Page 23 of Married to the Bratva

“What if she hacks into the file and steals all that money for herself?”

“She won’t.”

“You seem very sure.”

“Dimitri’s busy working on the file as we speak. He’ll have it cracked soon enough. We can let her live her life. She’s no danger to us.”

I don’t tell him that I dare not see her again. I’m already obsessed. One night and I’m addicted to her. See her again, and I’ll never be able to let her go. She’ll get swallowed up by my world and broken into a thousand pieces. I couldn’t do that to something so beautiful. It’s vital that I never see her again.

Victor’s eyes narrow, the weight of his judgment pressing down on me like it always does. He leans back in his chair, the leather creaking under his weight. “Evan Daniels is laughing at you. Federico too. You’re wasting time. We need that file unlocked. Now.”

“I told you. Dimitri’s working on it,” I say, my tone sharp enough to slice through his objections. “Evan isn’t the only problem here. Someone helped him. Someone with access to our system. I need to know who or our entire account might get drained when our backs are turned.”

Nikolai steps forward from where he’s been leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “And you suspect who? Me? Victor?”

“It could be anyone in our organization,” I reply, leveling my gaze at him. “Including you two or the fucking housemaids.”

Victor leans forward, resting his elbows on the table as he looks at me like he’s trying to dissect me. “You’ve spent threeweeks with Dimitri trying to get into that file. What have you achieved?”

The door creaks open.

“Ask him yourself.”

Dimitri strides in. He’s holding a laptop under one arm, his usual cocky smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. The kid’s smart—one of the best I’ve ever seen when it comes to tech—but his attitude grates on my nerves more often than not.

“You wanted an update?” he says, sliding the laptop onto the table and looking directly at me.

“Talk,” I say, gesturing for him to get on with it.

He flips the screen upright, revealing a series of charts, codes, and timelines. He taps on one section, zooming in on what looks like a countdown clock. It’s bold and bright, counting down. 30 days.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I found it buried in the system an hour ago. That’s how long we have left until the file locks.”

“So stop the fucking timer,” Victor snaps at him.

“No can do. It took weeks just to get this far. Uncovering that timer triggered more layers of encryption to pile up on top.”

“Meaning?” I ask.

“Once the timer hits zero, the file locks permanently, erasing all contents. No one gets in. Not you, not me, not anyone. She wasn’t lying about the kill code.”

Victor exhales sharply, sitting back in his chair. “And let me guess—you can’t get in, Mr. Tech Wizard.”

“I’ll keep working at it,” Dimitri replies, tapping the keys to bring up a new set of data. “But if I were you, I’d find Evan and force him to get to work on it. He programmed it. He’s your best shot.”

“He only tinkered around the edges,” I say. “He’s not skilled enough to unlock it on his own.”

“What makes you say that?” Nikolai asks.

“Sophie said so.”

“And you believe her?”

The room goes still again, and this time, the silence feels suffocating. My gaze shifts to Victor, whose expression is unreadable. Nikolai’s jaw tightens, and I can practically see the gears turning in his head as he pieces together what this means.

Dimitri glances between the three of us, clearly uneasy. “Look, I can keep digging, but if Federico’s involved—and you’re pretty sure he is—then time’s not the only thing working against us. If he gets to Evan first and they manage to unlock it together using others on his crew…”

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