Page 126 of Beguiled

“And you clean house,” Dimitri added. “In your effort to become more legitimate, you oust anyone with any bloodthirsty ties andmake a big deal out of doing so. You’ll learn who you can trust and who you can’t. That will make for more peaceful nights.”

Sean’s half laugh was understandable. “Your goddamn brother had better be found. He’s becoming a pain in my ass.”

“Answer me this. That kid I beat to death the other night. Did you see him stealing from you?”

He caught on quickly to what I was suggesting. “No, Patrick told me about the situation.”

“I was lured to your club as was my financial analyst.”

“Why?”

“That’s what we’re going to ask Patrick.”

The knock on the door indicated our guest of honor had arrived.

Patrick stuck his head in, obviously displeased at seeing the four of us. “Sit down, Patrick,” I told him.

He closed the door behind him and did as ordered.

“What’s going on?”

I continued twirling the necklace, which he caught sight of almost instantly. “You hire all the fighters who aren’t being taught a lesson. Correct?”

“Yeah, of course. Why?”

“That kid from the other night. The one who stole from the company. What exactly did he do?”

As anticipated, he looked toward his boss.

“I’m curious myself, Patrick. You told me he stole from us,” Sean interjected.

“He did. I mean that’s what I was told.” Patrick was trying to play it cool, but he knew he’d been discovered.

“You were told. By whom?” Sean’s expression hardened.

“What about this guy? Did you hire him?” I pushed my phone across the table. There was no doubt he was looking at a dead man.

“What is going on?” Patrick was starting to sweat just enough. It wasn’t often that two crime syndicates gathered together to confront someone on their misgivings.

“This man tried to kidnap and kill the very woman you pushed to have work here the night of the fight. From what I would guess, Tawny wasn’t certain Saige would work out with the fights, but somehow, the subject came up. Likely that she needed to replace her shift. You knew she only had one real friend, Saige Mitchell. Isn’t that right?”

Patrick sat back in his seat, deciding to shut down.

“You bastard,” Sean hissed.

“This necklace was on the man you hired. It was found at Tawny’s apartment.” I tossed it in his direction.

He bristled when I did.

“Let’s cut to the chase. You were double dealing your boss, working with a man who promised you a larger piece of the pie. All you had to do was to set certain pieces in motion. First with having Saige and me in the same place at the same time. Second, unlocking the door to the basement so Mikhail’s men could waltzinside. And you also hired Liam Murphy, the dead man in that picture and the one who wore the necklace to kill Tawny and anyone who got in his way. Unfortunately, that was Ms. Mitchell. But he didn’t anticipate she’d beat him at his own game. Now, he’s dead. By my hands.”

He didn’t say anything right away.

So I did the unthinkable. I’d pulled in a favor with the medical examiner, obtaining a picture of Tawny. With what Saige had mentioned about how Patrick had protected her, I’d played a card and could instantly tell I was right.

Leaning forward, I snapped, “Look at her, Patrick. Take a good long look. Do you know what happened?”

“Stop,” he hissed.