Page 59 of Bratva Baby

She turns back immediately. “How much?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Enough to either solve this or become part of it.”

For once, she doesn’t toss back something sharp right away. She’s quiet for two beats, and I can see the numbers moving behind her eyes, the routes, the money, the names, the risk. One thing about Sofiya I respect too much now to lie to myself about is that her mind gets sharper under pressure instead of softer. That kind of woman is dangerous in the right way.

“What does solve mean to them?” she asks, eyes slanting thoughtfully.

“It means I identify exactly what Maks has built, where it touches our lines, and how to cut him off without turning this into open war. If I can make the Leonidovs deal with him before he drags us into the middle of it, I keep the problem contained.”

“And if you can’t?”

“They remove me from the problem.”

Her eyes stay on mine. “Remove how?”

I shrug once. “There are several versions, and none are attractive.”

She doesn’t smile. I get up, cross to the table, and pick up one of the folders she’d been reading. Cargo summaries. Baltic ports. Insurance notes. She’s been keeping herself busy in exactly the way I expected.

“We move on Maks now,” I say, tossing the folder back down. “Fast. He’s building the story already, and if he gets too far ahead of us, then even good proof starts arriving late.”

Sofiya rubs one thumb over the edge of the folder. “He’s telling people I’m unstable.”

“I know.”

“He’s saying I’m compromised.”

“I know that too.”

Her mouth goes hard. “That means he’s preparing for failure.”

“Yes.”

She lets out a slow breath and looks at the dark window beyond me. “I told you he wouldn’t only search.”

“You did.”

“And now?”

I go back to the sofa and sit closer this time. “Now I find out what Varga gave me, what he didn’t, and what’s still missing. Then I start pulling on the right men.”

Her eyes lift sharply. “You found him?”

“Yes.”

All at once ,she’s fully alert, anger and fatigue shoved aside by something brighter. “You spoke to him?”

“I did.”

“And?”

I let myself enjoy this for a second. “You’re welcome.”

“Anton.”

The look in her eyes tells me she’ll try to smack me again if I play too cocky, so I dip my head in submission. “He confirmed the secondary transit codes, the hidden vendor lines, the side accounts, and the fact that the old intermediary payment trail was never actually closed. It was buried deeper under renamed entities and older authorizations.”

Her face changes in real time as the pieces lock into place. “So Maks used existing Leonidov structure.”