Page 39

The account vanished. Alina appeared in its place, seated in front of a blank wall with her hair pulled over one shoulder. The recording had been made recently based on her hair cut and color alone. A fading bruise marked her jaw, but her voice remained calm.“If you’re watching this, you need to do exactly what I say. The money will not stay where it is. Anika must come to the north entrance at eleven tomorrow night. If they follow her, the transfer completes before anyone reaches the door. You have twenty-four hours. This is my final offer. The person waiting outside will know whether she came alone.” Her attention shifted away from the camera, then came back. “Don’t test me.”

The image disappeared, replaced by a red countdown clock. Anika stared at the seconds falling away, tears glistening on her lashes.

18

ROMAN

I replayed Alina’s ultimatum for the eighteenth time.

Anika sat in my chair with one foot tucked beneath her, watching her sister’s face fill the monitor. The red countdown occupied the second screen, and we were all terrified of that decreasing number. Not because of the money. I couldn’t give two shits about the money, but I knew what the betrayal was doing to Anika. Twenty-three hours and thirty-eight minutes remained before the account transferred everything to Sokolov—or pretended to.

“Again.” Anika dragged the progress bar back to the beginning. She’d stopped asking me to do it ten minutes ago and simply stated her intentions.

Alina appeared against the blank wall and repeated the demand. Her voice stayed level, but the fingers resting in her lap made small, restless movements before the video ended. Anika watched without blinking.

Maksim stood on the other side of the desk, his anger contained so tightly he’d gone even quieter. “Is it live?”

“No.” I opened the file structure on a separate monitor. “The recording was loaded separately. Our attempt to freeze the funds triggered it and started the clock.”

“How old is it?” Anika drummed her fingers on the desk, then slid her fingers along the trackpad, watching each clip slip past.

“Days, not months. The compression prevents greater precision. Listen.” I nudged her elbow so I could take control, isolated the audio track, and removed Alina’s voice. The faint electronic chime of a slot machine repeated beneath the ventilation noise, followed nine seconds later by a harbor foghorn.

Maksim leaned over the desk, weight on his palms. “Sokolov owns three casinos. Only one sits close enough to the water for that horn to register indoors.”

I played the chime again. “Alina recorded the message inside the casino or used its sounds to make us believe she did.”

Kirill’s smile held no humor. “We could burn the building and see who runs out.”

“There may be hundreds of civilians inside.” I had the moral obligation to remind him of innocents, though he damn well knew it he just wanted to yank my chain.

He shrugged. “Then we open the doors first.”

Maksim’s hands flexed, a cold smile twisting his face into a look Kirill and I knew all too well. “We take the casino apart room by room.”

“That’s what Sokolov expects.” I restored Alina’s image. “He arranged Anika’s auction to flush Alina into the open. Now someone is using thirty million dollars to pull her toward a building he controls. Walking in with an assault force gives him the confrontation he prepared for.”

Anika turned the chair. “What do you suggest?”

I’d been thinking about this since the moment Alina’s face appeared on the video. We could make this work and keep Anika safe. “We make him believe his plan worked. You approach the north entrance wearing a transmitter while our teams lock down every route around the property. You stop at a predesignated mark and establish contact. If Alina appears, we extract both of you. If anyone else does, we follow the line back to Sokolov.”

Maksim shook his head, the anger he’d been holding back leaking through in the delivery. “No.”

“You don’t get to answer for me.” Anika rose, forcing him to straighten. “I’m not agreeing to walk into a casino. I’m telling you to stop discussing it like I left the room.” Her attention returned to me. “You want to use me as bait, right.”

“Want to? Absolutely fucking not.” Softening it would insult her intelligence. “But I’m learning more and more about you, Anika, and I think I know by now that you’ll fight us if we don’t include you. Sokolov believes your attachment to Alina makes you predictable. We can use that belief without surrendering control.”

“Tell me how it works.” Staring Maksim dead in the eye, she motioned for me to continue.

“You would carry two transmitters using separate frequencies. One would be obvious enough for them to find. The second would remain active after they believed they had silenced us.” This was one of many things that could go wrong, but I’d spent years working on contingency plans. “Alina will not arrive alone, and she will demand you be searched.”

Anika’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t let the humor distract her. “What happens if Alina doesn’t appear?”

“You leave.” But she’d show. Or…someone would.

Five days ago, we would’ve built the operation and informed her of her role. “You would approve every stage. If any part of the plan exceeds the risk you accept, we change it.”

Her gaze moved from me to Maksim. “Good.” She reclaimed my chair. “I’m playing it again. Something about her is bothering me.” She pointed at Kirill. “Not a fucking word.”