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What makes him think we can trust her? Is it the fact she helped with some computer stuff?
“Get me Artyom’s address and anywhere else he might be if he’s not hiding there. I need to find this piggy and make him squeal.”
“What if he was working for Nikolai?” Mikhail says. “What then?”
I grit my teeth, glancing at Mila, then shake my head. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Mikhail can’t understand how infuriated I would be if it turned out he had anything to do with it. He wouldn’t understand the monster that would wake up in me, the urgency I’d suddenly have to put a bullet in his head. Nobody gets to put my woman in danger.
“He’s got no listed address,” Mikhail says.
“What if we get his cell phone records,” Mila adds, “and see where he makes most of his calls? Then we can work from there.”
“He’ll use a burner,” I tell her.
“If he’s used the same one, we can still track it,” she says.
“How?”
“Get the phone records of the dead man, his Serbian associate, then go down the call history and cross them off one by one. It’s worth a shot, at least.”
“Okay, do that,” I say. “In the meantime, I’ll check with the cops and see if the dead man has any tales to tell.”
My cell phone ringing cuts me off. I must make a face because Mikhail says, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Nikolai,” I tell him.
Mila sucks in a breath, looking at Mikhail, then me. They’ve clearly developed a working rapport from how she looks at him. That’s probably natural, considering they’re spending all this time together. I need to remember to thank Mikhail later. Being with Lia would be much harder if Mila wasn’t distracted.
Answering the phone, I say, “What a pleasant surprise.”
Nikolai laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “How’re you doing, Dimitri?”
“Generally speaking?”
Another humorless laugh. “What other way is there?”
If he’s trying to make me believe he doesn’t know about the attack, he’s doing a decent job. If he wasn’t behind it, there’s no reason for him to know it happened. I wish we were face-to-face. It’s always easier to root out liars like that.
“I’m fine,” I tell him.
“Oh, good, good.” Nikolai doesn’t sound too pleased about that. Mila watches me with a tight expression, apparent terror in her eyes, telling me an entire story about all the twisted things he might’ve done to her or at least the sick threats he made. “So, when can I expect an invitation?”
I take a moment to realize he’s talking about the wedding. Technically, we have just over two weeks, but he’ll want to pushit. He wants to twist me into his fucked-up shape through his daughter.
“We’re still working out some details,” I tell him. “You’ll hear from me soon.”
“Okay. That’s great. How is my daughter doing?”
“Do you want to speak with her?” I ask, but then Mila quickly shakes her head, and I realize my mistake.
Nikolai snorts anyway. “What for? Speak soon, Dimitri.”
I hang up the phone. The idea of a wedding with anybody except for Lia makes me feel sick. Even a weddingwithLia should make me cautious. I’ve never thought about weddings before, about spending my life with someone, about being happy.
“We good to go?” I ask Mikhail.
“We’ll keep working,” he says.
