My eyes moved to Anton, two tables away. He was staring at his phone, but his casualness didn’t match his aura. The black suit and the earpiece tucked behind his right ear did everything to sell him out.
Caitlin followed my gaze and laughed. “You’re uncomfortable.”
“Is it that obvious?” I asked. “What am I now, a celebrity?”
“After what happened last time, going around without him would be a problem.”
I sighed. “Wearing that necklace got me into serious trouble. What does everyone expect, that I would walk around the city wearing twenty million dollars like it was nothing?”
“It’s not only the necklace.” Caitlin nodded toward my lefthand. “Your husband runs a billion-dollar company and owns most of the commercial buildings in this district. That ring alone could buy me a car.”
I stared at the ring. “No.”
She took a sip of her drink, watching me with quiet amusement. “People know that kidnapping you means their phone call gets answered.”
Goosebumps moved up my arms. I had seen this in films where wealthy families received ransom calls with demands and instructions. Apparently, I now lived inside that genre.
“So there’s no freedom,” I said.
“The pros are many,” Caitlin offered.
She wasn’t wrong, considering we were once homeless and with nothing.
“Tell me about the mansion.” Caitlin leaned closer. “The last time I was there was for an event. The beachside is something else.”
That opened up a conversation I didn’t know I wanted to have. I told her about the way the ocean sat at the bottom of everything, visible from almost every window. The private stretch of beach felt like it belonged to a different world entirely. The balcony off the third floor, where the morning light came in and spread across the room before the rest of the house woke.
“Nobody lets me do anything either,” I added. “I reach for a plate, and someone materializes beside me and takes it.”
Caitlin laughed.
“But Grandma is actually nice,” I continued. “She told me I could go out whenever I wanted as long as Anton came.”
“For your safety,” Caitlin said.
“Yes.” I glanced at Anton again. At first, I took him for a chauffeur following orders. It turned out the freedom was real, just accompanied.
The conversation moved on, and we talked easily, the waywe found we could do with little effort. But the question that brought me here sat quietly at the back of everything, waiting.
If Ivan worked alongside Dmitri the way Anton worked alongside me, then wherever Dmitri went, Ivan likely went too. Which meant Caitlin might know something, not the details, but enough. Unless, of course, Dmitri spent his nights visiting witches who required their guests to arrive unaccompanied.
I took another sip of cappuccino to bury the smile before it reached my face. Here I sat in a cafe trying to determine whether my husband moonlighted as a vigilante.
I turned my cup and kept my expression neutral, the way you kept your face when you were thinking about something you didn’t want visible.
The question was how to get to it without Caitlin mentioning to Ivan that I asked, and Ivan mentioning it to Dmitri.
I kept my attention on Caitlin and let the conversation carry us a little further before I made my move.
“So,” I said, keeping my voice at the temperature of mild curiosity. “Dmitri got pulled away for work three days ago.”
Caitlin glanced up from her cup. “Really?”
“Hmm.” I lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “He left in the middle of the night. I imagine Ivan must despise those calls. Being dragged out at strange hours, half asleep, probably furious about it.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Ivan?”
“Yes.”
