Chapter 18
Daniel
It’s harder to walk away from her this time.
I was making a point when I left her the first time. Granted, there was some difficulty involved. I expected her to find a way out of the room, but not in the manner in which she did. I can still feel her soft skin under my fingers. The adrenaline rush of pursuing her hasn”t worn off. I want to march right back up there and dominate her. I wished I could join her in that tub. I wished I could crawl withher in bed.
Feelings like that are going to get me in trouble. Thinking like that is dangerous.
It’s a good thing that Michael is waiting for me just outside the front door when I leave.
“Everything all right, boss?” Michael asks courteously as he waits for me to join him.
I nod brusquely. I don’t elaborate, and he doesn’t ask again as I continue down the hallway. Instead, he falls into step beside me as we head toward the main building of the estate. He waits until we’re a decent distance from the ears of others before speaking again.
“The twins found a lead on the man that Helena has been living with. The house was rented under a false name… or so we thought—but we were able to trace the name back to a very outdated but known alias for a man named Abram. I figured that the fastest, easiest way to get information would be to give him a visit. When I stopped by to investigate things further… we found the man dead in his home. Prints burned off and molars removed.”
I stop short.
Helena’s going to be devastated.
No. Why does that matter? Why is that my very first thought? It’s not as if he were really her father like she was claiming. Though, I wonder if perhaps there might have been a bit of truth to that cover story as well. It’s always best to root a lie in truth… perhaps he was like a father to her at some point.
I shouldn’t care one way or the other. It shouldn’t matter to me whatsoever that the man she was living with is dead.
“Nikolai?” I ask as I put the pieces together in my head. It makes sense why we received word of him lingering around. Just as I suspected, he’s still trying to circumvent me. He’s wanting me to do all of his dirty work but doesn’t seem to want to give me the time to do it.
This deal is becoming more taxing by the day.
Michael nods. “It does have his signature style all over it. Quiet but lethal. We weren’t able to take custody of the body before the local police swooped in and claimed him. He’s sitting in the hospital basement right now awaiting autopsy.”
“It’s not like they’ll find anything,” I muse out loud, tapping my fingers against my chin in contemplation. “And besides, I own the hospital now… it should be easy enough to get in there and take copies of whatever records they make of his body.”
“The twins are already primed to intercept any digital reports in case Nikolai placed somebody at the hospital,” Michael answers.
“Good thinking, I’m sure that they’ll be making every attempt at reclaiming the body to cover up evidence. I trust you’ll prevent that from happening,” I say and cross my arms over my chest.
“Yes, of course, sir. I have men there now.” Michael nods.
It’s a shame that the man died before we found anything else out, but this can still work in our favor.
“There is one more thing that we learned about Mr. Abram,” Michael adds as we start walking again. “We traced the alias back to the Ivankov line… Helena’s maiden name isn’t Russev as we originally were told. Her birth name is actually Helena Ivankov.”
“Ivankov?” I say incredulously. I can’t stop the grin from consuming the lower half of my face. “Is that right?”
“One and the same. I verified the papers myself, sir.”
“The Ivankov line was thought to have been eradicated quite some time ago, right?” I’m a little rusty on the Russian Bratva side of things, as they are so far from my own territory. “I can’t help but wonder if Nikolai knew this little piece of information and withheld it, or if he’s just finding out now.”
“Abram was known to have served the Ivankov line until their downfall… I would argue that is likely why he had a hit placed on him.”
Yeah, that makes sense. Old enemies need to be eradicated no matter how much time has passed. However, I would be willing to bet that Nikolai asked the man very persuasively for information regarding Helena—and Abram refused.
“Wait, didn’t the Ivankovs attempt to take territory from Nikolai’s father?” My eyes widen as I remember a piece of information from Helena’s file. “Nikolai said Helena was hired to kill his father in revenge…. No, that’s not right. The Ivankovs were wiped out by Nikolai’s father. It makes sense that Nikolai would marry the daughter as a show of power.”
“Money… revenge, it all falls into a neat line,” Michael agrees.
“Then why kill her? Unless she was successful—” I had read in Nikolai’s paperwork that Helena’s father was an alleged shopkeeper who had seen something that he wasn’t supposed to and had ratted them out. Naturally, as he reported them to the cops, he had been murdered to send a message. It is always kill or be killed where Nikolai is from. They do not believe in warning shots. No second chances. Just as I know that there will be no second chance for me either should this deal fall through. Yet, with this new knowledge, her father would have been one of the most prolific undercover agents in the last fifty years. “Nikolai’s father was the one to kill Marat… Helena went for revenge, and Nikolai found out, failed to murder her…”
“In fact…” There’s even more to this. It’s all coming together now. I need to be sure.
I jog the rest of the way back up to the main building, taking the stairs up to my office two at a time, Michael close behind me. I rush to the filing cabinet, which unlocks viaa biometric scanner. I take out the manila envelope Nikolai gave me and toss it behind me on my desk. I reach behind it for the other file, which I”ve read so many times that I”ve practically memorized it. I fling it onto my desk, and the weathered folder opens, revealing a picture on top.
It’s almost too much to process all at once.
This all just got a hell of a lot more complicated.
How could I have missed this? That face that I’ve stared into a hundred times over, the same strong jawline, those storm gray eyes… Helena looks just like Alek Ivankov.
The man who murdered my sister.
“This is the reason Nikolai agreed to the alliance… this is why he knew that I would take the case. He must have been waiting for me to put together all of the pieces and realize that he has given me an even bigger gift than I could have ever asked for,” I say softly, thinking out loud as I sink into my leather chair.
It should make me happy… but it only makes me nauseous.
I’ve spent years looking for a link that will connect me to my sister’s murderer. I’ve searched every database that I can get my hands on, and every road until right this moment has been a dead end. Did Nikolai do this on purpose? Is it a gift? Two birds with one stone?
“Boss?” Michael asks from where he stands across the room, but I can’t tear my eyes from Alek’s face. I tap my fingers angrily on the desk in front of me, attempting to figure out my next move, but I’m coming up blank. I keep overlaying Helena’s face with that of her brother—the brother she implied was very much alive and out there somewhere.
“She said that he’s alive. She said that she doesn’t know where he is or even if he will care that she’s still alive, and I can’t tell if that’s just part of her cover story or if that’s real. She based the lie about Abram in truth. He would have been there to help raise her. He saved her. Based on what we know now, there is a good chance that he was like family to her… which stands to reason that all of the rest of her little cover story is based in truth as well.”
“I’m not following, boss…” Michael came over to glance at the mugshot on my desk, and his eyes widened.
“That’s Alek Ivankov. Nikolai has placed the key to my vengeance in my lap. He’s practically gift-wrapped her for me. Alek was supposed to be dead, but now….”
He tasked me with killing Helena.
It would be payback for the death of my beloved sister, for Henry’s mother.
Henry.
I place my head in my hands. He’s going to miss Helena when she’s gone too. He’s going to wonder where his favorite new teacher has run off to, and I’m not going to have anything to tell him. I can never tell him who she really is or about the connection that I’ve uncovered.
It should make my choice easier. I should walk right back over to that room where she’s likely still laying on that bed and torture her for answers just like I would with anybody else in this situation. I’ve gotten too close to her already. The idea of causing her pain churns my stomach until I taste bile.
How did I allow this to happen?
“Get me everything on Murat Ivankov’s aliases. His CIA files. Everything that our Bratva connections have had on him from his years undercover. I want absolutely everything.”
Michael knows me better than anyone, and won’t question how difficult this is for me. If I choose not to kill her, he wouldn’t bat an eye… but talking this out isn’t going to help me decide.
I’m going to need to get the truth out of her.
One way or another.