21. Cue the bestiality
Chapter 21
Cue the bestiality
TOMER
A nother strike. No one in payroll fucked with Lettie or asked anything inappropriate to set her off since she never made it down there. That’s according to the three individuals who work in that department.
Yes. I asked each of them personally.
Still no clue what triggered her.
When I return to the lair, I stand in the doorway before making myself known. I need a moment to recenter. To get a grip on my disappointment over another failed interaction with Big Al, putting it behind me for now. Bury it with all the other skeletons.
My eyes skim around the office, finding everything is basically as I left it. All three are in relatively the same positions, with Klein and Mia standing in front of Sue’s notes. Lettie’s sitting at the table, giving them her full attention.
Yet it’s the energy that’s different than it was before. Although I’m not one for reading vibes, I can easily tell this one is off .
Intentionally clearing my throat, I alert them to my presence. “Everything okay?”
Lettie’s blue eyes find mine. “Yep. All good.” Her smile lacks a touch of its normal shine. Although she tries to disguise it, I know her too well.
“We’re not far into the overview,” Mia says.
Instead of heading to my desk, I sit beside Lettie and grab her hand without hesitation. She pulses her fingers around mine and guides our joined hands to her lap.
Klein tips his chin at me. “Boss good? Anything we need to know?”
Rather than telling him why I was there, I offer the truth as simplistically as possible. “No. It was an unrelated issue. NSTR.”
Factual since there is nothing significant to report.
He eyes me cautiously for a bit too long for my liking. It’s as if he knows I’m weighed down by the oppression of Big Al’s judgment.
Klein’s so in tune with emotions—not only his but everyone else’s—he’s acutely aware something is wrong. More than likely, he knows when people are upset before they even know themselves.
And this situation between Boss and me has Klein’s full attention.
Blinking free of his warm stare, I glance at Mia. “Keep going with the explanation. Perhaps I’ll catch something I missed the first time around.”
Mia’s shoulders rise with a deep inhale as she studies the easel. “Okay. To recap... when Sue relistened to the audio recording of Yuri’s interrogation, she caught something we all breezed past initially. While rambling, he said something along the lines of, ‘ There’s so much more to the story than Icarus. Much more. You should read it sometime.’ We were more focused on the stink he had in his voice when he was talking about King Minos, aka Lenkov. So we didn’t catch the weighted pause and shift in tone when he said it. But Sue did.”
Pausing for a breath, Mia raises her brows as she scans the room. We all nod, following along.
“That’s why we have all these players written here on the easel. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.” She points at the first two names on the list. “King Minos and his wife,Pasiphae. They have an interesting backstory filled with drama and even some bestiality. So that’s fun for them. Not all their kids are on here because there isn’t enough paper in the building, but these are the ones Sue found with parallels that might relate to our story or who are at least somewhat important to the tales on the periphery of Icarus. First up is a daughter named Ariadne. Put a pin in her. We’ll come back to her later. Second is ason namedAndrogeus. With a name like that, one can only assume he dressed like he was part of The Revolution. As in Prince’s highly androgynous band, and not like an actual revolution. Ruffled blouses and eyeliner.”
Lettie giggles into her hand.
Her laugh takes a layer of worry off my shoulders. If she can giggle at one of Mia’s jokes, she’ll be okay. I hope.
Mia cracks a smile. “The king of Crete’s son, Androgeus, won the Panathenaic Games in nearby Athens, which was basically like beating the shit out of the host country in the Olympics. This pissed off the king of Athens, Aegeus. To retaliate, he set up Androgeus by challenging him to fight a bull. Naturally, he was killed because it was a fucking bull. His death set off a series of events that essentially were the downfall of King Minos. Prior to this, he was seen as a good king who brought prosperity to Crete. When his son was killed, Minos declared war on Athens. There was a great battle, blah, blah, blah. Crete and Athens became sworn enemies. Side note: Minos, the king of Crete, did some fucked-up shit to win the war. Like serious mafia lord shit. For example, dragging people behind his boat until they drown.”
Lettie makes a gagging motion. “ Blech. Eww .”
Mia smirks and continues with the story. “When Athens eventually surrendered to Crete, King Minos worked out a disgusting arrangement, making King Aegeus pick seven boys and seven girls from Athens to be sent to Crete every few years. Once there, they’d be sent to the labyrinth, where they would inevitably be eaten alive by the minotaur. It was essentially a sacrifice.”
“It’s like The Hunger Games .” Lettie shakes her head despondently, adding a tsking sound. “Minos is nothing but a Greek President Snow.”
Klein jumps in. “Before we get to the fascinating tale about the minotaur, let’s discuss roles for the players we’ve heard about so far.” He looks at Mia, who waves him on. “Now, if we still assume Nikolai Lenkov is King Minos, we don’t know who Androgeus is because Lenkov’s son, Viktor, and two daughters are still alive. To our knowledge, he doesn’t have other children, other than potentially the one Katia is carrying.”
“Does Nikolai have a wife?” Lettie asks.
“Yes,” I answer. “Her name is Irena.”
Lettie lowers her face, her eyes narrowing. “Is she alive?”
I nod, answering in the affirmative.
Her jaw slowly begins sagging. “Does she know about Katia? And the baby?”
Mia snickers. “Possibly. In fact, more than likely. The mafia is full of arranged marriages. They aren’t exactly Hallmark love stories.”
Lettie’s jaw falls the rest of the way to her chest. “The audacity of that man. I tell you what, I would unplug his life support to charge my phone based on that shit alone.” She whips her face toward me. “Let it be known, I’d cut off my husband’s balls if he ever got another woman pregnant.”
“Ouch.” Klein shifts away from Lettie, then cuts a playful glare at me. “Better be careful, T.”
I smile at Lettie. She can threaten me with death or dismemberment, and it won’t matter. The chance of me cheating on her is less than zero.
Mia clears her throat demurely. “I’m with Lettie on that point. Anyhow, about Irena Lenkov. From my research over the years, I can say confidently that she isn’t around her husband much. Most of the time, she travels around the globe, blowing through Lenkov’s blood money. Probably has her own harem. I doubt she gives two shits who her husband has in his bed.”
“For those reasons, I put a question mark by Irena’s name on the line for Pasiphae,” Klein explains.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, fighting off a brewing headache. “To be honest, I don’t think this aspect of the story is relevant to the case. It’s background, I suspect.”
“Why do you say that?” Mia asks.
“Yuri wouldn’t use this part of the tale if it led to something he knew wouldn’t make sense to us. There’d be no point. He might be a dickhead, but he’s cunning and intelligent. Lenkov doesn’t have a dead child to start a war. The wife is questionable. And further, we aren’t aware of any war Lenkov has with other families that would equate to the war between Athens and Crete. There are too many gaps.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Lettie’s head shaking subtly. “What is it, sugar bear?”
“Did someone close to Lenkov die when Redleg came to blows with them over that financial case thing? The one Kri was telling me about when she was kidnapped? She mentioned a shootout.”
Klein quickly responds, “Several of Lenkov’s people died. And a few others ended up in prison. Not sure how close they were to him, though.”
Lettie grabs a pen on the table and starts clicking it. “Maybe the symbolic war between Crete and Athens is between Lenkov and Redleg.”
Mia’s nods grow more emphatic. “Or the killing of his hold over Franco Financial started the war with Redleg. Could be it was his pet project. Like his brainchild instead of an actual human child.”
Klein and I trade glances. He rolls his lower lip out and lifts one shoulder in cautious agreement.
“It’s possible,” I offer, then look to Mia. “Why don’t you add it?”
Already moving in that direction, she folds the top page over the back of the easel, revealing a blank paper where she scrawls out this new theory.
“Any thoughts on who the wife is?” I ask Lettie, curious to hear more of her thoughts.
Unlike us, she brings a fresh perspective because she isn’t bogged down in the minutia.
She taps her fingertip over her pillowy lips. “Not really. If we’re being literal, it’s Irena. Symbolically, it could be Katia or something else he’s tied to or perhaps committed to.”
Klein stiffens his frame. “Let’s move on and talk about the minotaur since that’s the reason Daedalusis part of the story. And since he leads us to Icarus, it’s more direct to Yuri’s riddle, in my opinion.”
“Cue the bestiality,” Mia jokes, flipping back to the first page on the easel. “I’ll let you take this one, stud, since you’re oddly fascinated by it.” She narrows her eyes to thin slits. “Which is only moderately concerning.”
Chuckles dance around the room as Mia takes her seat, opening the space beside the easel for Klein.
“There are a lot of bulls in Greek mythology. We’ve already heard about the one who killed Androgeus. This next part of the story has a few more. Buckle up. It’s about to get weird.” Wearing a bemused grin, Klein shakes his head as if dispelling an amusing thought. “This story happened before the war with Athens.”
When he pauses, I urge him on. “Got it. Go ahead.”
“There was some drama about whether King Minos was the rightful ruler of Crete. As kings are known to do, he prayed to Poseidon for something to validate his claim to the throne. All too happy to oblige, Poseidon sent Minos a majestic white bull. He did this with the understanding that Minos would later sacrifice the beautiful beast to the gods, thus returning the bull to Poseidon, where it belonged.”
“Did it work?” Lettie’s nose scrunches up. “I mean, how does a bull make him the legit king?”
“It definitely worked,” Klein responds, barely holding back a laugh. “The people were like... wait, wait, wait. So this bull is white and majestic as fuck? Done deal. King Minos is our guy.”
Lettie shakes loose of my hand to splay both palms out dramatically. “That makes about as much sense as a one-legged pole dancer. How did they figure that made him king?”
“Because Mythology ,” Mia coos while wiping her hands over her head in the shape of a rainbow.
A guffaw that’s been brewing in my chest finally shakes itself free.
“Okay, focus people.” Klein claps twice, bouncing from foot to foot. “Unfortunately, Minos was so taken by this majestic bull that he sacrificed a different bull to Poseidon. Just a regular boring bull as if the god wouldn’t notice. Selfish fuck that he was, he wanted to keep the white one for himself. A decision he would soon come to regret. This subpar sacrifice seriously pissed off Poseidon, who punished Minos by putting a curse on the King’s wife, Pasiphae. It made her crazy with lust for this bull.” His tone steadily grows shaky as he fights his laughter. “She had to fuck this bull. One way or another, she was gonna get that D . She tried several times to present her offerings to the beast, but the animal wasn’t interested. But Pasiphae was no quitter.”
Lettie rubs her palm over her forehead while fighting back her hysterics. “ Heavens to Betsy . This story is so friggin’ out there. It gives a new meaning to BDE— Bull Dick Energy.”
Everyone laughs, making me glad the door is closed, or else my support staff would think we were fucking around.
When the cackles fade, I tap Lettie’s thigh. “Listen to the rest of this story. It gets worse, sugar bear.”
Klein continues. “She needed help. Someone who could fix this problem for her. Enter the great inventor who Yuri told us about,Daedalus. Also known as Icarus’s father.”
“ Oh no . What did he do?” Lettie asks with a visible cringe.
Her reaction makes perfect sense since this is one of those questions you have to ask to satisfy your curiosity, but you also don’t want to know the answer.
“He built her a wooden apparatus shaped like a cow. With a hole at the back where she could stick out her naked”—he widens his eyes and waggles his brows—“you know what. That way, the bull would see this beautiful wooden cow, and Pasiphae could finally get that BDE.”
Through ever-growing giggles, Lettie quips, “If there’s anything that’ll get a bull’s attention, it’s a wooden cow. Everybody knows that.”
“And there’s nothing weird about Daedalus’ reaction to the queen’s request either.Makes perfect sense to me,” Mia jokes. “Oh, you want tobang a bull? I got you, your majesty. Wooden cow suit. Bam. It’s Inventing 101.”
Once the laughter ebbs, Klein attempts to bring it home.“All right. Enough of that salacious disgusting shit. So she gets pregnant by the bull, as you’d expect. And gives birth to the minotaur of legend. Head and tail of a bull and body of a man.”
“Ah, Mother Nature,” Mia trills, making the rainbow shape once more.
“Let me take it from here,” I announce, anxious to finish this.
Klein rolls his eyes, stepping back a few feet to yield the floor to me.
I rattle the rest in a rush. “After Pasiphae gave birth to this abomination, King Minos contracted our dear inventor friend and his son to build the labyrinth. It was meant to be a prison for the minotaur.”
Under her breath, Mia tosses, “Prison. Nursery. Barn. Same difference.”
Not letting it devolve further into joke fodder, I keep going. “All right. We have the minotaur in the labyrinth. As he grew, so did his appetite. Hence, when the war with Athens started, Minos seized the opportunity to feed it the yummy children of Athens. And that’s why he made King Aegeus send him some over every few years.”
“Wow. He was such a noble and forgiving man to have fed and housed his wife’s bastard abomination,” Lettie deadpans.
I tip my head to the side and grin, acknowledging her joke. “For many years, the children of Athens were sacrificed to the minotaur. That continued until Theseus, also mentioned in Yuri’s story, came to Crete. He offered himself in place of the children. Instead, what happened?—”
Lettie puts her hand up, cutting off my words. “Pardon me. Hold the phone. What did Yuri say about him again?”
Her manners, blending so effortlessly with her snark, bring warmth to my chest.
“Not much. Just that he was a hero and King Minos’s enemy. At the time he sacrificed himself, we’re unclear if he was the current king of Athens or still the prince. Some tales say he was simply a noble warrior. Either way, he was King Aegeus’s son.”
She nods, her expression warming. “Thanks, babe. So he went over to save the children. Then what happened?”
“When Theseus arrived in Crete, King Minos sent him to the labyrinth. However, one of King Minos’s daughters fell in love with Theseus on sight.”
Klein moves over to the easel and taps one of the names. “That would be the daughter we put a pin in earlier,Ariadne.”
I nod at him, then reface Lettie. “To save her true love from death by minotaur, she went to the men who designed and built the labyrinth for help—Daedalus and his son, Icarus. In the end, Theseus killed the minotaur and escaped the labyrinth with the information she got from those two. Ultimately, that made them traitors to King Minos. Ariadne and Theseus fled Crete to get married. But King Minos was pissed and knew Daedalus and Icarus must have helped them escape, so he imprisoned them.”
In an animated tone, Lettie sums it up perfectly. “And now we’re up to the part when Daedalus made the wings so they could escape. He used wax to hold all the materials together, which melted when Icarus got too close to the sun. Boom. Done. Did I get it all?”
I can’t keep my lips off her, but I only kiss her forehead before sitting. Last thing I need to do is give Mia and Klein ammunition to think it’s okay to keep fucking around in the lair when I’m not around. Horny fuckers.
Mia stands and moves to the easel, carefully studying the list of characters.She grabs a blue marker from the tray and uncaps it. “Sue made some connections for us to get us started. First, the mafia could be the metaphorical labyrinth. It’s nearly impossible to escape.” She draws a blue check next to that line. “Then we already had Yev as Icarus. Nikolai Lenkov as King Minos.” Two more checks on the page. “Daedalus is Yuri. He’s always planning, scheming, and orchestrating shit.” Another blue check. “Plus, Yev confirmed that he was involved in the family’s attempt to dethrone Lenkov.” She turns around, pointing the marker at the three of us in a sweeping motion. “Who do we like for the other characters?”
Silence barely settles before Lettie speaks up. “I’m thinkin’ Katia is the wife. Especially if she’s pregnant with Viktor’s baby. Like Pasiphae, Katia cheated on the king , getting pregnant in the process.”
“The minotaur,” Klein utters ominously.
Lettie nods at him. “If Nikolai knows she’s been running around with Viktor, he might see the baby as an abomination. Who knows how crazy people think?”
Mia shakes her head, nibbling on her lip. “Then why wouldn’t he just kill her? If anyone dares cross Nikolai, he offs them. Period.”
Realization hits me in a rush. “Because Nikolai Lenkov doesn’t know about Viktor fathering the baby. Only Yuri and his family know.”
Klein piles on, “And Yuri’s the one telling this story, not Lenkov.”
“Exactly.” I tap my fingertips on the table. “Thus, it doesn’t matter what Lenkov or any other players think, only what Yuri, Savin, and Katia know since they’re working together.”
Klein groans, throwing another question out. “If Yuri’s quote-unquote family are working together, why didn’t Yev tell us anything about this Mythology shit when we had him here?”
Silence settles while we contemplate his astute point.
Lettie speaks first, surprising me with her steadiness, considering the topic. “Yuri didn’t trust Yev fully. Remember you told me he said he was the meat jelly? Yuri didn’t tell Yev the whole story because he knew he was a disgusting pile of shit.”
“Lettie’s the smartest of all of us,” Klein says, grabbing the marker from Mia and scratching that note along the bottom of the page.
“Okay. So Katia is likely the King’s wife.” After swiping the marker back, Mia writes Katia next to Pasiphae. “Next up is Theseus, and I have a theory, building on what Lettie said earlier.”
We all widen our eyes at her.
With deliberate slowness, Mia explains, “If Redleg is represented by Athens, then whoever Yuri trusts here is Theseus. More than likely, that’s Shep. But it could also be Jonesy or even Big Al.”
My head quirks to the side. “That’s good, Mia. In that same vein, Theseus might be anyone here Yuri wants to partner with in his fight against Lenkov. Or even Redleg as a collective.”
Mia nods, marching on with renewed vigor. “Yuri’s gone against the Lenkov Bratva twice now. And Daedalus went against the king twice as well. The first time was to help Pasisphae bang the bull via his wooden cow suit. The second time was to help Ariadne escape with Theseus. And Yuri doesn’t want to get caught like his Greek mythology counterpart, so he’s being extra fucking cryptic with this message. He’s giving us only enough to put us on the path, but he isn’t spoon-feeding us intel like he’s done before.”
“Or spatula-feeding us,” Klein quips, drawing a chuckle from everyone but Lettie, who doesn’t know the background.
She quirks her head to throw me a questioning look.
“I’ll explain it later, sugar.”
“Fine.” She rolls her pretty eyes. “So we have Nikolai Lenkov as King Minos and Katia as his wife. Then we have Yuri as Daedalus, someone at Redleg as Theseus, and Yev as Icarus. So who’s the King’s daughter? Shouldn’t someone be helping Redleg like Ariadne helped Theseus?”
Mia scratches a name beside Ariadne. “What if it’s not a daughter but a son?”
When she backs away, I read the name out loud. “Savin.”
Before I catalog the numerous questions peppering my mind, Mia throws her palms out. “Listen. I know what you’re thinking—Savin isn’t Lenkov’s son. However, he’s been in the bratva since he was a boy. What if he’s Lenkov’s figurative child? And he’s turned on him, just like Ariadne turned on King Minos.”
Klein screws his face to one side. “That would make Katia a figurative daughter to him. So he’s sleeping with his daughter? Eww.”
“Agreed. Gross.” Mia nods, finally lowering her hands. “But this isn’t about what Lenkov thinks, remember? It’s only how Yuri sees it. He’s the one telling the story.”
A low rumble comes from Klein, barely escaping his tightly sealed lips. Either he doesn’t agree, or he’s got indigestion.
Lettie raises her hand. “Can I ask a dumb question?”
Mia puts her fists on her hips and looks at Klein. “Why do people raise their hands when I’m talking? Do I give off teacher vibes?”
“Sexy teacher vibes,” he answers with a roll of his brows.
Lettie and I catch eyes, grins decorating our faces.
Mia grins at Lettie. “Ask your question, child.”
“First, I’m claiming the role of the teacher’s pet. Write that on the board.” She snort-laughs at her joke but barely takes a breath before making her actual point. “Second, why do we care who everyone is? How does that help us stop Lenkov? Shouldn’t we be focusing on the email from inside the doll?”
“If anyone is the teacher’s pet, it’s me. That aside, it’s an excellent question. One we’ve already talked to death.” Klein rolls out his shoulders. “We need to figure out the meaning hidden in Yuri’s story. He doesn’t do shit like this for the fun of it.”
Lettie sighs out some frustration, echoing my thoughts exactly.
Klein adds, “Essentially, we’re assuming that once we figure out the Mythology tie-in, we’ll know how to find the next clue or locate the information to take Lenkov down.”
She doesn’t buy it. “You also said he’s usually not this cryptic with his stories. Perhaps he’s just messing with you this time. If Yev was his info source, he has nothing now that he’s gone. And you said Yuri was full of pride, so maybe he spun this tale to make it seem like he knows something. Yet this time, he really doesn’t know bullshit from apple butter.”
Klein gestures at Lettie. “Another bull reference.” He fights back his laugh.
Mia brings us back to Lettie’s point. “Don’t forget that the email address inside the doll was written in Greek. It’s got to be connected. All the more reason to figure out the cast.”
Lettie hits me with those gorgeous eyes, the color of the sea. “You’ve been quiet for a spell. What do you think, babe?”
“I think you make a solid point. It’s starting to feel like a wild goose chase.” I drag my eyes off the holder of my heart and face my team. “Let’s solve some concrete shit and put the mythology crap to the side. Let it sit in timeout.”
“You’re biased,” Mia snarks, putting the cap on the marker and grinning.
I hold out my hands. “I’m not agreeing with her simply because she’s the most breathtaking woman on the planet,” I tease. “I’m agreeing because I’m itching to find out more about that email address.” I lean over to give Lettie a quick peck. “And also because she’s carrying my caterpillar.”
Lettie’s cheeks flash deep crimson.
Mia clicks her tongue. “Biased as fuck. However,” she pauses for dramatic effect. “I agree. We all have other shit to research.”