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“Did he admit it?” Sasha asks.
I nod. “He was angry that I went through his stuff, but before he could approach me, I showed him the gun. He laughed at me. Didn’t expect me to have the guts to pull the trigger. So, he boasted about what he did. How he fooled me. He said he got paid to fuck to me.” Dixie and my children all make noises of disgust, but my mind is back in that office. “His words hurt me, but I pressed on. I confronted him about the pictures he took of his daughters and sent to Maxim. He just shrugged as if it were no big deal. That’s when he told me the worst part. That Maxim had plans for the girls. How he knew someone who would appreciate two beautiful young women who had psychic powers like their momma. The plan was to gift you to some man who Maxim wanted to curry favor. That’s when I lost it. I shot him in the stomach before setting fire to his office. The authorities said it was an accident. I guess they didn’t find the bullet,” I muse as I bring my story to its end.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: DIXIE
I glance around the table at Delphine’s children and see similar looks of horror on their faces. What I don’t know is who they’re directing that horror toward. Delphine, or the son-of-a-bitch who betrayed her. I let out a breath of relief when Shayna and Sasha reach across the table to grasp their mother’s hands in theirs.
“I’m so sorry,” Shayna says.
“You should have told us,” Sasha adds. “Why didn’t you?”
“Why did you let us believe he loved us?” Shayna asks. “We must have hurt you every time we mourned him.”
Delphine squeezes their hands and gives them a watery smile. “You loved him, and he never gave you a reason to doubt his love for you. I never planned on telling you the truth. He didn’t deserve your love, but you deserved to feel love.”
“We know you love us,” Sasha assures her.
Delphine smiles at her daughters before turning sad eyes at Vladimir. “The thing I regret about killing that bastard was that Maxim stopped contacting me. I never got to see you again. I think he must have figured out I killed his man and cut me off from you.”
“When was this?” Vladimir asks.
“The girls were seven, so fourteen years ago. You would have been sixteen.”
“It wasn’t your fault Maxim stopped my visits to New Orleans. I made the mistake and confronted him about you.”
“You knew about me?” Delphine asks, and I can hear the hurt in her question.
Vladimir shakes his head. “I didn’t know who you were or who you were to me. I figured it out much too late. For as long as I can remember, we’d spend at least one weekend here in New Orleans. We never stayed long, even though Maxim always looked forward to the visits. He’d be in a good mood, which usually meant he was hurting someone. Every year, he’d take me to some location in New Orleans and we’d sit for an hour or more before leaving again. Those visits never made much sense to me, since being out in the open exposed us to danger. When I asked him what we were trying to accomplish, he’d say that he had debt to pay and it was one he enjoyed paying.”
“He knew being able to see you, but not speak to you, was hell for me,” Delphine tells him. “But I could not see you either. That would have been much worse. Even though you didn’t know I was there.”
“I didn’t, not until much later. Each year, I searched for the person who I thought was watching us. I realized you were the person we were there for one day. I studied you and realized who you were. When I finally mentioned it to Maxim and told him I wanted to meet you, he stopped the visits to New Orleans. I came back a few times when I was older, but I never saw you again.”
“You wouldn’t have, unless you went to the French Quarter. That’s where I spent most of my time. Maxim always chose places far away from my home base.”
“So that’s why I couldn’t find you,” Vladimir murmurs. He leans forward and grasps Delphine’s hand.
“We need to talk about Maxim and what he wants,” Hex cuts in. “Let’s take this to my office.”
“I don’t know about you girls, but I could use a drink,” Delphine says.
The girls each wrap an arm around their mom’s waist and lead her out the door. We follow along behind them, but turn into Hex’s office. Hex sits behind his desk while Vladimir and I take the chairs opposite.
“I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but I’m telling you, I don’t know what Maxim’s up to. I just know that he has something big planned. Every time I ask him about it, he just tells me to not worry about it. That the less I know, the better, but how when he pulls it off I’m going to be awed by his brilliance.”
Hex snorts, but waves his hand for Vladimir to continue.
“That’s all I know. I didn’t even know his big plan had anything to do with New Orleans until I learned he was here and meeting with Nero Golubrev.”
“Maxim mentioned Nero was getting a ship prepped for him. He told us he kidnapped Delphine so Cleo would follow through with the plan. He’s shipping something somewhere and needed modifications to the ship,” Hex supplies.
“Any idea of what the cargo is?” Vladimir asks, intrigued.
“He didn’t say. He didn’t even tell us what ship he’s using, only that the ship sails soon.”
“I take it Cleo checked all the ship itineraries? What did she find?”
“She found three ships that leave port in two days and two more that leave the following day. Two have destinations in South America, two in Russia, and the last one in Italy. Each ship has had at least one modification made to accommodate a shipment.”
