“Similar stories. Gambling, photos, one case of two soldiers involved with one another. They’re fucking kids. All of them are under twenty-one. Not an excuse, just a fact.”
“Well, Giamanco is taken care of but what about his family?” asked Marissa.
“They’ve agreed to back off but I also suspect that Vasily had taken some control of the family,” said Christopher. “A few well-placed calls by our leadership team and suddenly they claim Tomas was rogue. However, they did warn us all that Vasily won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”
“Marissa?” called Paige sticking her head in the room again. “We need you to review this data. It’s not making any sense to any of us.”
“I’ll be right there.” She turned to Gator and Christopher, looking at all of the men. “You know that I’m happy you’re all here and I will do whatever you ask of me. But I’m asking you not to leave me out of this. Don’t think I’m some fragile flower. Confused maybe. Fragile, no.”
They all chuckled, nodding at her as she walked down the hallway to Paige and the other women.
“We’re all agreed once they have that information sorted out, they go back to Belle Fleur?” said Joey.
“Oh, hell yeah,” smirked Wes. “They’re out of here as soon as we can get them out. Vasily is no joke. If he wants what she has, it must be something pretty fucking amazing.”
“I think one of the many things I’m confused about,” said Gator, “is just like we said earlier. Others have tried this before and it was too unpredictable. If Marissa was able to harness this, figure it all out, we might have a bigger problem than we think.”
“Like what?” asked Red.
“Like the government knocking on our door.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Professor Mills, why did you give these assignments to your students?” asked Erin. “You knew what you were asking of them.”
“I did but Giamanco and Vasily were both holding a lot over my head. A few years ago, I had a relationship with a student. She wasn’t underaged but she was a challenge.”
“What do you mean? Academically?” asked Paige.
“No. Academically she was brilliant which is what attracted me to her. She was mentally unwell. I didn’t know it at the time but she was on a lot of medications and even those weren’t enough to control her behaviors.
“We went to dinner one night, a little place in the mountains so that no one would see us. On the way back, she wanted to drive and I agreed. We started to argue. She was angry that I hadn’t proposed to her yet. I told her I couldn’t do that while she was my student.
“She only got angrier and she started to hit me. The roads are narrow and it was wet from an earlier rain. Before I knew it, the car was spinning out of control and we went over the side of the road into a ravine.
“I crawled out of the car and collapsed in the brush a little ways from the car. When I woke, police were everywhere. They thought she was the only one in the car. I-I should have said something but I couldn’t. I didn’t know who to call.”
“So, you called Giamanco?” said Marissa.
“I knew him from his club,” he said with a shameful expression. “He said he’d take care of everything. He gave me this story that I lent her my car, she drove up the mountain to see friends and drank too much. End of story.”
“Except it wasn’t,” said Erin. “I’m going to guess he started asking for favors after that.”
“Yes. Lots of favors. He wanted me to send women to the yacht, to his club, even men. I told him I would tell the university if it continued. He agreed that we could have one more deal.”
“The assignments,” said Marissa. “But why? Why did he want those assignments given?”
“He didn’t. Vasily did. Giamanco had no scientific acumen at all. Vasily has a moderate level of understanding. Everything I gave all of you, was what he wanted perfected to be used during war. A war he plans to create to have control of the old Russian countries once again.”
“Geez,” said Marissa. “We really walked into shit this time.”
“No, you walked into it,” frowned Paige. “But we’re going to get out of it. Sit, professor. We’re going to look at every assignment, everything you’ve given Vasily to this point.”
“Oh, I haven’t given him anything. That’s why they were coming for me. I sent them a huge packet of material but it was just blank paper. Then I disappeared. Or I thought I did.”
“And Creek?” asked Dana. “What was she working on?”
“Me, I guess,” he frowned. “I thought she was genuinely interested in me. I mean, she certainly played the part. She wasn’t my student. I thought it would be safer seeing a student who wasn’t in my classes. As it turned out, she was sent by Vasily.”
