Chapter 6
YURI
The city below, my city, is still asleep when I unlock the folder.
No lights yet in the windows across from mine. No noise but the low hum of the heater. Just me, the dark, and a file that shouldn’t exist in hard copy but does, because I don’t trust cloud security when it comes to her—the incoming asset.
I flip through the pages again. Not because I need to—I’ve read it six times already—but because I like watching it unfold.
Harvard. Summa cum laude. Background in forensic accounting. Risk analysis. Clean as snow, too clean. No debt. No social media presence beyond the polished LinkedIn profile she’s obviously curated with care. Two internships. Three glowing letters of recommendation.
And at the bottom, clipped neatly to the edge, a photo.
My jaw tightens.
It’s her.
The girl from the plane.
Fuck.
She arrives tomorrow, and she has no idea what she’s in for.
I close the file and tap it once against the desk. This office—glass, steel, and silence—was designed to keep people small. Intimidated. Off balance. It works on most. Let’s see how she handles it.
She shouldn’t be here. My father—the Ivanov—wanted her protected. Sheltered. He paid for her education, her life, leaving instructions buried so deeply only I was ever meant to see them. His final act of loyalty to her father.
Keep her out of this world, he said.
I didn’t agree. Still don’t.
She should’ve been brought in years ago. Shown the truth. Prepared for the weight of her name. Instead, she grew up oblivious, na?ve, and blind.
Not anymore.
A knock interrupts my thoughts. I don’t answer. The door opens anyway.
Tatiana—my former fling and current secretary—strides in, carrying a mug like a trophy. “Black, extra hot,” she says with a small, professional smile. “Just how you like it.”
“Thank you,” I reply without looking up.
She sets the cup down too close to my hand. Her perfume arrives before she does, overpriced and too sweet. She lingers, like she’s waiting for something.
I say nothing.
Finally, she shifts back toward the door. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
I grunt in a non-committal manner.
She nods then turns to go, the door clicking shut behind her.
I wait a beat, then double-lock my screen and return the file to the safe beneath the desk. I glance at the clock. Twenty-three hours until she walks through my door.
She has no idea she’s already under surveillance. Already a variable I’m accounting for in every projection. A risk. A threat.
She’s also the only woman who has ever made me forget what control feels like.
Tomorrow, I’ll find out if that was a fluke.
Or the beginning of something I can’t afford.
The conference room smells like espresso.
My brother Luk’s already seated at the head of the table when I walk in, his tie knotted in a perfect Windsor knot, tablet glowing in front of him. Lev leans against the far wall, arms crossed, looking like he hasn’t slept. He probably hasn’t.
I drop into my seat and slide the folder across the glass table. “She starts tomorrow.”
Luk doesn’t look up. “You sure about this?”
“No. But I’m doing it anyway.”
Lev finally speaks. “The Devereaux girl?”
I don’t answer. Not verbally. I simply tap a finger against the folder once.
“She’s been a ghost for twenty years,” Lev says. “Now she’s suddenly on our payroll?”
“She’s smart,” I say. “Too smart to stay out of this forever.”
Luk lifts his eyes, assessing. “And you’re confident she’s not a liability?”
I let silence stretch until it feels taut, like wire. “She’s an asset. For now.”
That earns me a grunt from Lev. Luk, as usual, wants more.
“She has the skills we need. Clean credentials. No known baggage. And,” I pause, leaning forward, “she’s got more motivation than anyone we’ve brought in before. She wants answers. Let’s make sure she finds the right ones.”
Luk raises a brow. “Meaning ours.”
“Obviously.”
The truth is I don’t care how smart she is. I care how loyal she’ll be once she learns who she really is. Once she understands what her father died protecting. Once she realizes the blood on our hands was spilled for reasons I’m still trying to reconcile.
Lev speaks again, his tone sharp and low. “Does she know anything yet?”
“Not enough to be dangerous.”
“But enough to be curious,” he says.
“She wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.”
Luk sets his tablet aside. “You’re taking a risk. Bringing her in now, with Spalding sniffing around again.”
“I’d rather have her inside the house than looking through the windows.”
That silences them. Luk gets it. Lev hates it. I expected both reactions.
“She’s not trained,” Lev mutters. “She’s not Bratva. She’s a fucking accountant. You’re not worried she’ll run to the Feds? Shit, imagine dropping an insider like that on Spalding’s lap.”
I look at him. “If she runs, I’ll handle it.”
There’s a pause before Luk shifts gears. “Speaking of Spalding, he called again.”
“Let me guess, he wants a meeting. Off the record.”
“Of course.”
I exhale slowly. “He’s circling something.”
“He’s been circling for months,” Lev says. “Maybe it’s time we clip his wings.”
Not yet. But soon.
“He’s greedy. That makes him predictable. And predictable men are manageable.”
Lev’s eyes gleam. “And expendable.”
He’s not wrong. But the fed still has value—for now. Until I know exactly who’s feeding him and why.
Luk leans back. “What about Tatiana?”
“She’s behaving.”
He raises a brow.
“I’ll deal with her if she steps out of line. She knows better than to cross me.”
“She thinks she knows,” Luk says, a little too amused.
Lev shakes his head. “I still don’t like this, brother. Not one bit. She has no idea what she’s walking into.”
He’s right. She has no idea she’s the last thread of a story that should’ve ended decades ago. She doesn’t know the walls have eyes. That the man signing her paycheck is the one who’s been pulling the strings behind the curtain since she was a child.
She’s the last open loop in a plan my father started and I intend to finish.
But if she proves more threat than asset, if she gets in the way, well…. Even blood ties can burn.
I rise from the chair and straighten my cuffs. “Anyway, she starts tomorrow. I’ll keep you all informed.”
Lev cracks his knuckles. Luk nods curtly.
The meeting ends.
And the trap sets.