Page 82 of Mission Shift

My father thought he had won.

Malinov thought he had a new toy.

And Braxton?

I curled my fingers into a fist.

He would pay.

The moment I was free, I would track him down. And then I would make him suffer until he begged for death.

Chapter twenty-three

Four days.

That was how long Nik and I had been running on caffeine, exhaustion, and sheer fucking frustration.

We had fallen into a rhythm—if you could call it that. Eat when we remembered. Sleep in shifts. Cycle through every goddamn surveillance feed and database we had access to. Nik contacted any informant we would dig up to help us find out where they had taken Daria. Every hour she remained missing, the guilt I felt pressed harder against my ribs, like a vise.

Nik worked his network like a man playing chess with the devil.

I had no clue how many back channels he had access to or how many servers he had cracked open without finding a single goddamn trace of her—but I knew this: if she was in anydatabase, on any surveillance cam, or buried in any encrypted file on the planet, he’d find her.

I just had to keep my shit together until he did.

Nik cracked his neck, glancing over at me from his spot at the workstation. “She’s valuable,” he said, more to himself than to me. “Too valuable for them to just bury in a hole and forget.”

I leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees. “Valuable how?”

Nik inhaled sharply. “She’s Alexey Melnichenko’s daughter. That alone makes her worth a lot. And she was a double agent. If she hasn’t cracked yet, they’ll keep trying.” His fingers paused over the keys. “If she has…they’ll dispose of her,” he said darkly.

An aching pressure throbbed at the base of my skull. “Then we’d better find her before that happens.”

Nik didn’t argue. He resumed tapping, his eyes flicking across a dark web forum.

After another few minutes, he leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. “If—whenwe find her, breaking her out is going to be another nightmare.”

I handed him a cup of coffee from the latest pot I’d brewed. “We’ll figure it out.”

His gaze flicked to mine. “You realize how deep we’re in?”

“I don’t give a shit.”

Nik smirked, shaking his head. “Say we find her. We’ll need disguises, safe houses, alternative IDs, and a way to smuggle her out of Russia.” His eyes gleamed with mischief. “Good thing I make people disappear for a living.”

I nodded, turning to watch the various screens. Chaos unfolded across the screens. Nik had thrown me into the deep end, forcing me to learn hacking skills and espionage techniques I’d never imagined. I would never see the world the same way again.

A few minutes later, Nik stilled, then turned to study me, his expression unreadable. His lips curled, something close to amusement flashing behind those calculating eyes.

“Fuck.” He exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “You’re really gone for her, aren’t you?”

I met his gaze, unflinching. I’d come to the same conclusion several days ago—when she and I had been walking hand in hand down that dusty road just before she was taken from me. I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself, much less anyone else, but yeah, I was totally gone for her.

I’d never met a woman like Daria Melnichenko. Hell, I hadn’t thought a woman like her could even exist. She was the deadliest person I’d ever seen—sharp as a damn blade, trained to kill, move, and think faster than most people could breathe. An FSB Special Forces agent forged in the line of fire, she was hardened by war and betrayal, yet she never gave up.

She fought like hell for every inch of ground she stood on and believed in her own strength, like it was written into the fabric of the universe. And yet—beneath all that steel, all that fight—she had a heart so damn big it staggered me. Daria wasn’t just strong; she was good, the kind of good you didn’t find in this world very often. Despite everything, despite the nightmare of a father who had murdered her mother, despite the life the Kremlin had forced her into, she still believed in doing what was right.

She still fought for the people no one else would. And somehow, by some goddamn miracle, she had let me in. She had trusted me, aBoy Scoutwho should’ve never been in her orbit in the first place. She was an enigma—untouchable in her strength—but there was something fragile about her too, something that made every protective instinct inside me roar to life.

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