That Casimir hadn’t outright told him no was encouraging. “But you’ll let me know when?”
“Yes. But I need to put a few plans in motion. The FBI is getting too close. We need to send a message.”
“Anything, cousin.”Finally.Casimir had decided to show a little backbone. He’d always been a loyal soldier. A loyal follower.
But Victor knew his cousin shouldn’t be following anyone. With a genius brain like Casimir’s, his cousin should beleading.
“Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
His cousin’s smile made life worth living. “You are my blood, Victor. Always, we are family first.”
“Family first.” Victor thought longingly of the happy families he’d left around their dining tables, sharing food and togetherness.
The way a family should be. Not the way he and Casimir had been raised.
“Most importantly, we get the Harte data. No killing.”
“No, Casimir.” But the voice inside that spurred Victor to provide the salvation others called murder added,Maybe just a little killing. Someone no one would notice.
Casimir nodded. “Then we take care of a few loose ends. We need to give the FBI and the police something else to investigate. Something much closer to home.” He turned back to the computer. “Go have dinner with Papa and the others. Come back in an hour.”
Casmir would spend the next hour making plans on top of plans, lost in grand strategies.
So Victor went to join the family for dinner. He sat next to Mother and Older Brother, across from Younger Brother and close to Father, who occupied two seats. One for his head, the other for his body.
Victor had been kind enough to exsanguinate everyone in the master bathroom, letting the mess run down the drain. Only the husks of skin, desiccated muscle, and bone remained.
He shivered in the chill air, having increased the air conditioning to slow decomposition. Unfortunately, this family didn’t have a dog.He’d considered bringing Bubbles home with him after getting rid of Sherry and Old Mother, but Casimir had allergies.
So sad.
But then, family came first.
At the thought, he smiled. The boss had no idea who he was messing with if he thought he could order Casimir around and not pay the price. For so many years, his cousin had worked tirelessly to help build a new empire, content to hide in the shadows.
No matter how much August Kaminski thought he ruled the roost, Victor only ever had one boss, oneszef—Casimir Bednarek.
The Rook.
Chapter 18
The only goodpart about Jane’s Tuesday came in the form of a message from the forensic accountant coordinating a meeting for the following day. Apparently, Lisa had found something she wanted to share. Jane wished she could go over the information right away, but like Jane, Lisa had a ton of cases to work. So Jane would take what she could get.
While waiting, Jane spent her early afternoon catching SSA Grimshaw up to speed. Grimshaw hadn’t been any more pleased than Jane about the members of the Collective lawyering up before they had a chance to be questioned.
But she’d also been fielding phone calls from higher ups, from friends of those influential families demanding Jane give the busy moguls a rest, as many of them were grieving the loss of their friends.
“Well, they’ll be grieving a lot more if we don’t figure out who’s next on the list,” Jane muttered as she let herself into her home later that night, exhausted from a lot of mining through files that yielded nothing.
Jenn complained that Jane talked to herself when she grew crabby. Now that Jane heard herself out loud, she realized her friend was right.
Gotta stop doing that.
Better. Internal monologuing worked just as well.
After a quick meal, finding she needed something else to occupy herself, Jane called her cousin to get an update.
Raine, as usual, didn’t answer her phone.
