The glow of the city skyline flickered outside Darya’s window, the cold night air creeping through the barely cracked panes. Moscow stretched beneath her like a maze of lights, streets brimming with stories of power, betrayal, and fear. Darya’s mind was a storm of it all—each street held a memory, each light a secret she had promised herself never to revisit. But here she was, sitting in the heart of it, tangled in a life of lies she could no longer fully control.
The heist had gone smoothly—almost too smoothly. Her mind replayed every step of it, her hands still feeling the tension of handling the bomb, her body remembering the weight of Viktor’s gaze. She had dodged Viktor’s questions, her façade still intact, but barely. The crate, the bomb, the warning—it had thrown everything off balance. And now, she was on Lera’s radar, her name scratched into a list of suspected traitors. A death list.
She leaned back against the couch, trying to calm the thoughts racing through her. She needed to be careful, even more so than usual. One misstep, and it wouldn’t just be her life at risk—it would be everything. Lera had a way of making her enemies disappear, and Darya knew how close she was to becoming one of them.
Her phone buzzed on the table, the screen lighting up with Sofie’s name. She hesitated before answering. After everything that had happened tonight, she wasn’t sure she was ready for Sofie’s concerned voice or the endless questions she wasn’t ready to answer.
“Darya, how are you holding up?” Sofie’s voice was soft, but there was an underlying tension in it. She always sounded like she was balancing a dozen different thoughts at once.
“I’m fine,” Darya lied, though the weariness in her voice was impossible to hide.
“You don’t sound fine.”
Darya closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. “It’s just been a long night.”
She heard Sofie sigh on the other end of the line, the sound of shuffling papers filling the silence. “I heard about the shipment. Anything out of the ordinary?”
Darya hesitated, wondering how much she should tell her handler. Sofie was her lifeline, the only person outside of this twisted game who understood the risk she was taking every day. But even Sofie didn’t know everything—not about her past, not about how close she had come to falling too deep.
“There was… something,” Darya admitted finally, her voice low. “A bomb. Smuggled into the shipment, meant for Lera.”
“What?!” Sofie’s voice sharpened, panic threading through it. “Did anyone see you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I handled it. Viktor’s suspicious, but I managed to cover my tracks.” Darya’s fingers tightened around the phone, remembering the look in Viktor’s eyes. He wasn’t done with her, not by a long shot.
“Darya, this is serious,” Sofie’s voice was firm now. “If Viktor’s suspicious, it’s only a matter of time before Lera finds out. You need to be careful.”
“I know,” Darya said quietly. “I’m trying.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, the weight of Sofie’s concern pressing through the phone. “You’re doing great, Darya,” Sofie said eventually, her tone softening again. “Just keep gathering intel. We’re close to bringing Lera down. You’ve made it this far.”
Darya let out a bitter laugh. “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one living this lie every day.”
“You think I don’t know what this is doing to you?” Sofie’s voice tightened. “I see it every time we talk. But we’re in this together. You’re not alone.”
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Crimson Vows
Romantik"In a world of shadows, loyalty is a luxury, and love is a deadly sin." ___________________________________________ In the dark underbelly of Moscow's mafia, Darya Ivanova walks a razor-thin line between loyalty and deception. As a high-ranking memb...
