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“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
Damn, that’s harsh, but he did say that, so I can’t deny it.
“What do you want me to see?” she asks and moves to the computer, where I left the image up of Lena and her daughter.
“Wow! That woman looks almost like your husband.” Ainsley sits in my chair, and I nod.
I lean over and shrink the window. The next one that pops up is of a man. He’s in a suit, standing outside the casino everyone in town knows is owned by the Italians. They also have a betting room across town and a restaurant. The Barone family is more successful than the Bratva. It helps that their casino is linked to them, whereas the Bratva doesn’t have one. They just have the card room.
“Who is that man?”
“His name is Giovanni Costa. He hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father.” I give it to her as straight as I can.
“What?”
“Jimmy was trying to earn money and make a name for himself, so he marketed himself as a man who could take care of problems. Some he handled on his own, most he would contract out.”
“Our father was a contract killer?” she asks, and I nod. “Who else?”
“I can’t tell you that part. It isn’t my story.” Mikhail should tell her.
“So Barone hired Jimmy to kill Aleksei’s father?”
“According to everything I’ve found, it wasn’t Barone. He didn’t know. I’m fairly certain if Barone had known, then Costa would be taking a cement bath.”
“I find it hard to believe Barone didn’t know when they are in the same organization.”
“Yes, there is that, but Lena is Barone’s sister. He put her in hiding right after the Bogdan was killed.”
“How did you find this all out? Did Alek ask you to do this?”
I look at the screens showing Aleksei moving around his office, then back to the computer monitors where Lena’s image is minimized.
“No, he didn’t ask. I did it as a gift to him. I wanted to help him find out who killed his father. I didn’t expect to find Lena or Daria.”
“So you hacked the Italians after we were told we couldn’t do that anymore.” She stands up fast and starts pacing the room. “We need to get you out of here. They will come, and it will start a war.”
“I didn’t hack Barone. I hacked into Jimmy’s files. I had most of them, but I found others. I then followed the money. It wasn’t easy to find Lena, but I kept at it. You know me.”
“We still need to get you out of here. What if Barone doesn’t ask questions first?”
I move to her. “I didn’t do anything with Barone. I only looked at Costa. I knew it was someone upset that Lena and the Bogdan were in a relationship. I put two and two together and figured it was her ex. I was right.”
“But?”
“I need to go see them. I need to confirm it’s real in person. I can’t stay here, but I don’t know how I’m going to do that without Aleksei finding out.”
She smiles, and it reminds me of the Joker or Cheshire cat. “I’m going out this afternoon. Come with me.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell Mikhail that I need sisterly time. Then when we are out, we can lose our babysitters and get gone like we used to do.”
It sounds so easy. Almost too easy, but I can’t pass up the chance to find out if it’s really Lena.
“Okay.”
