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I hop up on my toes and plant a kiss on his lips, drinking in the details of his face. His hair has gotten the slightest bit longer since we arrived in Russia. His beard, too, is bushier and in need of a trim. In many ways, he’s been made gruff, his hard edges honed into something sharp out of necessity. But when he’s with me, he’s all things sweet and soft. The duality he holds within himself never ceases to amaze me.
Mikhail Antonov is my whole world, and he has my heart completely.
He searches my eyes, the moment so tender and true it makes me want to melt.
“Marry me,” he whispers. The simplicity of his request leaves me breathless. There’s no need for a grand gesture, no need for him to get down on one knee. It’s a quiet request, almost a secret between two halves of one soul. “Marry me, Aurora. I can’t promise what’s going to happen, but what I do know is I don’t want to spend another day without you. Say you’ll be mine, because I am most certainly yours.”
“Yes!” The answer rushes out of me like a hurricane, sure and steadfast and unstoppable.
He kisses me with such fire and passion I momentarily lose myself. Nothing else matters. Not the war with his uncle, not this feeling of impending doom. Right now, all I feel is hope and love and the undying devotion to one another.
“When this is over,” he says, “we’ll have a massive wedding.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I don’t need a massive wedding, darling. I just need you.”
“How about an extended honeymoon? I feel like we deserve a bit of a vacation.”
“As long as it’s somewhere warm and tropical.”
Mikhail chuckles. “I’m sure that can be arranged. Where would you want to—” His phone blares in his pocket, interrupting our moment. He answers with impressive speed. “Luka? Yes, I’ll tell her… Good, we’re on our way back.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Someone’s clicked on your link. The virus you wrote is logging their information as we speak.”
The news is more effective than a shot of adrenaline. I can’t believe it worked!
“We have to get back,” I say hurriedly, tugging Mikhail’s hand to make him hurry. “Come on, come on!”
Mikhail follows, just as eager as I am.
It’s time to drain Konstantin’s accounts.
Chapter 41
Mikhail
I’ve never seen so much money.
I mean, CyberFort is a multi-billion-dollar company, but this is a whole other level of mind blowing. My uncle has just shy of a billion spread out across almost twenty different bank accounts, with ten different banks, hosted in at least four different countries. Rubles, the Euro, the American Dollar, Pesos, Yen… Konstantin has done an excellent job of diversifying his portfolio and spreading out his cash to make it damn near impossible for law enforcement to link it all back to him.
But we’re not law enforcement.
Unlike them, we’re not tied down by laws. It was always going to end up this way. We had no choice but to fight dirty. Aurora’s little code has wormed its way into stealing all of Konstantin’s private information; all we have to do is sit back and wait for his empire to crumble. In fact, we might not even have to wait that long.
“Word on the street is that his allies are leaving him in droves,” Nicolai reports, ending the call with one of his street informants. If there’s one thing the Stokayevskis are known for, it’s for their intricate network of sources stationed from the underground to the highest seats of the Kremlin. “There’s still a good handful of his loyalists remaining behind with him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they all turn their backs when they realize he can’t afford to pay for their protection.”
Aurora flashes me a triumphant smile. “This is going surprisingly well. And all because the idiot who clicked the link uses the same password for all his accounts, too.”
Luka snorts from behind his laptop. “Rookie mistake.”
Dimitri grins. “Should I break out the champagne?”
“Let’s not celebrate yet,” Pyotr says sternly. “We don’t know what kind of shit Konstantin might pull.”
Catherina nods sagely from her corner of my apartment. “He’s a cornered animal now. That’s when they’re the most unpredictable.” She sits by herself, separated from the rest of the group. I’m not sure if it’s on purpose, or pure coincidence. Things between us have been strained in recent days. Since her motivations were revealed to my brothers, they’ve been giving her a wide berth.
“So what do we do now?” Aurora asks.
