“Not at school,” I said automatically. “If you get caught, they’ll execute you. Let’s find out exactly what he knows first.”
He laced his fingers over his head, walking to the window. “I don’t fucking believe this.” I hand him a bottle of beer and he drains half of it in a gulp.
“Looks like we’re going to need something stronger,” I said, heading back to my bar cart.
Aleks sends the message to Mateo, and we pace, waiting for an answer while Tati continues to untangle all the cell signals. “We just need a ping…” she murmurs, “Once I have the signal I can de-encrypt it.”
It takes an hour before that asshole texts back. “You know he’s been staring at the text, gloating,” Aleks mutters bitterly, showing us the text.
You perverted fuck. What makes you think you have enough money? Sending the pictures to daddy will be worth so much more.
“I’m going to kill him,” Aleks says, striding toward the door.
“Hey, hey, hold up!” I step in front of him. “He’s not telling anyone right now; he’s having too much fun torturing you. Let Tati work.”
“Um… the picture I saw,” she ventures, “your boyfriend looks Mediterranean?”
“Yes,” he finished his glass of vodka and I silently refill it.
“Where does he live?”
Aleks groans. “In London, but Augustu’s family is in Sardinia. The island next to Sicily.”
“The odds are insane,” I agree, “but if his asshole buddies - who got sent back home to Sicily - have any connection in any possible way… You’ve exchanged pictures?”
He nods.
“First thing,” Tatiana interrupts. “Have Augustu delete every picture of you, including anything of you two together, even if it looks innocent, okay? Let me double-check your phone first and make sure your texting didn’t download any spyware.”
“Damn, look at my genius,” I murmur, kissing her.
“Thank you for being here for him,” she whispers, kissing me back.
Aleksandr’s phone dings cheerfully again.
You’re about to have so much more to worry about than your little boytoy, you bitch.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I said, unease spreading through me. It has something to do with Tatiana, I know it.
“Let’s focus on this,” she says, looking worried. “He’s got at least a dozen pictures on his phone, Aleks. This is bad.”
“What can we do?” His grip is so tight on the glass that I’m surprised it hasn’t shattered.
“Okay, okay, um…” Tatiana checks something else on her laptop. “Now that I have him, I can erase the data, it’s from one of those little assholes in his entourage. But they would still have it. If we get a hold of it, I can send a virus back via text that’ll wipe the scumbag’s phone.”
“You can’t set up a meeting,” I said, “he’ll prepared for an ambush. We have to catch him somewhere.”
“We can track his phone signal now,” Tatiana says. “Which means we have to follow him until we can get him out of view of one of the surveillance cameras.”
“Wait until tonight,” I said. “We’ll have better luck. Can you disable any of the cameras?”
She shakes her head, miserable. “I can’t even figure out their system, much less how to hack into it. Not by tonight, anyway.”
“Then tonight,” Aleks says, cold and composed. “I’ll handle it tonight.”
“We’llhandle it,” I told him. “You can’t do this alone.”
Chapter Thirty
