“They don’t know,” she cuts in quickly. “My brothers aren’t aware. It’s just the hacker for now.”
I laugh, the sound harsh and angry. “It’s only a matter of time before they find out. He works for them, he could have already tattled to them as we speak.”
She steps closer, eyes pleading. “Maxim, my brothers won’t work against you. That’s not the point. The point is what we found.”
I glare at her, barely holding onto my control. “What did you find?”
She looks at the flash drive in my hand. “Plug it in. See for yourself.”
I stare at the small device like it’s a live grenade. Part of me doesn’t want to look, because if she’s right, it means the man I’ve called brother for years has been stabbing me in the back.
I stare at the flash drive, then at my wife. Calina stands there with a quiet, sure look on her face, but I can see the nervousness in her eyes. My chest feels too tight.
If I plug this into the laptop, what am I going to find? Proof that Dmitri, the man I pulled from the streets, the brother I trusted with my life, has been stabbing me in the back? Or worse… proof that my wife is lying to me and trying to put a wedge between my brothers and me?
I don’t want any of it to be true. Of all people, Dmitri is the last one I would ever suspect. He’s been with me through blood, through fire, through everything. If he’s not the mole, then Calina is playing some dangerous game. Spying on me. Working against me. The thought makes my stomach turn.
Either way, this ends badly.
I swear under my breath and walk over to her bedside drawer. I pull out the laptop I keep there, boot it up, and enter my password with shaking fingers. The flash drive slides in with a soft click.
The files open.
Messages flood the screen.
Most of them are normal conversations between me and Dmitri, Dmitri and Viktor, and my men. But the ones that make my blood freeze are the ones between Dmitri and Adrian.
Dmitri has been feeding him details about my organization in the last months. As I read the messages, I feel my migraine getting worse. Shipment routes. Operational details meant to stay secret. Business deals discussed only between me and my men.
The wedding.Mywedding. The attack that almost took my wife from me. It was him.
Denial hits me first. No. Not Dmitri. He wouldn’t. Then anger, hot and blinding, surges through me like wildfire. That motherfucker. After all I’ve done for him.
Maybe it’s fake. Maybe someone planted this. But the messages are too detailed, too precise. A heavy weight crushes my chest as the betrayal sinks in. The man I called brother. The man I saved. The man who knew every secret, every plan, has been betraying me.
He sold me out to Adrian. He leaked the wedding location. He tried to have my wife killed. I almost lost Calina because of him.
Rage like I’ve never felt before floods every cell in my body. I can barely breathe. My hands are shaking so hard I nearly drop the laptop. I want to destroy something. I want to find Dmitri right now and rip his throat out with my bare hands.
A soft voice cuts through the red fog in my head.
“I’m sorry…” Calina whispers, her voice trembling. “I’m so sorry, Maxim.”
I look at her, chest heaving, eyes burning with fury and pain. For a long moment, the only sound in the room is my own ragged breathing.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers again, “I kept this from you. I know we promised no secrets...”
“Damn right you did,” I cut in. “You kept it from me,malyshka.”
Her lips part, like she wants to defend herself, but I cut through it.
“No secrets, that was the agreement. No secrets.”
“Yes,” she breathes. “No secrets. I was planning to tell you… I only found out when I met my sister for drinks.”
“So that’s what the drinks with your sister were about,” I say, voice low.
“Yes,” she admits again, quieter now. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. I know how close you are to Dmitri. I didn’t want it to look like I was accusing him without proof.”
