Chapter 12: New Management

👉 Previous decision: Viktor Kostov’s mob surrounded your safehouse.

The door burst open. Viktor Kostov himself stood in the doorway, a hulking figure flanked by three armed men. His face was a mask of cold fury.

He surveyed the room, his eyes lingering on me. “Mara and Julian,” he said, his voice a low growl, “were eliminated an hour ago. Quick and clean.”

He took a step closer, his eyes sharp and calculating. “But the Congregation’s financial network. Their… methods. Far too lucrative to simply destroy.”

He tossed a small, heavy key onto the table. “I have a new apartment for you in Brighton Beach. Heavily guarded. You’ll be working for me now.”

He pulled out a stack of blank property deeds. “You’re good with signatures, Leo. You’ll sign forged property deeds, working off your alleged ‘debt’ to my syndicate.”

He gave me a hard stare. “Or,” he finished, a chilling calm in his voice, “face immediate execution for obstructing a police investigation that was close to my operations.”

My options were clear. Death, or a new cage.

I picked up the pen.

I was trapped in a colder, bigger criminal machine. My cheap rent had led me right back to another gilded cage, controlled by a different, far more ruthless master.