Chapter 16
The silence in the apartment pressed in on me after Alexei spoke, thick and suffocating, as if the air itself had weight. I stared at his phone resting on the glass table, half expecting it to vibrate again, to explode, to confirm that this nightmare had teeth.
“He wants to meet me?” I asked quietly. My voice sounded distant, as if it belonged to someone else. “He’s in a high security prison. How is that even possible?”
Alexei remained standing, one hand braced on the back of a chair. His face was calm, but there was a tightness around his eyes that betrayed him. “Konstantin Volkov does not recognize walls or locks. He owns people, not places. The warden, the guards, the cameras. If he requests a meeting, the building bends to accommodate him.”
“Then you’re compromised too,”
