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I came up behind her and set my hands on the edge of the desk as she swiveled to face the screen. “What are you looking at?”

She let out a deep breath. “Suicide notes.”

I blinked, fully awake now. “Whose?” Then I groaned. “Don’t tell me Gregori is trying to still claim that he’s dead.”

“Nope. Rico Johnson.” She showed me the emails and encrypted messages in his accounts that she and Trojan had managed to completely hack into.

“I started looking for more things that tied directly to Gregori, and there is a lot in here.” She showed me plans and maps. “Gregori’s schemes to attack. One looks like a warehouse⁠—”

“That’s already done. He set up a sting at one of our main warehouses. It was a brutal hit on our distribution capacity.”

“Oh, well, there’s more.” She shook her head. “Lots more. I’ve been sharing it with Adrik and Wren. The whole team.”

“And you found this, too?” I asked, skimming over the suicide note.

“Yes. But I’m not sure if it’s real or not. I don’t doubt that he’s feeling the pressure. He’s got to be hiding because he’s double-crossed too many of the wrong people. His confession sounds legit.”

“Not some AI trash?” I asked. These days, it was getting harder to know what was human generated or not.

“No, it seems like it’s his confession. In it, he admits that he let too many conflicts of interest sour and contaminate his intentions.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”

“But he does go into detail about his plans to kill himself.” She shrugged. “I have no idea if that’s legit.”

“It’s worth looking into,” I said. “Because if he has any intel that would matter to us, like an accurate way to know where Gregori might be hiding, that’s worth us stopping him before he takes that information to the grave.”

She nodded and glanced at me. “I wish that I could be more helpful with Gregori’s most likely locations. I have this list, but he moves so often and he uses those body doubles, so it’s almost impossible.”

“I know you’re doing all you can.” I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

She spun to face me, giving the computer her back.

“What if it’s not enough? What if Gregori’s got so much wrath and greed to want to rule the Bratva that we’ll never be spared his evil?”

I shook my head. “He won’t get away with it.”

“How can you know?”

I winced. “He wants the throne, but it wouldn’t go to him. He can’t just kill my father and be the leader. Adrik is already positioned to take over as the heir.”

“But he tried that before,” she protested.

“Yes, when he killed my grandfather and almost killed my father, he would’ve taken the throne. Adrik wasn’t old enough. Now, he’d need to go through Adrik, Maksim, Viktor, and me.”

She frowned, lowering her gaze. “So Luka and any other son would be targeted too?”

It didn’t escape my notice how she put her hand on her stomach, as if she could protect him or her more.

“Not directly,” I replied. “Again, there are the four of us brothers, then the two cousins.” I hated that she had to worry at all, but I reminded myself that she’d chosen me, she’d chosen this life, and she would stick with it.

“Technically, if I would have the honor of adopting Brady, he’d be in the mix as well, as my son.”

Her eyes opened wide. “He’s older than Luka, too.”

I shook my head. “But that still won’t matter. They will always be protected.”

“Even at school?” she asked.