Chapter 118 Nikolai
I stood in the street watching the car disappear into the night.
Anya was gone. Again.
And this time, Katya had her.
The taillights blurred in the cold rain. I stood frozen. Every instinct screamed at me to run to my car, to chase them down, to tear Anya from my sister's grasp by force. But I forced myself to breathe. Force never worked with Anya. It only drove her further away.
"Boss!" Mikhail ran up to me, his boots splashing through puddles. "We need to go after them."
"No," I said.
"What?" Mikhail stared at me, rain dripping from his hair. "Boss, they took Anya. We need to..."
"I know where they are going," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "Which is exactly where I need to be tomorrow anyway."
I turned and walked back into the building. The warmth inside did nothing to chase away the cold settling into my bones. Mikhail followed, slamming the door behind him.
"What are you planning?" He asked.
"To get everything back," I said. "The empire. Anya. All of it."
"How?" Mikhail demanded. "Katya has everything. The territory. The council. And now she has Anya."
"Which is why we are not going to fight her," I said. "We are going to outmaneuver her."
I went to my office and pulled out the documents Mikhail had gathered. Pages of bank records, shipment manifests, photographs of Katya meeting with men who should have been her enemies. Every secret I had collected over the past year.
"Katya thinks she has won," I said, spreading the papers across my desk. "She thinks having Anya gives her leverage. But she is wrong."
"How is she wrong?" Mikhail asked.
"Because Anya does not want to be with me," I said. The words hurt more than any bullet ever could. I could still see the look in her eyes when she walked away. The finality. "She made that clear. So Katya having her means nothing. She cannot use Anya to control me if Anya was already lost."
"Then what is your plan?"
"Simple," I said. "Tomorrow I meet with Katya. I negotiate. I use the information we have about her past. Her connections. Her weaknesses. And I force her to give me back what is mine."
Mikhail picked up one of the photographs. "This shows she has been meeting with the Chinese triad behind the council's back. If the council finds out..."
"They will turn on her," I finished. "Katya knows this. She will not risk exposure. So I will trade silence for the return of my territory and Anya."
"Without violence?" Mikhail asked skeptically.
"Without violence," I confirmed. "She is my sister. I am not going to kill her. But I am going to beat her."
Mikhail sat down heavily in the chair across from my desk. "This is risky. If she calls your bluff..."
"She will not," I said. "Katya is ruthless, but she is not stupid. She built her position on reputation. If the council learns she has been dealing with the triad, her reputation is destroyed. She will fold."
"Everything is risky," I said. "But it is the only way to get Anya back without destroying everything."
We spent the next three hours planning. Going over every detail. Every possible move Katya could make. I mapped out the negotiation in my head like a chess game. If she says this, I say that. If she threatens this, I reveal that. Mikhail played devil's advocate, pushing back on every assumption.
By the time we finished, I felt confident. Not certain, but confident. The kind of confidence that came from knowing I had prepared for every outcome except the one I could not control. Anya's own heart.
"Get some rest," I told Mikhail. "Tomorrow we take back what is ours."
After he left, I sat alone in my office. The building was silent. I poured myself a drink I did not want and stared at the wall.
Tomorrow I would face my sister.
Tomorrow I would get my empire back. And tomorrow I would prove to Anya that I could win without violence.
That I could be better than my father.
That I could choose both the empire and her.
My phone buzzed. It was a message from an unknown number.
I opened it.
It was a letter.
"Dear brother, by now you have realized I have Anya. And by now you have made plans to get her back. But I want you to know something. Tomorrow at our meeting, you will have a choice. Give up your claim to the empire completely. Walk away forever. Or I give Anya to Alexei Volkov. Your choice. You have until noon."
My blood turned to ice.
Alexei Volkov.
The name alone made my hands shake with rage. I had not heard that name in months. Not since I put him in prison myself. He had been untouchable once. A predator who collected enemies like trophies.
Volkov was a monster. A man who made mafias like me look like a saint.
And he hated me. Hated me with a passion that bordered on obsession. I was the one who looked him up. He had been interested in Anya. If he had Anya, he would not just hurt her to hurt me. He would take his time. He would make sure I heard every detail.
If Katya gave Anya to Volkov, he would use her to destroy me. He would make her suffer in ways I could not even imagine.
I stood up so fast my chair fell backward.
"Mikhail!" I shouted.
He came running, still pulling on his jacket. "What is it?"
I showed him the message.
His face went pale. "Volkov was released from prison three days ago. I meant to tell you but with everything..."
"She is going to give Anya to Volkov," I said. My voice shook. "Unless I give up everything."
"What are you going to do?" Mikhail asked.
I looked at the message again. At the impossible choice my sister had given me. My empire or Anya's life. My pride or her safety. Everything I had worked for or the woman I loved.
And I realized there was no choice at all.
"I am going to give her what she wants," I said quietly. "The empire. All of it."
"Boss, if you walk away, you have nothing. The men will scatter. Your enemies will come for you. Volkov will still—"
"I am walking away," I said. "Tomorrow. At noon. I am giving Katya everything and walking away with Anya."
"Are you sure?" Mikhail asked.
I looked at him. "She is going to give Anya to Volkov, Mikhail. Do you know what that means? Do you know what he will do to her?"
"I know," Mikhail said quietly.
"Then you know I have no choice," I said. "The empire means nothing if Anya is destroyed because of it."