Page 35 of Tattooed Heart

A lump forms in my throat. “I never thanked you. For all the times you covered for me.”

Talia shrugs, but I can see the emotion swimming in her eyes. “You never had to. That's what family is.”

She picks up one of the folders and flips it open. “Tell me what I'm looking at,” she says.

I blink. “I thought you wanted me to rest.”

She shrugs. “I changed my mind. You want to dig? We dig. This baby is going to know their father, not some prison visitation room version of him.”

A quiet smile spreads across my lips. I lean beside her, pointing to the transaction log. “Right there. Valkyr Logistics. It's a shell.Look at the route. Follow it through the third entry. See that offshore jump? That account is tied to a Geneva firm that's under investigation for laundering.”

Talia whistles low. “Damn. When did you get so good at this?”

“I've always been this good,” I sniff. “You just never paid attention.”

“No, I noticed.” Her voice was suddenly serious. “I always knew you were the smart one.”

“Maybe,” I nudge her shoulder. “But look where we ended up anyway. Tangled up with Russian men who attract trouble like magnets.”

Talia’s laughter rings out, warm and loud. “Not exactly what our social worker had in mind for our futures, huh?”

“God no. Poor Mrs. Hendricks would have a heart attack.”

Talia's eyes crinkle at the corners. “Remember how she used to lecture us about finding nice, stable men with boring jobs? Accountants and dentists, she'd say.”

“Instead, we got a Bratvapakhanand his second-in-command.” I shake my head, the absurdity of our lives not lost on me.

Talia's face softens. “Sometimes I look at Aleksandr with the kids, or the way you've bloomed since meeting Dimitri, and I think maybe this is exactly where we were always heading.”

We work silently, passing files back and forth, our fingers stained with ink and highlighter. Outside the window, the trees rustle in the late afternoon breeze. Somewhere in the distance, I hear the faint clink of silverware from the kitchen staff preparing dinner.

The world goes on. But in this room, time bends around us. We are just two women piecing together the proof that can take down a corrupt lawyer, a dirty judge, and the man who thinks he can destroy our family and walk away untouched.

“So, what exactly is the plan here?” Talia asks, breaking the comfortable silence. “Once we have everything connected?”

I rub my tired eyes. “Peter takes it to the judge and gets the case thrown out. Dimitri walks free.”

“And Petrov?”

My jaw clenches. “He answers for what he's done.”

She nods slowly. “Aleksandr will want blood.”

“He might have to settle for justice instead.” I sigh, running my hand through my hair. “That's the deal Dimitri made when we got together. Less blood and violence. No more vengeance. No more bodies in the river.”

“It's strange,” Talia muses, leaning back on her hands. “How loving someone can change you. Make you want to be better.”

“Is that what happened with you and Aleksandr?”

She smiles with a soft, private expression. “He was already trying to change for Sasha and Maxim. But yes, I think we saved each other in a way.”

I think about Dimitri's face the first time he told me he loved me. A man who spent his life believing love was a weakness suddenly opened himself to the ultimate vulnerability.

“Dimitri told me once that he was afraid of me,” I say quietly.

Talia raises an eyebrow. “Of you? All five-foot-five of you?”

“Not physically.” I trace the edge of a document absently. “He said I was the first person who made him afraid of dying. Because before me, he didn't care if he lived or died. Now he has something to lose.”

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