airtight, and I can’t find a way in, but you need to set up a dummy life for me to hack into.”
“Wait a minute,” I tell him. “I’m putting you on speaker; Reece is here.”
“Reece, can you create a fake online life for Konstantin here? It must look damn real. Konstantin, you’re going to have to front some big money into it because I’m going to rob you. To more than the tune of the couple of million Denis took from you. More along the lines of what Popov took from you.”
“I trust I’ll be getting it back,” I say drily.
“Actually, maybe not,” he answers.
I lean back in my chair and laugh. “Fuck you. You think I’m going to give you millions when I’ve already lost money? Why would I do that?”
“To keep you safe. To keep your son safe. To keep that woman you have with you safe. The one you cared enough about to kill Tigran for.”
“I can keep them safe,” I grind out.
“No, you can’t. Not long-term with Aram walking the earth. This way, we set him and his men up, and you can take them out. Problem solved.”
“I’m not understanding the part where, once the problem is solved as you say, I don’t get my money back.”
He laughs. “Oh, Konstantin. If you think the British state are going to give that money back to you, you’re more naïve than I would ever have presumed.”
“Are you fucking shitting me now? That money is legit. My business here is legit.” I’m so fucking livid, I don’t watch what I say. It’s only when I see Reece shaking his head dramatically that I realize I’m admitting, openly, to a man with deep ties to British Intelligence, that some of my business isn’t legit.
“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t promise you’ll get it back. It’s a decision above my head. There’s some anger in Whitehall about the influence it’s felt you’ve had on certain ministers.”
Ha, that’s what this is about. Not my money, which is fucking legal here, but the British state not liking what I do with it. Can they do this? Then again, it’s probably not the state doing it, but some individuals who have been burned by me. How would I find out who?
“Look at it this way. What would you pay to have the Armenians removed from the equation forever? Gone. Not a problem, and not only that, but you get to take out the man who threatened you and yours yourself. It’s a bargain for a few million. Man like you? It’s fucking chump change, mate, and you know it.”
Reece sighs, but he gives me a shrug. He knows how these guys operate, and I can tell from his defeated expression this is going to cost me. The upside, though? It works out for me with Cassie. This way she can go home safe and sound, if she still insists that she wants to, and I can go cold turkey. I should want that too. I don’t think I do.
It will hurt, withdrawal always does, but it’s the only way, I try to tell myself. After all, I can’t be what she wants and needs, and she can’t settle for less. We’re stuck.
I might not be able to give her the hearts and flowers, but I can make her safe, whether she’s with me or not, and if that costs me a few more million, so be it.
“Okay.” I nod at Reece.
“What do you need?” Reece asks.
“Konstantin will set up three or four dummy accounts. Investments, the like. He’ll need to put about twenty million in it. I’m going to syphon off ten of it and hide it, to prove to Aram I know what the fuck I’m doing. In this fake life you’re creating, make the woman seem inconsequential. Use Tinder messages, dating sites, pervy fucking Whatsapp messages; whatever it takes. Make it look like Cassie is nothing. Yes, Aram and his men should be wiped out when we’re done with them, but you never know who might come and fill the vacancy.”
I rub my jaw as he speaks, a bone-deep weariness creeping over me.
“Once I’ve taken your money and done some other fuckery to convince Aram I can do what he needs, I’ll take your real security out again. I’m gonna feed him information that shows you’re laid back about things. Tigran is dead. You think Reece has done a bang-up job on your security, and you have a team