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“Okay.” Isabelle released a shaky exhale. “Dad left me here without a word. You saw all that. But the day after we got Caroline, I saw him drive by. And he’d said he was going to Italy! I texted him and asked what was going on. He swore me to secrecy and told me we would be rich, really rich. That he would buy me whatever house I liked, and we’d have a happy life. We’d buy an island if I wanted.”
Carly could hear his persuasive voice in her head. Their dad had always been a big dreamer. He’d invested a lot of his salary in schemes he’d heard about. The next big one would get them out of debt and make her mother happy. It never happened. She’d hoped a new family had helped him break into a new life with new habits, and it pained her to hear that her sister had endured so much disillusionment too.
“Go on,” Lucas said.
“I heard you talking when I came downstairs. You guessed most of it. Eric called Dad to ask if he knew about some fancy jeweled egg. Dad didn’t and Eric only told him about Gram being adopted and who the nurse was. Dad did some research on his own and found that Roger guy.” She shivered. “He was scary. Roger was supposed to go through the shed and see if he could find the egg, but Eric came in. Roger panicked and killed him. Dad was so mad.” She fell silent and sniffled.
Carly closed her eyes as a mental picture of that horrific moment came. If she’d been there, Roger would have shot her too. When she opened her eyes, Lucas’s hazel eyes were fixed on her, and she sank into the sympathy she found there. Or was it more than sympathy? Did she dare hope it was—love?
She dragged her focus from Lucas and prodded her sister to continue.
“Then Dad found out a guy named Smirnov had found out—probably from Roger. Dad called him a loose lip. This Smirnov and his men had broken into Aunt Elizabeth’s house and were there at the same time as Roger. Roger killed one of them and got away, but Dad was afraid the Russians would be out for revenge and coming after him. He’d wanted to find the surprise, too, but he decided he’d settle for just the egg. It would be worth a lot by itself.”
“Do you know how Ivan Bury plays into this? He gave money to Eric and Kelly,” Carly said.
Isabelle shook her head. “I never heard anything about him.”
Lucas picked up Noah, who had begun to squawk. “So your dad concocted the scheme to ask for the egg as a ransom for you and Caroline.”
Isabelle looked down at the baby. “He wanted me to take Noah, but I wouldn’t do it. I knew Noah would need to nurse. Most nursing babies don’t take well to being switched to a bottle all at once. I didn’t want to traumatize him. I knew Caroline would be just fine either way as long as she had me.”
Carly’s eyes burned at her little sister’s words. She’d done the best she could with the father they had. “You’re a wonderful sister, Isabelle. And aunt. We’re lucky to have you.”
Isabelle shook her head and sobs erupted from her throat. “I shouldn’t have gone along with it, Carly. I knew he was wrong.”
Carly struggled to hold back the hot words about their father that wanted to pour from her mouth. “But you wanted him to love you. He’s very good at manipulating his girls.”
She rose to get Noah, whose fussing had become a hungry wail. “What’s our next move, Lucas?” Settling back on the sofa, she grabbed her cover-up and began to feed the baby.
“I’ll need to let Bernard know about this. We’ll pick up your dad.”
Isabelle’s lips trembled. “Will he be sent to jail? Charged with kidnapping?”
Lucas shrugged. “Well, he has custody of you so it’s not against the law for him to take you somewhere. We’ll figure out the charges. People have died because of his actions. While he didn’t murder anyone directly, he covered up the murders, both of Eric and of whoever died in Elizabeth’s house. Did Roger kill Anna Martin? Did he break into the Hill home? And what about Kelly? Who attacked her?”
Isabelle put her head down to rest on Caroline’s. “I don’t know.”
It was such a tangled web that Carly wasn’t sure they’d unravel it without talking to the Russians. She glanced at the clock. “I’m going to set up a meeting with Mr.Schoenwald tomorrow morning and get that egg out of here.”
“Oh no you’re not.”
She turned at the sound of her father’s voice. He stood in the doorway aiming a gun at Lucas. “Toss your gun down, Lucas.” Sweat dripped from his red, sweating face, and his eyes were wild. “There’s been a change of plans.”
Another man stepped into view from behind her father. He prodded Ryan and the older women forward with a gun that was much bigger than her father’s.
***
The man with the M16 had hard green eyes that looked them over like a slab of beef. He was bald, and he looked like he worked out. He’d ushered Ryan and the older women into the room with them and had made them all throw down any weapons. Lucas recognized him from the files. Dimitri Smirnov. Lucas judged the guy to be in his fifties, and his craggy face was a road map of scars illustrating his violent life.
Kyle held up his hands. “Look, let’s work together on this. I’ve got information you don’t have.”
Smirnov sneered. “I’m going to have the egg, which is all that matters. It belongs to me. I’ve been searching for it all my life, as my father did before me. My great-great-grandfather was one of the Bolsheviks who stormed the palace. It was in our family until Sofia Balandin’s grandfather took it and disappeared. After all these years, it will finally be back where it belongs.”
“How did you hear about the egg?” Lucas asked. “Did Roger Adams contact you?”
“Adams put out some feelers to sell it. I wasn’t about to buy what belonged to me already. I started following him and it led right to all of you. I had the advantage with my tech people and plenty of men to watch the lot of you.”
Carly put her hands on her hips. “Why did you shoot Kelly? You left her baby crying from hunger in the bedroom.”
