it. A flicker of something that might have been satisfaction.
“Interesting theory,” I said carefully. “Any thoughts on where this intelligence might be coming from?”
“Hard to say. Could be surveillance, could be electronic intercepts, could be….” He paused, as if the thought was just occurring to him. “Could be someone on the inside.”
“You think we have a traitor?”
“I think we’d be fools not to consider the possibility. The level of operational detail these attacks have shown suggests intimate knowledge of our procedures.”
I leaned back in my chair, studying his face. “If that’s true, if someone is feeding information to our enemies, how would you suggest we identify them?”
“Carefully. Quietly. Start with the people who had access to the compromised information and work backward from there.”
“Makes sense. I’ll want you to prepare a list of everyone who knew about Eleanor’s movements today.”
For just a moment, something flickered across his expression. Too fast to interpret, but definitely there.
“Of course,” he said. “Though the list will be quite short. Operational security on family movements is typically restricted to essential personnel only.”
“Good. The shorter the list, the easier it will be to investigate.”
“Investigation could be delicate, though. We don’t want to create paranoia or damage morale by treating loyal associates like suspects.”
“True. But we also can’t afford to let a traitor continue operating within our ranks.”
Dmitry nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps the investigation could be handled discreetly, through normal security review procedures rather than anything that might appear accusatory.”
I smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
After he left, I sat in the gathering darkness of my office, pieces of the puzzle rearranging themselves in my mind. Dmitry’s performance had been flawless. Too fucking flawless.
A loyal man would have been more concerned about Eleanor’s condition, would have asked for details about the attack, would have shown some emotion about the fact that three of our people had been killed.
Instead, he’d been focused on managing the investigation, on making sure any search for a traitor was conducted in a way that wouldn’t be too effective.
I picked up my phone and dialed Lev’s number.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to do something for me. Quietly.”
“What kind of quietly?”
“The kind that doesn’t leave any electronic traces or involve any other personnel.”
“Shit, Maxim. What are we talking about here?”
“I already put Cassandra on compiling a file, but I also need you to find everything you can on Dmitry Chertov. Personal history, financial records, communication patterns, travel logs, sexual preferences, childhood fears, every fucking thing.”
Lev was quiet for a moment. “Are we talking about what I think we’re talking about?”
“We’re talking about the possibility that someone very close to this organization tried to have my wife killed today.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly. How long?”
“Give me twelve hours. Maybe less if I can call in some favors.”
“Do it. And Lev?”
“Yeah?”
“If I’m right about this, if Dmitry is the leak, then he’s been playing us for years. Which means he’s dangerous as hell and probably has contingency plans we haven’t even thought of.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Be more than careful. Be paranoid. Trust no one except me, and if something happens to me, take the information directly to Rafael.”
“Jesus, Maxim. Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not sure about anything anymore. But I’d rather be wrong and alive than right and dead.”
After ending the call, I locked the office and made my way back upstairs to Eleanor. She was exactly where I’d left her, curled up in our bed with one of my shirts wrapped around her.
“How did it go?” she asked as I undressed.
“Complicated.”
“Want to talk about it?”
I slipped into bed beside her, pulling her against my chest and breathing in the scent of her hair. “Tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to hold you and pretend the world isn’t trying to kill us.”
She settled against me, her body warm and soft and alive. “I can work with that.”
But as I lay there in the darkness, listening to her breathing even out into sleep, my mind continued racing through possibilities and contingencies. Somewhere out there, an enemy wearing a friendly face was planning the next move in a game I was only beginning to understand.
And Eleanor was still in the crosshairs .