Page 47 of Trapping His Assassin

My thoughts stayed on Alexie, though.

He didn’t hurt me more than I could bear. All of it was to mold me into his successor. Now that he only had a female heir, he needed me more than ever. Just like Viktor needed me right now, but once his son turned twelve, I would no longer be needed.

I had expected that from Alexie. His ultimate goal was always to impregnate Sloane, something that would bind her to him forever. So, once she became pregnant, it was only a matter of time before I was replaced.

“Are you even listening to me?” Benedikt drawled.

I smiled and looked down at my phone, typing out.

Me: Not really, no.

Benedikt laughed so loudly and unexpectedly, that I jolted away from my screen in surprise.

“Only you would dare to talk to me like that. Do you know what they call me?” His laughing had stopped, and he had a serious tone.

I shook my head no. Truly, I didn’t want to know.

“The butcher, you fuckface. I know you were already aware of that information, you’re just being difficult.”

I shrugged.

Me: What’s the use of being a genius, if I can’t fuck around from time to time?

Benedikt’s phone pinged again before we could talk about anything more. He peered down at it and then frowned. I wasn’t going to ask. He would inform me if I needed to know. Instead, I turned back to the accounts, confused.

I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I could read and calculate fine. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers or anything like that, but I did like it when they presented a puzzle.

And right now, that puzzle was screaming something was wrong with several of our legit offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. If I didn’t know any better, I would say someone within the organization was skimming.

Lucky for me, I could dig into this information at my leisure. They weren’t directly pulling enough to gain attention. Yet.

They’d been taking money for a long time. Pennies even. I was sure whoever was taking their cut from the top had at least a few hundred million stashed away.

So why keep stealing?

As I sifted through the ledgers and invoices, my heart raced with anticipation. The Bratva were known for their meticulous records, but so far, everything seemed to be in order. However, my true motive for being there was not to audit their finances.

“What are you so interested in?” Benedikt interrupted my thoughts yet again.

Me: Why would someone keep stealing something if they had plenty of it to use?

Benedikt tilted his head. “Off the top of my head, I would say it’s because that person loved not getting caught. It gave them a thrill, but I’m not an expert or anything like that. Why?”

I waved him off, signing. “Nothing. I was overthinking.”

“Did his accounts show you anything?”

Benedikt was talking about the mysterious Headmaster Mikhail.

I took the time to respond, so he was up to date on what I knew so far.

Me: They were eye-opening. Did you know that not only is the Bratva giving this so-called priest a shit ton of money for no reason, many syndicates do the same?

My brain was swirling the problem around, attacking it from all sides, trying to figure it out.

“That is strange. Which ones?”

I scanned the list of names scrawled on the crumpled piece of paper in front of me: The Greeks, The Triads, The Yakuza. My brow furrowed as I tried to connect the dots, wondering what these powerful groups could have in common.

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