Page 19 of The Bratva's Secret Baby
“You don’t owe me this,” she says.
“I know.”
“You could walk.”
“Yes.”
She waits. I don’t rush it.
“Stay. Don't go,” she says.
“I won’t,” I say, holding her gaze. “Whatever comes next, it comes through me first.”
Her fingers tighten, not in relief, but as if it’s the only solid thing left.
“That’s a vow,” she says, her voice steady.
I shake my head once. “It’s a line.”
She nods, slow and certain, accepting it for what it is.
I know exactly what I’ve just done, and I don’t step back.
6
ANA
It’s been hours. The windows are covered and the lights are dimmed. I sit on the edge of the kitchen counter, knees drawn up, a mug in my hand more for heat than for the tea inside.
We're in my apartment, and Dominik ordered pelmeni over the phone a while back. Delivery came without question. The courier dropped the bags on the doorstep and didn’t wait around. We ate in silence. Half the food is still in the brown paper bags on the table.
I glance at the street through a crack in the blinds. The street holds still. Just parked cars and shuttered stores.
Dominik stands near the door, back straight, arms crossed. His voice is calm when he speaks, but not relaxed.
“We need to lie low for a few days,” he says. “Until I see where this is heading, who’s actually moving pieces, and who’s just making noise.”
I tilt my head. “You think someone’s bluffing?” I throw up my hands, face scrunched. “Maybe it’s fallout. Rage. Even jealousy.”
“Not jealousy,” Dominik quickly says with a certainty that heats my face, but I don’t comment.
“And not bluffing,” he continues. “They’re testing us. Measuring reactions. I need to know who’s still playing before I commit us to a direction.”
I set the mug down. “You have something in mind?”
He nods once. “A few places. There’s a safehouse in Ligovsky Prospekt. Above a defunct dentist’s office. Nobody asks questions there. I know the guy who keeps the keys.”
“It’s inside the city.”
“There’s a dacha past Sestroretsk,” he says. “Abandoned by a friend of a friend when he got out. Still has power. Secluded, one road in. Easier to defend. We might try that one too.”
“So we keep moving?”
“That seems safe, for now.”
Too many thoughts crowd in at once. “Anyone watching those places?”
“No one with a badge or a motive,” he says. “I’ve got people who’ll sweep the perimeter. The kind who don’t announce themselves. They owe me, and they know better than to talk.”
