Page 49 of Vow Of Fire

“He’s not around anymore.”

“I’m sorry.” A pause, then she said, “My parents are both dead too.”

“I know.”

She glanced up at me. “You do? How—?” She flushed as the realization dawned. “You checked me out?”

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. “I check everybody out, especially people we suspect have betrayed us.”

She frowned, and I was tempted to kiss away the lines on her forehead. “Was it Valentina’s order? You know, to kill me?”

I gave a curt nod.

“Thank you for not doing it,” she whispered.

I got up, feeling agitated. The kitchen was overly warm from the cooking. I needed some air, some breathing space.

“It wasn’t for you,” I snapped, seeing her eyes cloud over. Good. I had to break this familiarity that had developed between us. “I needed your help to find the people responsible for stealing our shipment. That’s all. It’s not personal.”

“Fine.” She stood, picking up her laptop. “You don’t have to be such a dick about it.”

I let out a frustrated breath.

“I’m going to bed.”

“Evelyn.”

She turned.

“Leave the device.”

“But—”

The look on my face must have convinced her against arguing, because she set it back down on the table, then fixed me with an angry look and stormed off to the bedroom.

13

LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE

Evelyn

Icouldn’t sleep. I knew I should be tired, but the questions kept rolling around and around in my head. The Marcellis, Sergei, and now these unknown customers of Ricardo Sánchez. They were all using my gallery for their own illegal purposes.

That had to stop.

I bit my lip. Now I was faced with a moral dilemma.

The gallery had needed those sales. Six big-item sales over the last two years were what had elevated me from nowhere to a gallery to contend with. It’s why artists exhibited at the Agora. It’s why international clients looked me up and why reporters wrote pieces on me.

If I gave those up, where would I be?

I sighed. As much as I hated to admit it, Dante was right: I owed my success to his family. It sucked, but it was true. I’d needed them, without even knowing it.

Turning onto my back, I stared at the ceiling as I tried to reason it out.

How bad was it really?

I mean, up until this point, I hadn’t even been aware of it. Was it still a crime if you didn’t know what was going on?