Page 152 of The Enemy Protector
“No. That one is mine.”
“Speaking of.”
“You found him?”
“Not this minute. But we know the houses he’s moving between. He’s shifting every few hours. He knows we’re looking.”
“Obviously.”
“But that’s not what I came in here to tell you,” Kirill says.
Of course it isn’t.
“Stop fucking around and just tell me.”
“Yuri knows about the POA.”
Everything in the room stills.
“Mikhail?”
Kirill nods. “Yuri was at the Baranov estate.”
Of course he was.
Sick, dying, and still managing to do damage from a chair.
I look down at the folder again, but I’m not seeing it anymore. I’m seeing the bigger picture. The fact that Sofia just made herself untouchable on paper—and a target everywhere else.
“Yuri knows he’s fucked,” I say.
“Legally,” Kirill agrees. “Not physically. She might control the legit businesses, but Yuri doesn’t need those. He’s still running that organ ring. Smaller, but it’s moving. He’s going for the bratva.”
“And that will destroy the legitimate businesses,” I say. “Death by a thousand cuts.”
“His guy talked to one of our spies.”
Spies. Women. Women paid very well to get close to our enemies. And every one is an enemy. I have a woman on my payroll that’s been sleeping with the underboss in the Italian mob for two years. They’re everywhere, which is why my men know better. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Don’t fuck with anyone you don’t mind cutting your throat and never, ever talk business.
“She just locked him out of everything,” Kirill says. “He’s not going to wait.”
“He’ll come for her,” I finish.
Kirill nods once. “Soon.”
“She’s not leaving the house,” I say.
Kirill raises a brow. “You think she’ll agree to that?”
“I’m not asking.”
He smirks. “What flowers do you want on your casket, assuming she leaves us something to bury.”
I ignore the comment. He’s right. Sofia isn’t someone who accepts no, especially not from me.
“We don’t wait for him,” I say. “I want the fucker. I want him dead.”
“I agree. He’s proven to be a hard target.”
