Page 100 of Betrayal and Vows

I don’t know what I’m looking for exactly. Evidence? As if he’ll ever pay for his crimes. Bratva justice is swift and deadly.

I can’t kill him but if I know what he’s up to, I can drop information into the wrong ears and let someone else handle things.

Vadim is not invincible.

Mikhail will not be alive.

Iwillkill him.

The Orlovs will fall.

I will succeed in taking them down. That has been my mission in life since I was a boy.

I move the ugly painting and expose the safe.

I’ve seen Vadim open that safe enough times over the years that my fingers move without thought.

Click. Click. Click.

I smile when the safe unlocks.

Inside is chaos. Documents. Folders. Ledgers. And something I didn’t expect—photos.

The first one stops my heart cold.

It’s my mother.

Her dark eyes are mine. Her smile is one I haven’t seen in three decades. She’s holding me in her arms.

I dig deeper. There are more pictures. But as I flip through them, a feeling of dread washes over me. There are photos ofme when I was around eight or nine. Another with Dmitri. I was maybe thirteen. The pictures are always from a distance. Grainy surveillance photos. My first tattoo. My first kill.

He knew.

Vadim knew exactly who I was. Who I am. How long has he known?

My blood is ice. All this time, I thought I was a ghost. I believed I was the vengeful son creeping back into the lion’s den unnoticed.

But Vadim was watching me.

I don’t know if it’s pride or punishment in those files. I don’t know if he kept them because he missed me… or because he was waiting for the day he could bury me alongside my mother.

I push the torrent of emotion to the side and focus.

There’s a folder. Thicker than the rest.Lenoid Rostova.

Lena’s father. I open it and find intel with maps, records of meetings with another Bratva family. One I’d heard of but never thought Vadim would stoop so low to partner with.

A third faction. Ruthless. Bloodthirsty. And treacherous.

They are Vadim’s sworn enemies. The people that are trying to kill Lena to stop the wedding.

“What the hell?”

Then it hits me like a bullet.

Vadim is going to let them die.

He’s setting Lenoid up. Elena too. After Lena signs her soul away, the Rostova’s will be executed.