Page 78 of Hunt Me, Daddy

“It is the beginning of one.”

“I hate beginnings that sound like lies.”

“I understand that.”

The words slipped out too softly.

“Who are you, Ivan?”

There it was.

“My name is Ivan Dmitri Morozov.”

“You’ve already told me your name.”

“Yes.”

“I’m asking for the part men like you leave off conference badges.”

I looked at the Orlov report with her name in it, then at the live feed of her dark window, then at the cheap blue pen beside my keyboard. This was the point at which the door opened just enough for everything after to become inevitable.

“I am Morozov Bratva,” I said. “My family controls territory, money, protection, private security, and several things no one polite puts on a conference badge. My brother Maxim leads the family. My brothers enforce it in different ways. I run intelligence. Surveillance, attribution, financial systems, hostile infrastructure. I have been watching Mikhail Orlov’s operation for years.”

“And you just happened to notice me?”

“No.”

“Careful, Ivan.”

The warning in her voice slid across my skin like a blade.

I liked it too much.

“No,” I repeated. “I found you inside his systems.”

“That was weeks ago.”

“Yes.”

“You knew who I was before the conference.”

“Yes.”

“How long before?”

“Long enough.”

“Wrong answer.”

“It is the answer I can give you tonight.”

Her laugh was humorless. “That’s convenient.”

“It is not.”

“Then give me the inconvenient one.”

I looked toward the door, as though Sergei might still be standing there with his brutal, silent insistence that secrets became graves if kept too long.