Chapter 5 - The Shadow of Nikolai
The next morning, the sun rose cold and pale over the pine forest, casting long, skeletal shadows across the cabin's living room.
I came downstairs to find David sitting at a rustic wooden table, surrounded by paper maps, tablets, and a secure satellite phone. He had removed his suit jacket and tie, his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing thick, powerful forearms covered in faint silver scars—reminders of a past he had tried to bury.
Leo was sitting on the floor nearby, quietly coloring with a set of crayons Viktor had somehow managed to find.
"You're awake," David said, not looking up from a map of the New York harbor. "There is coffee in the kitchen. And fresh fruit. Viktor brought supplies from the local town before dawn."
"Thank you," I said, walking over to the table. "Did... did you find out how they tracked us?"
David sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. "Nikolai has a mole inside my organization. Someone who had access to the security logs of the Oakwood Drive estate. That is the only way they could have identified you so quickly."
"But why me?" I asked, pulling out a chair and sitting across from him. "If Nikolai wants your shipping routes, why not just attack your warehouses? Why target a tutor?"
"Because Nikolai is a traditionalist," David said, his voice turning cold. "In the old Bratva, you do not win a war by simply killing your rival. You win by destroying his legacy. He knows I took over the family business only to protect Leo after my wife, Elena, died of illness two years ago. He knows that if anything happens to Leo—or to the people Leo cares about—I will burn the entire syndicate to the ground. He wants to force my hand, to make me commit a mistake that will turn the other families against me."
David looked at me, his gaze softening in a way that made my breath catch.
"And he saw how Leo looked at you, Clara. My son has not smiled since his mother died. He has not laughed. But when he was with you in that library, and in my kitchen... he was a child again. Nikolai saw that. He realized you were the key to my son’s heart. And that makes you the most dangerous person in my life."
Before I could answer, a sharp beep echoed from the satellite phone on the table.
David picked it up, his face instantly returning to its cold, unreadable mask. "Speak."
May you like
A frantic, static-filled voice came through the receiver. It was one of David's lieutenants in the city. "Boss... they found the harbor warehouse. They have Dmitry. They’re demanding a meeting. Tonight at the old shipyard. If you don't show... they say they'll start sending Dmitry's fingers to the cabin."
David's eyes closed for a fraction of a second. "Tell them I will be there."
