Page 122 of Cashmere Ruin

That’s why you have to do your best at work: to protect him. It’s the only way he’ll let you.“But you still can’t move forward.”

“No,” he exhales. “Not until we find the mole. Which is… problematic.”

“Why?”

“Thevory. They’re getting restless again. They want the plan.”

“And because of the mole, you can’t give it to them.”

He nods. “Precisely.”

I feel my eyelids growing heavy. I can’t help it—Matvey’s stamina is impossible to keep up with. I barely know what I’m saying when I slur, half-asleep already, “So give them one.”

“What?”

“A plan. Just not…theplan…”

Matvey doesn’t say anything. I force myself to blink one eye open. When I do, I see his expression looks stuck in place, frozen. Like he’s had an epiphany or something.

I try to ask, but sleep pulls me under.

Oh, well. We’ll talk more in the morning.

37

MATVEY

My strength was never strategy. It was brute, overpowering force. Taking what I wanted, no matter the obstacles in my way. It’s how I built the Groza Bratva back up from scratch, how I dragged it across the ocean and made it grow. Force of will, strength of hand: so far, it’s the only strategy I’ve ever needed.

But now, I’m up against an enemy I can’t see.

Now, brute force is no longer enough to get me where I want to go.

So I show up at work, gather thevory, and make my announcement. “It’s time.”

Yuri’s eyes look ready to bulge out of their sockets. Grisha’s, too, though it’s less noticeable with him. His poker face has always been better than my brother’s.

Neither of them questions me out loud, but I can hear their thoughts clear as day:What the hell?

I didn’t warn them. That, too, was on purpose. After all, if I want to lure out the rats, I need my bait to look real—and real fucking juicy.

“This is a blueprint of the building we’ll acquire.”

I lay it out on the conference room table. Everyone stands up, craning their necks to see. “Why this one?” asks Vlad.

“For its position.” I spread another roll-up over the first—a map. “This is the Bonaccorsi headquarters. And this is our building. As you can see, it’s a straight jump from one rooftop to the other.”

“That’s how we invade?” Yuri frowns. “From the rooftop?”

“Yes.” I continue my explanation. “There’s just one problem—the building isn’t a single property. It’s been split up vertically between two companies. Technically speaking, we’re looking at two completely separate entities.”

“So which one do we buy?” Stanislav asks.

I grin. “Both.”

Ipatiy clears his throat. “Pardon me for the insolence,pakhan… but isn’t that a waste of resources?”

A few murmurs of agreement follow. I let them pass. My eyes are on the bigger picture now. “It would be,” I concede, “if we wereactuallygoing to purchase both of them.”

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