Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kade
Police Report
Incident Report Number: 2024-08-09-1762
Case Classification: Homicide
Date/Time of Report: August 9, 2014, 19:47 PM
Reporting Officer: Detective James Carter, Badge #0421
Location: Abandoned Warehouse, 146 Riverfront Ave, Sector 9, Westside
Victim Information :
Name: Tatiana Kolyav
Gender: Female
Age: 39 years
Summary of Incident:
At approximately 18:15PM on August 9, 2014, patrol officers received a 911 call reporting gunshots in the vicinity of the abandoned warehouse located at 146 Riverfront Ave, Sector 9. Officers were dispatched to the scene and arrived at 18:45. Upon arrival, officers discovered the body of an unidentified female, later designated as Tatiana Kolyav, lying prone on the concrete floor in the center of the warehouse.
The warehouse, a known site for illegal activities, was found unlocked, with signs of forced entry on the side door.
The scene suggests a targeted hit, with the precision of the shots indicating the involvement of a trained shooter.
I’m reading the report on Isabelle’s mother again. Curiosity got the better of me after Isabelle and I spoke at the hospital, and I haven’t stopped thinking about all the things she told me.
I had a few hours to spare in between classes, so I came back to my apartment to check out some stuff on my computer.
It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but I guess now that I know Isabelle was at the crime scene, I wanted to look at the details again with fresh eyes.
This is the first chance I’ve had to check since we spoke.
Not that I can do anything, but there were a few things about what she said that nagged my insides. Like how there was someone else at the crime scene giving the order to kill her mother and the Knights weren’t able to find him. And then people didn’t believe her.
That’s the same kind of strange occurrence that happened to my family. Usually, that sort of thing is a clue that something is off somewhere. In my experience, it’s always to do with someone powerful.
In this instance, I think someone wanted her mother dead because she either had information or saw something she shouldn’t have seen.
I’ve been looking through the report for about an hour, and I haven’t found anything different to what I read before, but there’s a restricted section that I can’t get into.
These police reports are linked to the Knights database. When the guys and I got our elite status, we were given access to the Knights database, but there are some limitations. It looks like this section here is one only senior Knights can get into.
I had no interest in looking at it before because I didn’t think it was relevant. At the time, I only wanted a few background details on Isabelle. But now I want to know everything.
My timing might suck because I have my own shit to worry about as my plans for Nikoli have stalled, but I feel compelled to look into this.
Maybe I want to do it for her—Isabelle.
She didn’t have to explain anything to me or trust me with her secrets. I know there are more things she’s keeping to herself. I’m the same. However, this is perhaps us taking one step at a time.
Maybe we can talk some more when I see her later.
Talk…
That’s if I can keep my hands off her. I feel like I haven’t touched her in years. All we’ve had is one night. I wanted more before the night was out, and I still do.
The shit with Michael threw a wedge between us, but I suppose it also opened the door to me learning the truth about Isabelle’s connection to the Malina.
And the truth was there was no connection.
She was tricked. There’s more to this story. All of it. Hers and mine.
I have a bad feeling that I haven’t even uncovered the worst of it.
My front door opens, and Dmitri and Alek walk through with smiles on their faces. That’s a good sign.
“Your boy here did it,” Dmitri announces, pointing to Alek. He closes the door behind him, and the two continue toward me. “We got Nikoli right where we want him.”
“Thank fuck.” I straighten. Finally, some good news. And I’m glad I made the right move by involving Alek.
He smirks and looks from Dmitri to me. “It wasn’t that hard.”
“Hey, don’t make me look incompetent in front of the boss.” Dmitri throws a punch in his arm. “You have mad skills, man. You need to teach me some of that shit.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Alek smiles and pulls up a chair.
Dmitri leans against the wall. “It took him less than an hour to figure shit out.”
“That’s not entirely true. I’ve been working on this for the last few days.”
“Tell me what you did.” I focus on Alek, intrigued to know what he’s done.
“I won’t bore you with the technical details, but basically, I’ve set things up to siphon a hundred million dollars from Nikoli’s accounts. Imagine a timer, so every day,, he’ll have a little bit less and less. Then in twenty-one days, everything will be gone. Poof, like smoke in the air.”
I laugh. “That’s fucking perfect. And that will give me time to prepare.” I have to step up my training with Thorne. I’m still not at the level I want to be, but I’ll make sure I get there.
“We were thinking that it should be us preparing,” Dmitri says. “Not just you.”
I shake my head. “No. It need to just be me. That was the final job we’ll do together.”
The two look at each other, exchanging worried glances.
“You may need backup,” Alek states. “We spoke about this the other night.”
“I know, and I’ve thought about it. I’m standing by my original idea. I just need to get to the next phase.” I don’t want their lives in my hands. This is one thing where I definitely have to go off on my own.
“Fine, then I suppose we’ll continue helping until you get to that next phase.”
Dmitri nods, agreeing.
“Alright.” I sigh. “But that’s it. Nikoli is going to be pissed as fuck by this little stunt of ours. I expect extreme violence. Where are you moving the money to?”
“An un-trackable, untraceable Swiss bank account. The only person with the details is me.” Alek gives himself a pat on the back. “I’ll forward you all the info.”
“Thanks. Can he track you here?”
“No. But because the Knights are on his radar, we still need to be careful. He’ll figure it out eventually, possibly before all the money is gone. In fact, I expect him to figure it out well before then. It is a hundred million.”
“Yeah. That’s serious money.”
Dmitri lifts his chin, motioning to the computer. “What are you looking at?”
“Stuff on Isabelle’s mother.”
“I thought the case was closed.”
“It is. I just wanted to go over some stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Something I wanted to look into further.”
Dmitri gives me a questioning stare. I understand the look. It’s because I’m deviating from the mission and the plan, and the reason is starting to become obvious to him and Logan. I haven’t shared anything about with to Alek, and I’m not going to. He doesn’t need to know those parts.
If it were up to me, Dmitri and Logan wouldn’t know either.
“Can either of you get into the restricted section of the Knights database without being tracked?”
“I can.” Alek raises his hand.
Dmitri smirks and makes a show of bowing to him. “This is the master here.”
“Send me a link, and I’ll check out what you need. It might take me some time, though. The Knights database is set a little harder to get around than most systems.”
“That’s okay. Do what you can.”
He stands and tips his head. “I gotta run. I have a late lunch date with a hot cheerleader. Speak to you guys later.”
“Later.” I give him a curt nod.
Alek dips his head and leaves.
Dmitri comes over to me and sits in the chair where Alek was. He looks at the computer screen again, then back at me.
“Sorry I wasn’t around the other night when you and Logan went to the Black Rose.”
“It’s cool. We handled it.”
“So I heard. Looks like you're torn between emotion and duty again.” He drums his fingers on the desk while keeping his eyes on me.
“I’m not sure if the two are mutually exclusive anymore. They feel like the same thing to me.”
“What’s going on, Kade?”
“Things are not as clear cut as they originally seemed to be with Isabelle. I know why she helped the Malina.” It’s good I can talk to him about this without feeling like I’m breaking Isabelle’s trust. He already knows about what she did at the gallery. Now I can give him her reasons.
“You found out what happened?”
“Yeah. She was tricked. It was to do with her mother.”
I quickly fill him in. By the time I’m finished, he looks exactly like how I feel. Conflicted and torn.
“Jesus. What are you going to do?”
“Her actions still helped them. It doesn’t change anything.”
“But it does, Kade. Because of how you feel about her. You love her.”
His words sound so obvious in my head I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out on my own.
“How’d you know?”
He smirks. “Kade, maybe you should ask me when instead of how. I knew in high school. It was how you looked at her. But I got the most confirmation that night in the woods when we freaked her out. You looked like you were about to kill Logan and me just for touching her. I can imagine how enraged you must have been listening to us taunt her.”
I grin. “I did want to kill you. I guess I should have taken that as a clue because you guys are brothers to me.”
“You can’t love her and hate her at the same time.”
“I know. That’s the thing that’s been screwing with me. Not knowing which emotion to choose.”
“But you’ve already chosen to love her.” He gives me a firm look that stops me from arguing.
“I suppose I have.”
“Are you going to tell her about your parents and…I guess everything?”
“I don’t want to.”
“We’ve never cared about right and wrong before. But I think this situation calls for it. She should know everything, Kade. Especially about the consequences of her actions. As innocent as it was, you can’t keep something like that from her.”
He’s right. I already feel like I’m trapped in a lie every time I see her. “She won’t want to be with me when she finds out.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Dmitri, if I knew I had something to do with her mother’s murder, I couldn’t be with her . The guilt would be too much. She’s a better person than me. So, I know if I tell her, I’ll lose her.”
His shoulders loosen, and he drags in a deep breath. “Maybe you should give yourselves the chance to figure it out. Trust me, nobody knows more than me that you can’t build anything based on secrets and lies.”
He’s speaking from experience again. I can always tell. And he’s right again.
Building a life on secrets and lies is one sure disaster.
In this case, that disaster would be one I created all by myself.
Fuck my life. My damn plans blew up in my face.
I have to tell her. But not yet. It has to be soon, but not just yet.
I want her to be mine for a little longer.
My girl. My Lolita.
I didn’t torture her. She tortured me every step of the way, and I had to learn the hard way that there is no one else for me but her.