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Chapter 56 – Talia
The men walked outof the computer room, and it was as if a weight lifted from the room. I let out a long breath and dropped my head back on the seat, the muscles of my torso aching from all the trauma my body had been through.
“It can’t be as bad as all that,” Sophia muttered from behind her screen as she clicked away.
“My husband hates me because my brother murdered his sister.” I stared at the copper plates that lined the ceiling. “It’s bad.”
“Hmm, no, it’s not.” Sophia pushed her rolling chair back from her desk and skidded over to take a piece of paper from the printer. “The butcher adores you. He’s just suffering right now.”
I took a deep breath to clear the lump in my throat. When I could safely trust myself to speak, I said, “He might have, once, but I doubt he’ll ever see past this.”
“Remind him what he’s missing,” Sophia said, now standing before me with a stack of papers in her hand. “Start by going through this, then tell me who we should focus on.”
I took the highlighter and papers she offered. As she flounced back to her desk, I scanned the pages. Most guests were superficial, people to impress or elbows to be rubbed. My father might be a creature lurking in the dark, but he was well connected for a ghost. However, halfway down the page, a name stood out.
“Blood relatives.” I ran the tip of the bright yellow ink over the name. “We’ll start there.”
It was true, there were a few people my family was blood related to, although distant at best. We rarely associated with them because of the devil’s penchant for secrecy.
“Rattle the names off for me, hun,” Sophia encouraged.
I obeyed.
A few minutes later, Viktor’s frame filled the doorway. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Over twenty potential targets,” Sophia announced, beaming. She held up a hand, signaling him to wait. The printer cranked to life, and the swift chugging noise of the inkjet printer preceded the stream of papers that shot out of the machine.
Viktor snatched the fresh pages off the tray. “This is good. Well done,zaika.”
In Russian, the endearment equated to bunny. My lips twitched to hear a giant use that word.
“Talia helped. Be sure to mention that when you give those papers to the butcher,” Sophia instructed, flicking a glance over her monitor as she continued to peck at the keys.
With a grunt, Viktor turned and strode purposefully down the hall.
I continued scrolling through the list, but the names were starting to blur together.Shit...I need some sleep.But that was soon forgotten when I another name stood out on the list. I bolted upright, a gasp escaping my lips.
“What?” Sophia asked, peering around a computer monitor.
“Um....” I couldn’t form a sentence; I was too busy looking at the name pulsing on the paper. I knew this was the person to start with—I could feel it. Frankie Tourk. The friend Claude spent days on end with, and the bane of my father’s existence. The little thug ran illegal operations on a small scale but never seemed to pry into Claude’s wealth. This was who Constantine should be interrogating because I knew I’d found the right lead.
My pulse beat wildly in my veins, and I shot to my feet, ready to call down the hall after the Russian giant that I had the answer right here! The butcher could end the scourge who’d taken his sister, the bastard who’d hurt me time and again, the brother who’d broken the new life I was building.
Will he thank you? Will this balance the scales in Constantine’s eyes?At those terrible thoughts, I sank back into the seat. That was the problem right there. It was important that Constantine forgive me. I worried my bottom lip, then turned to Sophia.
“What is it?” she asked, rolling away from the L-shaped desk and coming close. She took the sheet of paper and scanned the names. Frankie’s wasn’t highlighted, so it showed no significance to her. This was my secret, for a few more precious moments at least.
As I wrung my hands tightly, the idea dancing around in my mind took shape. I knew what I needed to do...right the scales.
“I want to—” My words choked off, because I was suddenly aware there was no way they would let me leave.
“Ahh, so you’ve found something,” Sophia announced, folding herself into the seat across from me. She considered me for a moment, and I couldn’t hide my wringing hands. “You know,” she began slowly, “if you went and took care of the problem, Constantine might begin to forgive you.”
I laughed harshly. “You took the words right out of my mouth. But I don’t think they will let a woman storm the enemy’s nest.”
Sophia shrugged. “After the way me and my sister-in-law acted with a certain socialite, I can tell you it’s possible for a woman to rush into hell and bring it to its knees.”
“You make it sound easy.”
