Page 60 of Used By the Merciless Bratva
My heart leaped into my throat. The thread formed a pattern. A series of letters and numbers. An email address. I copied it down on a piece of paper, my hands shaking slightly. It was a throwaway address, a burner account.
I looked at the address, then at the handkerchief, then at the envelope I had taken from my pocket. It didn’t make sense. Why would Irene, a woman I was just beginning to suspect was involved in Feliks’s betrayal, give me a clue that could expose her? Was she a double agent? Was she working with someone else? Or was this a trap?
“Think, Katria,” I said to myself, pacing the room. “What’s the play? What’s the endgame?”
There was no way to know. The handkerchief, the email, the storage-unit address—they were all threads leading into a dark, complicated web. I had to decide. Would I give this to Danil and trust him? Or would I investigate on my own, and keep a secret from him, just as he had kept a secret from me?
I walked to the deck, sat down, and pulled my laptop toward me. I would do both. I would trust him with my life, but I would not trust him with my game. Not yet. I would not be a pawn in his warm, I would be a queen, with my own secrets, my own moves, my own purpose.
I opened my laptop and began to type, a new fire burning inside me. The game was on.
It didn’t take as long as I expected to figure out what the email meant and how it related to me. The few emails received at the address contained receipt details involving large sums of money. What stood out, however, was the lack of a name on the statements. The cover-up was obvious.
I might just have landed the email linked to the account Feliks had been sending money to. But what would I do with the information? Hold it to my chest or share it with Danil?
Chapter 20 – Danil
I left the suite, the memory of Katria sleeping in my arms, a powerful new weight on my shoulders. It was a weight I hadn’t asked for, a vulnerability I had never intended to allow. But it was there. And it changed everything. My mission, my resolve, my very purpose now felt intertwined with her.
I headed to my office, but a shadow moved in the hall ahead of me. It was Luka, his expression grim, his face pale beneath the harsh light. He was carrying a slim folder. He didn’t wait for me to speak.
“Danil,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “I’m glad I caught you. Something’s come up.”
“What is it?” I asked, a familiar knot tightening in my gut. It always seemed to be something.
“Irene’s been moving strangely,” he said, handing me the folder. “She’s not just a pawn in Feliks’s game. We’ve been watching her movements. She’s been a lot more careful than usual. More methodical. We think she’s trying to get her hands on the Sivella Holdings asset papers.”
“Why?” I asked, my voice cold.
“We think Feliks is planning to make a move. Soon,” Luka said, his eyes darting to the end of the hall as if expecting a threat. “That offshore account? The laundered money? We believe he’s using it as a last-ditch effort to get control of the company assets. Sivella Holdings is the core of it all. He wants to sell it off and disappear with a fortune. He knows you’re onto him. He’s panicking.”
Luka opened the folder and pointed to a series of documents inside. “These are the assets transfer papers. We managed to get them drafted last night. They’re ready to be signed. If you can get Katria to sign these, we can securethe money in her name, in a protected trust. It would take it completely out of Feliks’s reach.”
My mind raced. Katria. The trust. The very idea of asking her to sign something so critical, after everything, felt like a monumental risk; our truce was fragile. One wrong move, one lie, and it would shatter. But I had to. It was the only way to protect the Bratva from a devastating financial blow.
“Danil,” Luka said, his voice filled with urgency. “We need to act now. Get her to sign these. For everyone’s sake.”
I looked at the folder, then at Luka’s grim face. “I’ll do it,” I said, the words a silent promise to both of them. “I’ll get them signed.”
I stared at the folder in my arms, the weight of the asset transfer papers feeling heavier than any weapon I’d ever held. After everything we’d been through, after the raw, brutal honesty of last night…. Now I had to go back to her and ask for something that sounded purely transactional—to sign these papers to protect the money. It sounded cold; it sounded like I was using her, and I knew with a certainty that churned my gut that she would see right through our fragile truce born in the crucible of confessed truths and desperate passion. It felt like it could shatter with a single wrong word. But Luka was right; it was time. It had to be done—for her safety, for the Brava’s future, for the very purpose of stopping Feliks….
I walked back to the suite, each step echoing in the silent hall. The air in the room felt thick with unspoken words, the aftermath of our tangled emotions. She was sitting by the window, staring out at the gardens, back to me. Her posture was stiff, her shoulders hunched. Cold and guarded, just as I expected.
I closed the door softly behind me, the click of the latch loud in the quiet room. She didn’t turn immediately. She probably assumed it was just one of the guards.
“Katria,” I said, my voice low, trying to imbue it with a calm I didn’t entirely feel.
Her shoulders stiffened further, and she slowly turned to face me. Her eyes were shadowed, her expression distant, guarded. The vulnerability from last night was gone, replaced by a cool suspicion. She probably thought I was here to deliver another punishment, another demand.
“Danil,” she replied, her voice flat, devoid of emotion. She didn’t ask me why I was there. She didn’t ask what I wanted. She simply waited, her silence a challenge.
I walked closer, stopping a few from her. “I have something important to discuss with you.” I held up the folder. “These are documents. They require your signature.”
Her eyes flickered to the folder, then back to my face, a flicker of apprehension mixed with suspicion. “Documents? What kind of documents?” Her voice was laced with a wary curiosity.
“They’re asset transfer papers for Sivella Holdings,” I explained, trying to keep my voice even, devoid of any hidden agenda. “We need you to sign them.”
Her jaw tightened. “Sivella Holdings? Why me? And what for?” Her eyes narrowed, the guardedness intensifying. “Is this another one of your tests, Danil?”
