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“Then I need to know what the plan is.” Theo leans forward again, steepling his fingers on the desk. “As I said, I trust you, lad. But I can see there’s something you’ve formulated, and I need you to fill me in. Nikolai doesn’t even know what it is that you’ve got cooking up there.”
“I wouldn’t tell Nikolai before I told you.” I run my hand through my hair again. I didn’t sleep well the night before; that much is definitely true. I had more restless dreams of Asha, waking up this time hard and unfulfilled yet again, aching for her in the bed with me. Nothing was stopping me from jerking off this time, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I ended up feeling hollow, the desire far from sated. “I do have a plan.”
“Alright.” Theo waits patiently, and I let out a slow breath. I hadn’t planned on saying anything just yet, not until Asha had something more definite for me, but I know when Theo isn’t going to budge. He’s not going to acceptwait and see, and I can understand that. He’s across the ocean, having entrusted generations of work to me, and it only makes sense that he’d want to know what it is that I plan to do to keep it safe.
“Nikolai wanted to infiltrate Kotov’s organization with some of our men,” I say slowly. “It’s nothing we haven’t done before, pretty standard operations—but it’s dangerous for them. Normally, I would have gone ahead with that plan—but I saw something of Kotov that made me think there was another option.”
“Another option?” Theo frowns. “For getting information?”
I nod. “A friend of mine works as security at one of Nikolai’s other clubs. He got a pass to the Ashen Rose, and took me along. They had some poker game going on that night—something where the prize was a girl who works there, who was putting on a show onstage to distract the players.”
Theo chuckles. “I’ve heard of that particular show he puts on from time to time. And I’m guessing Kotov was there?”
I nod. “He won. He got the girl, and she spent the night with him—although it apparently didn’t go quite the way he wanted. Nikolai didn’t want him back at the club after that. He was pissed about it. I went to see the girl—thought she might be able to tell us something about him, but I also offered her a job.”
Theo’s eyebrows slide up, his mouth twitching into a frown. “You’re using her to infiltrate instead?”
I nod. I’m not surprised he picked up on it—I half wondered if he might guess what I was up to before I’d had a chance to tell him myself. “She agreed to it after we met and talked. I gave her a bracelet with a signal button in it for security, posed as her bodyguard, and she set up a private session with Matvei. She’s only been there once so far, so we don’t have any concrete information yet. But I think it’s promising—it plays to his ego that he’s getting Nikolai’s best escort to meet with him on his own terms, privately, after Nikolai refused him entrance again. He’ll soften up with her soon enough, and we should get something worth hearing about.”
“I don’t know about this.” Theo rubs a hand over his mouth. “Seems just as dangerous, sending this girl in there. And you haven’t told Nikolai—”
“I wanted to make sure it would give us something worthwhile first. If it seemed like it was a dead end, I’d pull her out, and let you know that I’d had a hunch that didn’t pan out the way I thought it would. I thought it might be better to test the waters, first.”
Theo taps his fingers against the desk, considering. “The plan’s already in motion, and I assume the girl is counting on getting paid, so I’m not going to say you should put a stop to it. She’s agreed and knows the danger, aye?”
I nod. “We had a long discussion about all of it. I won’t say she’s not largely motivated by the money, but she’s aware of the dangers it could entail.”
“I’m sure you’re paying her well.” Theo chuckles. “At any rate, I trust you, lad. I know you wouldn’t waste resources or follow a hunch blindly unless you thought it was worth the risk. And I trust you not to be careless with the lives of others. I wouldn’t have put you in this position otherwise.”
“I know you wouldn’t have.” I hesitate. “It means a lot—the responsibility you’ve given me. I know it can’t be easy.”
“It’s easier with someone like you to entrust it to, lad.” Theo lets out a long breath. “Keep going as you are, but keep me updated. I want to know as soon as he tells the lassanything, understood?”
I nod. “Of course.”
The meeting turns to other, more mundane business matters, but I can’t quite shake the feeling of worry that it leaves me with. I’d wanted something more solid to give to Theo when I told him what it was that I was doing, and the trust he continues to have in me—while appreciated—leaves me with a weight on my shoulders that I can’t shake.
I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t want Theo to think that he was misguided, leaving all of this in my hands—for as long as I’ve worked for him, I’ve wanted to prove that his trust in me is well-placed. Proving that I’m capable has been all that’s mattered to me for a long time—but it’s no longer the only thing that matters to me, and that worries me, too.
I’m drawn to Asha. I can’t deny that, or the feelings I have for her—more than I should have, considering the situation that we’re in, working together the way we are. I worry for her and the position I’ve placed her in, and that means my decisions aren’t going to be entirely made with a clear head.
Of course, she knows that too. That’s why she drew that boundary last night, once again.
I glance towards the laptop sitting on my coffee table. Looking up anything about her feels like an invasion of privacy, but at the same time—
Shouldn’t I know more about her, given the situation?She’s working for me as a spy, looking for sensitive information that could change the future of both the Kings and the Vasilev Bratva—not to mention any of the other organizations in the city—I don’t even know her real name. I don’t know what she did before she came to work for Nikolai at the Ashen Rose. I don’t know if she’s lived in Chicago all her life or moved here later on.
I could try to ask her those questions, even frame them as information I need to know in order to work with her, but what I know of her tells me that she won’t answer. I don’t think she’dlieto me exactly—but I think she’d deflect, tell me that I didn’t need to know, or find some other way to skirt around the questions. Asha is a master of keeping her secrets close to her chest, and while I can appreciate that—right now, it feels more important that I know who she really is.
I’m a decent hand with technology—nothing like some of the hackers Theo and Nikolai have worked with in the past, but I can track down someone if I need to. It’s not hard to find Asha’s photo on the Ashen Rose’s website and reverse search the image—but what is startling is how very little there is about her.
It almost seems like she wants to be hidden. Like she wants to keep herself tucked away from the world. She has no social media, not even a hint of having ever had any. The only records I can find of her are official things like old addresses—which is enough to tell me that she hasn’t always lived in Chicago—and a name.
A better hacker could dig deeper, find out all the personal details that Asha wants to keep hidden, but I’m not here to prythatdeeply into her past. I just want…something tangible about the woman that I, despite my best efforts, have begun to fall for.
And there’s something tangible on the screen right in front of me.
Herrealname.
