Page 119

“Gone.”

Two days ago, we hit one of Yuri’s storage compounds. Nothing flashy. No bodies. No unnecessary bloodshed. We destroyed the structure and everything inside it, primarily the weapons he’d been hiding there.

That compound held the weapons for Yuri’s local push, not just spare stock. He can replace them eventually, but not while Ariadna is tracking the men who supplied them. Semiyon’s contacts gave us the first names. Now every frightened call from a surviving supplier gives us another.

A clean message that went beyond just the SUV tailing my attorney. I realized as soon as I ordered the Boevik out that it was an impulsive move, and I’d have to orchestrate something bigger to hide it.

The message intended: We know where you are. We can reach you.

“He hasn’t retaliated,” Ariadna says.

I frown. “That isn’t like him.”

“No. But we are very close to the trial, if they can agree on a jury, aren’t we?” She moves farther into the room, arms folding across her chest. Ariadna always surprises me. I brought her on when she was young, the niece of an associate of mine recently emigrated, and her mind was sharp enough to cut. She’s not just good with intel, but with the workings of the “normal world.” As soon as we got into this shit show with Mikhail, she brushed up on her understanding of the legal system.

“He’s been quiet. Too quiet.” I look back toward the lake.

“Maybe he’s just maturing, Vasily.”

That’s not a better outcome. Yuri has always been impulsive and crude. If he’s refining his attempt to take down my empire, he might actually have a shot at it.

Someday.

When I’m dead and cold in the ground.

Yuri doesn’t need to attack me when he has a better weapon sitting in a courthouse. The government is already trying to bury Mikhail. The prosecutors want him to turn on me. They have Matty spending her days preparing a defense while Yuri sits back and watches, hands-off.

If he makes a move now, he risks drawing attention to himself. If he waits, he lets the government do the work for him.

“He thinks the trial will shut me down,” I say. “Will shut us down.”

Ariadna’s expression hardens. “He probably thinks it will do more than that.”

I glance at her. She and Yuri came up at roughly the same time, and Ariadna never liked him. I can see now that she recognized the rot in him even then, though I likely wouldn’t have listened if she’d pointed it out.

He was so young. Early twenties. I didn’t think he’d rebel, didn’t think he’d talk any of my men into following him.

“He thinks they’ll take everything,” she murmurs, crossing into the living area and standing in front of the empty fireplace with her arms crossed. “He thinks you’ll be too distracted to stop him.”

A bitter laugh leaves me. “Then he’s an idiot.”

“Maybe.”

That gives me pause. Ariadna is watching me out of the corner of her eye, chin tilted up, which usually means she has something to say and knows better than to say it.

A beat, and then:

“But you are distracted.”

I say nothing. Because she’s right.

My eyes drift toward the door again. I’ve been waiting, pacing, hoping Matilda Pierce will walk through it for close to the last two hours. As if I don’t have other work to do, legitimate or otherwise.

Ariadna notices the direction of my gaze.

“You’re getting soft,” she comments bitterly.

I glare at her. She doesn’t flinch.