Page 22 of Hunted By the Masked BRATVA
After the meeting, I return to Emilia’s apartment to find her grinning at the monitors daisy-chained across her desk.
"He knows," she says without looking up.
"He knows. I watched him get the alerts during a meeting."
"Good." Her fingers fly across the keyboard. "Now for the fun part."
Phase three is even more vicious than phase one and two.
Emilia has spent the last three days compiling evidence of every illegal deal Troskoy has ever made. Every bribe. Every shipment. Every murder. She's pulled it from his own servers, encrypted files he thought were safe, and now she's preparing to send it to the right people.
Not the police. The Bratva would protect him from that.
No, she's sending it to his business partners. The ones who trusted him to keep their secrets. The ones who will see their own names in those files and realize Troskoy has been keeping records that could destroy them all.
"How long until you're ready?" I ask.
"Two hours. Maybe three." She glances at me over her shoulder. "We should leave the city after I send the files. Things are going to get ugly fast."
She's right. Once Troskoy's partners realize what he's been keeping, they'll come for him. And they'll come hard.
But I'm not ready to run yet.
"There's something I need to do first," I say.
"What?"
"I need to talk to Leonid."
Emilia turns fully to face me, concern written across her features. "Konstantin, if you tell him what we've done—"
"I'm not telling him anything." I move toward her, cup her face. "But I am telling him I'm done. No more jobs. No more enforcement. I'm walking away."
"He'll kill you."
"Maybe. Or maybe he'll respect the honesty." I press a kiss to her forehead. "Either way, I'm not leaving this city with my job hanging over us."
She studies my face for a long moment. Then: "I'm coming with you."
“No,” he says, a finality in his voice that squeezes my heart. “You need to finish this.”
Emilia
I watch Konstantin walk out of my apartment, and terror claws up my throat.
He's going to tell Leonid Reznikov he's done. Just like that. Walk away from the only life he's known, the only family he's had for over a decade, all because of me. Because three nights ago I tried to poison a man at a masquerade, and Konstantin caught me instead of killing me.
My fingers hover over the keyboard, but I can't focus on the code. Can't think about phase three when all I can see is Konstantin's body bleeding out in some warehouse because Leonid doesn't accept resignations.
The Bratva doesn't let people walk away. Everyone knows that.
I should've stopped him. Should've told him we could run right now, disappear before anyone realizes what we've done to Troskoy. I have enough money stashed away. New identities prepared. I've been planning my exit strategy for six years.
But I didn't stop him because I understand. If we run now, we'll spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders. Konstantin needs to face Leonid. Needs to try to end this on his own terms, even if those terms get him killed.
And I need to finish what I started.
My hands shake as I turn back to the monitors. The files are ready. Every illegal deal Troskoy's made in the last fifteen years,compiled and organized with meticulous care. Gun running. Money laundering. Three murders that were never officially connected to him.
