“Exactly,” he said.
“All right,” Kira said with a sigh. “She stays. For now.”
She thought about the rest of what Lyon had told her. Ivan was a problem. As long as Russia thought they had someone who could step in, someone who was already respected by the Spies and the men on the street, they were perilously close to pushing Lyon out.
The bratva itself was less important to her than it had once been. Her love for the man lying underneath her, their future family, that was the real legacy.
But Lyon wanted leadership, and if Russia pushed him out, it wouldn’t be into a gentle retirement.
To be pushed out of the organization by Russia meant Lyon’s death.
“We have to get rid of Ivan,” she mused. It wasn’t a guarantee against Russia’s interference, but Ivan’s demise would make it harder. They would have no easy replacement for Lyon, a man that had earned the respect of everyone in the organization.
“To move against him would be such an egregious violation that the men would no longer follow me.” Lyon said. “He’s untouchable.”
She turned the problem over in her mind, rearranged the pieces on the board until a move appeared that she hadn’t seen before.
She sat up in bed, the sheet falling from her naked body, and looked at Lyon. “What if he wasn’t?”