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Chapter Sixteen
Rhia could only stare in silence at Sevastyan standing at the head of the table. She blinked a couple of times before looking at each of the men staring back at her.
“So basically you’re working as a makeshift black ops team in the basement of a sex club so you can find your brother’s killer.” She paused to clear her throat. That explained a lot. “Well, that’s original.”
“You could look at it that way. But there’s nothing legit about what we are doing, Rhia. You need to understand that. No cops, no FBI. No one. We handle our own. Our way.”
“Like everything else in your lives. Noted.”
“Indeed.” Sevastyan ran his gaze over her possessively.
God, he could make her tremble in her seat with just his voice. She hated how weak that made her feel.
She had a smart retort on the tip of her tongue when Matteo refilled her shot glass for the third time. She downed it and scooted the glass back for another. It would take a few of those to wash down everything that had taken place over the last few hours. Getting shot at, sleeping with her enemy, and now learning the deeper darker secret of the four mafia kings. Today could not get any more surreal.
On the table before them was an array of photos. Some with Dimitris, others showing images of his mansion where the auction would go down tonight. Matteo was damn good at his job, apparently. And one of a girl. Black hair, beautiful almond eyes. She couldn’t be more than twenty-ish and sat at the top of the list of missing women. Only she had a daddy in high places with deep connections from what the guys explained.
She fingered the edge of her photo thinking of all the families out there worried about missing daughters, nieces. Brothers and sisters.
Sevastyan leaned forward, palms flat on the table. “Why don’t you spill on how you made it away from the warehouse alive. Then we can cover how you came to be a hostess at our club.”
“First, how did you come up with the idea of a sex club as a cover?”
“It was his brother’s. We just used what we had at our fingertips.” Lucian gave a resigned sigh, looking more like himself. “But that’s not my story to tell.”
“Oh?” She turned to Sevastyan.
His nostrils flared as he stared at her, unflinching. “Answer me, Rhia.”
She saw the silent plea to drop the topic in his eye so reserved her questions for later. “I’m not really sure but Maddox, you know. From the club. He was there when shit got real and dirty. I don’t know how he found me. Or if he’s dirty and didn’t want to get caught. I mean, anything is possible.”
“We know. We can’t figure out why he would step in to defend you,” Matteo offered. “It’s not such a good thing when you have an ally and don’t know what is on the table to pay for it.”
“Nothing is free in your life, is it?”
Matteo shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Then I guess I am the one who owes him. One thing’s for damn sure. He saved my life. If he wasn’t there to take on Indigo and all my other would-be murderers in their motley crew of thugs you would not have had anyone to save back at my place.”
Sevastyan pounded back his drink. “He must want something. We’ll find out soon enough what that is and handle it accordingly.”
What? Her eyes widened and she pushed up, “As in killing him? Sevastyan, how could you!” she accused him, sharply.
The dark chuckle that came from him didn’t make her feel any better. Sevastyan sank into a chair, pulled her into his lap, wrapping strong arms around her. His expression softened as he rested his forehead against hers. “You forget one important detail. He saved our queen’s life and that means we both owe him. So no, I won’t kill the man that protected you when I couldn’t. I only meant as in figure out which side he is on.”
Sunlight was becoming scarce beyond the windows, and they needed to know what she knew.
Rhia slipped from Sevastyan’s lap and gathered her satchel from where she left it in the living room the night before. “Maybe he knew what Maya had given me and wanted to keep me safe?”
“But let me start at the beginning.” She pulled out the papers she ripped from Sevastyan’s ledgers and spread them out on the table. “I’m not proud of what I did, but I think you should know that the night I found my father’s tortured body burned to the side of that container I vowed I would find his killer. No matter what it cost me.” She held a hand up when Sevastyan’s arrogant expression was about to turn into a lecture she didn’t want to hear. “And yes, even if it cost me my own life.” Like hell she would be told never to stand up for those she loved.
Roman’s expression darkened when she found his. He wasn’t upset, Rhia thought as she stared back at him with determination, but she could tell he didn’t like what she had to say either. It was just who she was and he would have to understand that about her like she would have to accept him putting his life on the line every day.
“How did you come to find Haven?”
She turned to Lucian.
“I spent hours combing through my father’s belongings only to find nothing. Office, library, safes he made sure I knew the combinations to in case something like this happened.” She paused to consider if he realized his death was only a matter of when not if. “When the coroner’s office delivered the personal effects my father had on him, he had a matchbook with the club’s name and a drawing of a tattoo. Your tattoo. At some point, he knew you. How else could he have known your tattoo? Armed with at least a name, I went back over everything in his office and came across a file hidden in a folder. An invoice with Haven’s name on it. I connected the two.”
