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Dax dropped to the ground, pulling Everly with him. They were coming from the opposite side and would block the elevators soon. They would have to cross the Russian’s path to reach the stairs. So she followed Dax as he crawled into the cubicle maze and ducked into one in the middle.
He pulled her close, his voice against her ear. “Don’t scream.”
When she turned, she understood what he meant. She shoved a hand over her mouth to stop the shriek that threatened. The body of one of the guards had been shoved against the side of the cubicle, his lifeless eyes open below a gaping hole in his forehead. He seemed to stare at nothing. Her stomach churned. The other guard was almost certainly dead as well. That was why the lobby had been empty of security.
“A mistake?” It sounded as if they’d stopped right in front of the elevators. “It wasn’t a mistake, myshka. You got greedy. It wasn’t enough for you to run girls. You wanted to blackmail the boss. Where did you find the diary? Natalia has been missing to us for many years.”
“Maddox Crawford found the diary. The best I can figure out, his father came into possession of it back when he was sleeping with my mother. Maybe she gave it to him for safekeeping, but somehow Mad got hold of it. He’s the one who wanted to force me to blackmail Ivan. I would never do such a thing. I’m loyal to my family. I only want to run my foundation. Didn’t I come through for you this summer? I managed to get the arms shipment through when no one else could.”
“But you couldn’t cover up your own human trafficking ring.”
“I’ve sold hundreds of girls. Only three have ever been publicized as missing. I think my record stands on its own.”
Everly’s stomach turned again. Tavia hadn’t been trying to educate girls in poor countries at all. She’d been plucking them from their families and ensuring they had short, miserable lives so she could make a few bucks. She’d duped everyone. Had Mad figured out the truth before his death? Was that why he’d been killed?
“Your record could get us all . . . how do Americans say? Knee-deep in shit. I told you this would only continue until you got caught.”
“I haven’t been caught,” Tavia argued. “And I won’t be. We need to focus on your problems. We don’t have to kill the girl. My brother is wrong. If we kill her or kidnap her, the police will be all over us.”
“I was not sent here to stand by and hope nothing goes wrong,” Tavia’s uncle replied in a deep, rumbling voice.
Tavia seemed to ignore that. “All I’m saying is if we can find the diary before she does, there’s no need to kill her. The little idiot has no idea what’s going on around her. If she did, she would have gone straight to the press.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I know her. She’s a do-gooder. If she understood what that diary meant, she would go straight to the authorities. Trust me. When things cool down, she’ll forget about everything but her new boyfriend’s big wallet. Everything will go back to normal and all our plans can continue on.”
They were talking about her, Everly realized with a shiver.
“We have to find that diary,” Tavia continued. “Now, it’s obviously not in Crawford’s office. We’ve checked everywhere. There’s a chance it was destroyed in the house fire.”
“Jason and Lester searched Crawford’s house first. Nichego.”
“Nothing? Okay, m-maybe he took it on the plane and it went down with him. After all, he was on his way to see the president.”
“Which is why it was so necessary to kill the man. Everything could have fallen apart if he’d made it to DC with that diary, you dumb bitch. Do you know how many years this plan has been in place? How many people have died so we have this chance?”
“I know what’s at stake.”
“Yet you decided to make a quick buck off it.” Another voice joined them, this one familiar. Scott? “I found proof that she’s the one who sent the blackmail e-mails. She’s also been skimming from the foundation to the tune of about a half a million a year. Tell me, did it all go up your nose, sis?”
Scott was Tavia’s brother? His smooth tones were gone, and he sounded far angrier and more ruthless than Everly had ever heard him.
“What is this?” the Russian asked.
Scott gave a sinister chuckle. “Tavia has a small cocaine problem. I believe you’ll find she skimmed from Crawford and set up poor Val to take the fall, but that wasn’t enough. When the diary fell into her lap, she saw another way of making money. Unfortunately, Crawford found the fucking thing when he was investigating the missing funds. Hence, the situation we find ourselves in.”
“How much did Crawford know before he died?” the Russian asked.
“He figured out enough to realize that Zachary Hayes is in real trouble,” Scott replied. “He’d started asking questions about Sergei.”
A crash echoed through the room, along with what sounded like a whole lot of Russian curses.
“Calm yourself,” Scott soothed. “We’re not done yet. Everly Parker is late for our meeting. I have to hope she’s running behind. I have a man in place in case she shows up, but we have to deal with the possibility that she’s thrown her lot in with Bond and his crew.”
“Uncle Yuri, you have to believe me.” Tavia sniffled.
“I don’t have to do anything, my niece, and you’ve forgotten who the boss is here. Let me show you.”
A cracking sound split the air, and it was all Everly could do not to scream as she heard a thud. Dax’s arms tightened around her.
They’d killed Tavia. That sound had been a gun discharging and Tavia’s body hitting the floor. How many bad guys with guns were there? How were they going to get out of here?
“You know I didn’t want to do that. She was family,” the Russian said, his voice low. “I can’t have her skimming money from corporations and exposing us. Her habits made her ineffective, and she had to be put down.”
“I know,” Scott replied. “She was threatening our operations. I haven’t lived most of my life in this godforsaken, piece-of-shit country for my sister to blow everything over cocaine.”
There was a long pause. “Find me the diary.”
“I told you, I think the Parker girl has it,” Scott explained.
“Tavia said she was nothing but a stupid whore.”
Scott huffed, an arrogant sound. “Tavia has a bullet through her brain, so maybe we shouldn’t listen to her. I’ll search Parker’s office thoroughly. It wasn’t at her apartment, so it has to be here.”
“Why would Crawford trust her with it? It makes more sense that he would have taken it with him,” the Russian mused.
“I watched him and I’ve gotten close to her. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but once I knew she was important to Crawford, I played gay. It earned her trust. I think Crawford would have sent his long-lost sister a copy. For all his quirks, he was careful. Even if the original had gone down with him on the plane, he would have had a backup. Now I can’t get into her system. I tried. She’s got it locked down. We’ll have to steal it and hire a hacker, but I would feel better going through her office again. We need to go through her desk and then start looking for a safe. And I’ll pull every piece of hardware I can. It’s got to be there.”
If they got the safe open, they would find the SD card. It might take them a while to figure out the information was embedded in the photos but they would do it. And the information would be lost to her, Gabriel, and all his friends.
Factions. Deep Throat had talked about factions being after the diary. If Scott got that card, the intelligence would be lost to her faction, because she was choosing sides and it damn straight wasn’t the Russians.
None of the obstacles between her and Gabriel mattered now. Not the press or the women who had come before her. Not even that stupid report he’d had compiled on her. None of it mattered stacked up against the possibility of never seeing him again. She loved Gabriel Bond and if she survived, she would never let him go.
“How
will you take care of everything?” the Russian asked.
“You forget I did a rotation through security. That’s how I knew where to place the cell phone jammers so the guards and the janitorial staff couldn’t call out. I’ll wipe the computers so it looks like only Tavia swiped in. No one will have any idea what really went on. I can have us out of here in twenty minutes.”
“All right, then.”
Everly moved closer and whispered to Dax. “We have to get to my office.”
