“And if I tell you the truth?”
I nod to Dmitri. He opens his coat just a bit, enough to expose an envelope stuffed with hundreds. “A little traveling money.”
A sour smile touches his mouth. “Good. Going to be hard to start over.” He sighs.
“Then get to it. Tell me what you know about Teresa, where I can find her.”
He exhales, a clipped, tired sound. “I warned him. Repeatedly. About the girl.”
I say nothing.
“The fact of the matter is that the Bureau has been looking for leverage on Aleksander for years,” he continues. “You know this. His legitimate revenue has bled into his other streams. He’s sloppy when he’s angry. Teresa…” He hesitates, frowning.
“Go on,” I say.
“You go after a woman like that, an innocent, they have reason to look under every floorboard. I’ve told him this. I’ve told him a dozen times. He wouldn’t hear it.” He flinches.
“He never hears anything he doesn’t want to.”
“True,” he says. He glances at Dmitri, then back to me. “He’s also not the one running the show anymore.”
“And you know who is.”
He goes very still. He did not expect me to accept the premise so quickly. “I do,” he says quietly, as if ashamed, “Because I was her fool.”
“Her?”
“Trina.”
“Trina.” Of course.
“For over a year. Maybe more if you count the flirtations that masquerade as business. She told me I was essential. That I understood the numbers better than anyone. She called late. She called early. She asked for my counsel and then ignored it when it conflicted with her plans.” He laughs once, short and sharp. “And she offered more than just a position in her new empire.”
The implication is clear. “Charming.”
“Can you blame me?” He shrugs. “She’s a beautiful woman. Smart, too. And?—”
“Ambitious,” I finish.
He nods. “This war, it’s her making. She’s planning on using it to knock a few pieces off the board, take control. And it just might work if all goes according to plan. Me? I’ll be watching from a comfortable distance someplace where gray isn’t the dominant color.” He gestures toward the window, toward the slate sky and dirty slush on the city streets.
“Go on.”
“Turns out, I wasn’t the only one she’d been charming. She’ll sleep with anyone who moves the needle,” he says simply. “Inside the family, outside it, across the river, across the ocean. It isn’t about sex. It’s about leverage. She promises a slice to one,a future to another, and the satisfaction of revenge to a third. She’s getting everything in order so when she takes power, it’s legitimate. Or, it’ll at least look that way.” He’s quiet for a beat. “And then she tried to kill me. Almost succeeded, too.”
“And now you feel sorry for Teresa,” I conclude.
“She doesn’t deserve any of this,” he says. “But Trina’s been playing her for years, using her loneliness and isolation to create a false friendship. For all our sins, there are lines. A murder like that is not only going to bring war, but it’ll also bring the law. I told Aleksander the girl would bring the Feds through his doors. He doesn’t care. The only thing he gives a shit about is revenge.”
My jaw flexes. “You know what’s happening to her now?”
He looks away. Not in denial but out of guilt. “I know enough.”
“Say it.”
“Teresa’s the match,” he says. “Trina will strike her against Aleksander’s temper until the powder catches. And when it does…” He raises both hands, spreading his fingers. “Everything burns.”
Dmitri shifts at the next table, adjusting his knife sheath beneath his jacket. He doesn’t interrupt.
