My hand tightened around the phone.
“Like hell she would.”
“He believes forcing Chernykh to attempt extraction will justify open conflict, and isolating them will help with our own motives. He wants to make everything go in his favor, and he clearly no longer cares that she is a Romanov or your wife. He is going to any lengths to get through with his revenge.”
Of course he was doing exactly that. Kliment never believed in subtlety. He believed in provocation. In spectacle. In blood loud enough to echo, and when he was angry, he forgot everything else. Such as he was forgetting the fact that I was his brother and she was my wife. I could not just stand and take the disrespect.
“He’s baiting them by using her,” I said quietly.
“Yes.”
The line went silent, but in that silence, something inside me shifted permanently. It was not anger or outrage but something colder instead. Something even more decisive.
“Dismantle the port operation,” I said.
“That will be too obvious. He will know you have done it, and that will only make him angrier. You should not give him any other reasons to lose his mind right now after everything that has already happened.”
“I don’t care, Viktor. Not anymore.”
“And what will we do about Kliment?”
“I’ll handle him.”
“Alright. I will go ahead and dismantle this insanity.”
I ended the call and watched how the city stretched before me, deceptively calm. Behind me, through the open balcony door, Elisse moved in her sleep, rolling onto her side, searching for warmth. She was supposed to be leverage and strategic alignment from the very beginning. She was a temporary piece on a board that I controlled. But somewhere between intercepted shipments and a midnight dance floor, she had stopped being an asset and had started being something I would burn the board for.
Kliment didn’t believe I would defy him openly because he knew I preferred quiet correction. It was not as if we had never had fights or disagreements before, and every time I had relented through containment and private disagreements over a public spectacle. A public spectacle had never been my thing because a united front was all that mattered to me. He thought this time I would do the same again. But he was wrong. It took me one hour to change and reach the warehouse on the east dock, which smelled like salt and rust when I walked inside. Men were already loading crates filled with weapons and fuel.
Everything here was too visible and too deliberate. Kliment stood at the center of it all, issuing orders like a conductor orchestrating chaos. He turned when he heard my footsteps, and a slow smile curved his mouth as if he had been expecting me.
“Little brother,” he greeted. “I was waiting for you.”
“You decided to move early and once again without consultation.”
“You didn’t seem to consult me when you continued to stall, so I didn’t consider consulting you as well.”
“Don’t go ahead with this stupidity, Kliment. Stand down.”
His brows lifted slightly at my tone. I had never talked to him like this before. “Excuse me?”
“Call the operation off yourself rather than making me dismantle it with force.”
He laughed. “You don’t get to override me or my orders, Fyodor. Don’t forget your place in the business of things. I am the head of this family, and I know what is good for us and exactly what we need to do. Unlike you, I haven’t forgotten our purpose behind moving to Miami.”
“I have already given the orders to de-escalate and dismantle this operation, Fyodor. You cannot stop me.”
His expression hardened. “You’ve interfered three times now.”
“Four.” I wasn’t going to deny it. “And I will do it once again because I know you’re using her.”
“She is nothing but a liability, and liabilities are meant to be used.”
“She’s a person.”
“She’s Chernykh.”
“She is my wife.”
