Page 101 of Shadow Of Sin

“What about Dmitri?” she asks.

“We don’t touch him.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because he’s Viktor Kozlov’s nephew. No matter what, they’re blood. If we take Dmitri out, Viktor will retaliate. He’ll have to, because it’s still family. Fucked-up family, but family all the same. And you don’t turn your back on family. Nobody will survive that kind of war.” I hold her gaze. “So, we strip everything around him instead. Every partner, every resource, every piece of leverage we can find. Then we package the evidence and hand it over to Viktor. Show him that his own nephew went rogue and challenged his position, operated without authorization, threatened established families. We clean up the mess for Viktor as a show of good faith in our arrangement.”

Eva raises an eyebrow. “You’re counting on Viktor being rational.”

“I’m counting on Viktor being a businessman. He has interests in Boston that depend on stability and the agreement he came to with Adriana months back. Dmitri was a threat to that stability. We give Viktor a clean exit. He cuts Dmitri off without losing face.”

“And Dmitri walks away?” She folds her arms over her chest. “Come on.”

“Viktor will make sure of it. And Dmitri will walk away with nothing. No network. No Albanians. No leverage. And most importantly, no protection from his uncle.”

“Men with nothing are dangerous, Wolfe.”

“Men with nothing are also alone.”

She lets out a long breath and sits on the bed next to me. Our shoulders touch. We sit like that for a while, both of us silently staring at the floor.

“I need to be somewhere safe during this whole thing,” she says, finally seeing the plan take shape.

“Yeah, you can’t stay here. It’s the Molloy family estate. It’s a known address. If anything goes wrong Thursday night and Dmitri decides to push back when his plan goes sideways, it’s the first place he’ll send people. And at that point, he won’t give a damn if it starts a war.”

“So where?” she asks. “Where won’t he look for me?”

“I have a cabin north of the city. It’s off the grid. There’s no paper trail to me as the owner, no connection to my name or my family. Nobody has ever been there except me.”

“You have a secret cabin.”

“It’s where I go when my brain needs to shut down.”

“Of course you have a secret cabin for brain shutdowns.” She almost smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “And you want me to go there.”

“I want us both to go. Tomorrow. I’ll work the operation setup from there. But when it’s time to execute on Thursday, I’ll need to be back in Boston. Cillian will pick me up. You keep the car.”

“Why do I keep the car?” Her eyebrows knit together.

“Because I’m not leaving you anywhere without a way out. That’s not protection. That’s a prison.”

She looks at me, her eyes softening the slightest bit, but enough for me to know she appreciates what I just said.

“Your laptop,” she says. “I need it so I can see what’s happening.”

“It’ll stay here with you. You’ll have full access and eyes on everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

She doesn’t respond. She doesn’t speak for a while. I watch her process what I’ve just unloaded on her. Her brain runs through scenarios the same way mine does…logging every angle, looking for gaps, trying to find the flaw that means this whole plan falls apart.

“If anything happens to Sal,” she says finally, “I will never forgive you.”

“I know.”

She twists the ends of her hair, her eyes pleading with mine. “Give me a fact, Wolfe. Not a promise.”