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Kirill dove into the conversation with enough gusto for all three of us, and the conversation devolved into pros and cons of moats and drawbridges.

I waited for Miss Helen to take Nora upstairs to dress for the day before asking Anika to join me in my office. She came willingly, though her shoulders lifted the moment Roman and Kirill separated from us at the main staircase. They could’ve come with us, but they had chosen to let me confront this moment alone. And seeing Anika’s reaction to being alone with me proved she hadn’t yet learned to fully trust me. I deserved that, and I would gladly spend the rest of my life proving I meant to protect her.

Everything we’d taken from her was on my desk, and she stopped in front of it, hands resting on the curved edge. “Why is this here?”

“Because it’s yours.” I picked up the keys and placed them in her hands. “You’re not our prisoner. The men at the gate have orders to open when you request it. Your accounts, business, and property remain under your control.”

She closed her fingers around the keys. “Can I leave without an armored convoy?”

“No.” I shook my head when her chin came up and her eyes flashed. “You can leave. No one will stop you. Sokolov’s people have watched your building and fired into your bedroom, so security will follow you until the threat ends. We can negotiate how many men and how visible they are.”

“Negotiate.” She said it slowly, almost as though she needed to taste the word. Her arms crossed. “You know that means I get a say? I could pick one man.”

“And I’d send the best I have.” I matched her crossed-arm posture.

Her lips twitched into a smirk. “And if I said I wanted to take Nora home today?”

Every part of me rejected the possibility. Her apartment was useless as a security measure. I could put guards on every landing and men in the laundromat, but I’d spend every hour imagining the next breach. “Then I’ll make it as safe as possible.” I forced myself not to overreach. “I’m asking you to stay here, though. Not because you owe us, but because we care about you and Nora.”

Anika set her phone beside the keys, letting them clatter across the desk. “You expect me to move into a mafia compound after less than a week?”

“I expect nothing.” I came around the desk but left enough space around us so she wouldn’t feel the need to step back. “I want you here. There’s a difference.”

Silence stretched while she twisted the silver ring on her finger. I’d seen her make the same motion on countless occasions, and understood it was a somewhat nervous habit she employed when thinking. I pulled open the desk drawer at my hip, and the gold star Nora had placed on my shirt yesterday caught the light. “I would like for you to stay with us.” I slid my hand into the drawer and withdrew the mask she’d worn that night. The ribbons were a bit frayed from where I’d sat and ran my hand over them night after night.

Her gasp echoed around the room. “You kept it?”

“It was the only thing I had except my memory. There were times I doubted you were real. That night was so perfect, so surreal, that I needed the reminder.” More than anything, I’d needed to believe that we’d find her. Because the woman who’d been in our bed was always meant to be ours.

She lifted the mask from my hand and traced the outline, a soft smile on her lips.

The office door opened, and Roman entered with the bloodstained ledger and his laptop tight in his grasp. His expression erased every bit of warmth from the room. “We traced the transfer chain.” He put the laptop on my desk and turned it toward us. A locked financial report filled the screen. “The money is still there. All of it.”

Anika moved beside me, her face paling with every passing second. “Then why do you look like someone died?”

Roman tapped the empty authentication field beneath the account number. “Because Alina built the final access around Nora, and the system won’t let us proceed without you.”

“How could she open it before Nora existed?” Anika leaned over Roman’s shoulder and touched the screen.

“She didn’t.” He expanded the account history. “It was created anonymously the morning after the masquerade and amended with Nora’s legal identity after her birth. Alina has maintained access ever since.”

Anika’s face drained of all color. “She put a target on my daughter.”

“She also left the principal untouched and routed every later deposit through separate corridors.” He enlarged the screen. “This may be a vault, bait, or both.”

None of those possibilities mattered as much as the fear in Anika’s eyes and my willingness to do anything it took to get rid of it. I covered her hand where it rested on the desk. “The money means nothing compared to Nora. No one will touch her.”

“You can’t promise that.” She wanted to believe me. It was evident in her eyes, but the truth lingered at the edges.

“I can promise what will happen to anyone who tries.” I waited until she nodded. “This makes returning to your former life even more dangerous.”

Her fingers turned beneath mine and held on.

“Roman.” He looked up when I said his name. “Freeze the account.”

He entered the command. The portal processed for several seconds, then a red notice blasted across the screen.

AUTHORITY REJECTED.