Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Wife
I’m going out to visit with your mother.
A smile tugs at my lips as I read the message. I’m glad my mother is attempting to build bridges with my wife. It isn’t Evaline’s fault that her mother was a selfish murderer. My mother, like most Yakuza wives, was raised in the old tradition. An eye for an eye. She also believes that a wife’s place is in the home, at her husband’s side. My father spoiled her by letting her be part of Yakuza business.
Something I plan to never fully involve my wife in. I won’t keep things from her, but she will never be placed in danger. Never have to use her body to get information. My mother’s family history is tainted with spies going back as far as World War II. Just like her ancestors before her, my mother was trained in how to obtain information, using tactics that she was never given a choice but to use.
Have fun. Be good.
Part of me wishes she was home so that I wouldn’t have to wait to tell her about her mother. But the other part of me knows to give her some good. She needs to get out. I don’t want the time she has with my mother tainted when she comes back, but I won’t withhold the truth from her. I can’t.
When we arrive back at the penthouse fifteen minutes later, we find Vanya, as well as Vitali’s current captive, Gia, sitting on the sofa, talking quietly with one another.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Vitali roars, stomping toward the small Italian girl. Jesus. This is the first time I’ve gotten a look at her since Vitali brought her here in the dead of night. She’s barely above five feet and severely petite. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that she is most likely malnourished. Jean mentioned it this morning when he brought breakfast up to her. She ate it like she was starving before puking it right back up. Vanya heard us talking about options and suggested having Jean do more grazing foods for the next couple of days. Hence the arrangements of fruits, meats, and cheeses that are laid out on the coffee table.
“Your computer pinged,” she screams back at him, her tiny body trembling in her anger. Vitali growls at her, snatching the laptop from her grasp.
“This is none of your business,” he sneers. “You aren’t here to snoop for your fucking brother, principessa .” The girl rears back like he physically slapped her, tears welling in her eyes.
Vanya glares at Vitali as she takes Gia’s hand in hers. “Don’t be cruel, Vitali,” she scolds my friend. “The information looked important. You should be glad she did look, because she managed to fix…” She turns to Gia. “What was it again?”
“Your software wasn’t able to fully piece together the missing videos,” she tells him sullenly, a small pout on her lips. “I wrote a new algorithm that allows for special variations in blank spaces to help put it back together.”
Adrian snorts, and I try to cover my laugh with a cough. Unsuccessfully, I might add.
“And it worked,” Vanya points out. “So be a good boy and say thank you.”
“Vanya…” Adrian warns his wife softly. Not many people stand up to Vitali. He has a temper that has ended entire gang families.
“No,” Vanya cuts him off. “He was a jerk when all she was doing was trying to help. She didn’t have to. Especially since he kidnapped her, but she wanted to because she knows it is for Evaline.”
A beat of silence follows her shots fired.
“Thank you,” Vitali grits through his teeth, making him look scarier than before.
Gia shrinks back into the sofa and whispers a quiet “you’re welcome.”
Vitali takes a seat on the opposite couch and begins to weave through the footage. Several minutes later, he has the video up on the main television.
“All right,” he begins. “This is right before the reception.” He clicks a button, and the video starts to play. It follows Evaline’s mother from the ceremony up to the bridal suite, and then twenty minutes later, she is storming from the room. Once outside, she calms herself, checks her phone, and proceeds to the elevators.
Vitali follows her through the hotel to a back entrance by the kitchens, where we lose her for a moment before she pops back up in the alley and gets into a yellow cab. Adrian is immediately on his tablet, tracing the cab company’s pickups and drop-offs for the day.
“Took her to a seedy motel near the bus station.”
Fuck.
“Why delete the footage?” I wonder. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe she wanted to give herself some time to not be traced?” Hiro, who has been watching the women for us while we were out, speaks up from the other side of the room. I shake my head. That can’t be it.
“Look at the other video,” Gia murmurs, still curled in on herself. “Whoever is in that deleted section is the one who didn’t want to get caught. I think the other one was amateur hour. It pieced together easily and wasn’t corrupted because someone from inside the security room did it. The other one was done remotely, which is why it needed a new coding process to disentangle all of the corrupted data.”
So it was a coincidence that two videos were deleted. Charity must have paid off one of the hotel’s security guards. Vitali pulls up the second video. It is semi distorted, but we can still make out certain details.
“We had a deal,” the man in the video states, his voice nearly robotic with the distortion. His head is bowed so I can’t see his face, but I do recognize the ring on his finger because I have the same one. It’s a class ring from Tulane University.
“Santiago,” I growl.
“We did,” says another voice. It’s feminine, but there is no way to make out the tone with how distorted it sounds. The footage is grainy, and with her height and the way her back is turned away from the camera, all I can see is the top of her head, which appears dark. It’s tied up in a bun on the top of her head and held together with some kind of pin. “But you failed three years ago, and now the deal has changed.”
“What do you want me to do with her, then?” he asks.
“Use her however you see fit.” The woman laughs. “Let your men have every inch of her and then ship her back piece by piece to her husband. Just like I did with his father.”
The blood in my veins freezes.
My heart stops cold.
“If he ever finds out what we did…” Santiago stammers.
“He never will,” the woman assures him. “The only thing he will ever know is what he is told. I’ve constructed a world around him that will never fall.”
Santiago nods his head.
“Just be sure your men don’t get caught,” the woman continues. “And make sure you cover your tracks. If he is anything like his father, he will go to the ends of the earth to find the one he loves.”
Santiago tilts his head curiously.
The woman waves her hand dismissively. “Let’s just say that Evaline will meet the same fate as the woman my late husband was supposed to marry.”
“Shit,” Vitali growls as the video cuts out. “I’m sorry, brother. The footage is too damaged to get the rest of it.”
I stare at the black screen, the conversation playing over and over again in my head.
Let your men have every inch of her and then ship her back piece by piece to her husband.
Just like I did with his father.
We never discovered who was behind the attack that killed my father and Adrian’s. We were young. Inexperienced. My mother steered me toward building a bigger and brighter future.
“Empires fall,” she said. “You must build a stronger one to outlast them. Don’t look at the past. Concentrate on the future.”
So that’s what I did. I took what was left of my father’s empire and built it into something I knew he would be proud of. She was there every step of the way, whispering in my ear. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for her.
“Let me see if I can clear the audio up.” Vitali starts typing away on his laptop again. “Maybe we can identify the woman by voice.”
Gia and Vanya share a look.
“What?” I snap at them. “What do you know that you aren’t sharing?”
“Easy, brother,” Adrian nearly growls at me, stepping between me and his wife. “Don’t speak to my wife like that.”
Taking a step back, I hold up my hands in peace.
“If you know something,” I say more gently, “please share.”
Gia’s throat bobs, but she uncurls from herself and looks up at me. “That comb, in the woman’s hair.” She looks back at Vanya, who nods her head in encouragement. “We’ve seen it before.”
Adrian and I exchange a look.
“Where?” he asks gently. She’s a skittish one, and he doesn’t want to upset her.
“In Evaline’s hair,” she tells us. “She was wearing it when she left to meet with your mother.”
That doesn’t make any sense.
“It isn’t Evaline in the video,” I point out. “She must have the same comb as someone else.”
Gia shakes her head.
“No, that comb is called a Medusa comb,” she explains. “They’re uniquely designed. No two are alike in color or stones.”
Medusa.
“It’s been right under your nose this whole time. They’ve always been working against you, against your father. Since the very beginning. Me ? —”
“Where did she get the comb from?” Adrian asks.
Gia bites her lower lip, her gaze on the ground.
“Gia,” Vitali warns.
“Your mother.”
Suddenly, the pieces fall into place.