Page 56 of Bratva Baby

Mikhail scoffs. “You sound territorial.”

I look at him. “I am.” That gets Viktor to grunt out a laugh.

Sergei isn’t enjoying any part of this. “The older Leonidov-Reznikov problem doesn’t care whose child she carries. Their name is still tied to ours through freight damage, old blood, and a truce neither side ever respected fully. If Maks tightens now and learns you’re sheltering her openly, he will use it.”

“He’s already tightening,” I say. “That’s exactly why this matters.”

The boss folds his hands. “Talk.”

I do.

“Maks is tightening around old Baltic routes, Finnish transfers, buried broker lines, and family subsidiaries that were supposed to stay out of things. He’s isolating some men, pulling others closer, and laying story groundwork in case something surfaces through Sofiya’s name later. That means he’s preparing to survive her.”

Mikhail grunts. “Ambitious men do that.”

“Stupid men do it early,” I say.

Sergei glances at me. “And your reading is that he’s both.”

“My reading is that men like him keep turning the dial until they hear something break, then they call the damage proof that everyone else lacked nerve.”

Viktor nods once. “That sounds like him.”

I continue before anyone gets too comfortable. “The old Leonidov-Reznikov wound is useful to him and he wants to stand on it. If he can tie his private freight structure to old grievance, he gets cover, chaos, and a reason for both families to start making expensive mistakes. That gives him room to move money and power at the same time.”

Sergei taps the table once. “And what is the solution?”

“That depends how much appetite this room has.”

Mikhail leans back. “We don’t start a war for one man’s instincts and one woman’s panic.”

I smile without humor. “Then don’t call it war. Call it cleanup.”

The boss watches me. “Specifics.”

“Maks has to lose the freight structure, the narrative, or both. Preferably all three. You strip his broker relays, pressure the subsidiaries quietly, and expose just enough irregularity that his own side starts doubting what he controls. Then you make the Leonidovs solve him before he turns their family problem into ours again.”

Viktor asks, “And if the Leonidovs close ranks instead?”

“Then we force the issue wider. Customs pressure. Broker losses. Frozen side channels. He’s built this thing to stay hidden inside respectable movement. Dragging light over parts of it costs him.”

Mikhail’s eyes narrow. “You’re speaking like you know more than you’re saying.”

I hold his gaze. “Yes.”

The room pauses on that.

Sergei says, “From her.”

“From a useful source.”

“And you’re withholding it.”

“I’m controlling it.”

I don’t add that I had Varga found three nights ago and brought in quietly from a town outside Szekesfehervar, where he’d been living under a different surname and keeping his head down.

He confirmed the secondary transit codes, the hidden vendor lines, the side accounts, and the fact that one intermediary payment trail tied to the old killing was never actually closed. It was buried deeper in the books under renamed entities and older authorizations.