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“I didn’t go back,” Mikhail added. “I quit the job. Walked away from that entire chain. But the name stuck with me. And when I saw the campaign posters start going up last year…”

He shrugged, his expression bitter as he looked between us.

Nikolai’s voice was quiet. “And you didn’t say anything.”

“No one could prove it,” Mikhail said. “And I wasn’t about to come at a man like that with nothing but a rumor.” He looked between us. “But I’ve heard his men asking around about Sloane. You can use this.”

Nikolai looked at me. His eyes were inscrutable, but I could feel the fury radiating off him like a heatwave.

“We need names,” he said to Mikhail. “Places. Anything we can get our hands on. We have to end this. Quietly if we can, loudly if we have to.”

Mikhail nodded. “I’ll get what I can, but if you go for him, be ready. He’s dirtier than we ever knew, and he’ll kill to protect his name.”

“We need proof though,” I said, stepping closer to Nikolai. “You can’t go public with nothing more than a rumor. Not even a credible one.”

Nikolai didn’t look at me right away. His eyes were still locked on Mikhail, dissecting him in silence, scanning for weakness in the way only men like Nikolai could. Finally, he nodded—once—and turned his attention to me.

“We’ll build a case,” he said. “Find the supply chain, the drivers, the money trail.”

I shook my head. “That won’t be enough. Not with someone like Stillwell. You show up with a few witnesses and an angry Russian, he spins it as a smear campaign. Give him twenty-four hours and he’ll burn the evidence, silence the victims, and leak a story that I’m a delusional, desperate daughter of a fading politician.”

Nikolai’s brow lifted—just slightly—but I could see it in his eyes: he was listening pretty closely. Proudly even.

“So what do you suggest?”

“A sting,” I said. “We make him think he’s getting another delivery. We find out how he sets meetings, who arranges the logistics. We bait him. Then we catch him with his hands where they definitely shouldn’t be.”

Mikhail crossed his arms. “You planning to bait him yourself?”

“No,” Nikolai snapped instantly. “She’s not.”

I didn’t argue.

Yet.

Instead, I pivoted. “We don’t need to start from scratch. There’s already someone working the other side of this. Someone with more reach than any of us in the political space.”

Nikolai stilled.

“My father,” I said with a curt nod.

Mikhail nodded slowly. “If you can bring him in, I can track the drivers, some of the routes, get some phone numbers. I know which clubs the guys frequent, which networks they pull from. But you’ll need a burner with heavy encryption. If this goes loud, it can’t come back to you.”

I turned to Nikolai. “You’ve got the tech guys, the muscle, and the money. I’ve got connections myself, press relationships. And the name.”

His mouth twitched. “And the recklessness.”

“Which,” I said, stepping closer now, right into his space, “I think is the thing you like about me most.”

He grinned wide.

“That’s only one of the things I love about you.”

My heart exploded at least three times its size in that single moment.

CHAPTER 33

Nikolai