Gedeon nodded his head. The security team was smooth, taking up tables on the floor around Fyodor. The way they coordinated their moves, Gedeon doubted any customersin the bakery even noticed. “Are you getting anywhere?” Fyodor indicated the accounting ledgers and notebooks scattered across the table.
Gedeon had the foresight to close them. Even if the cameras could zoom in on them, they wouldn’t know what they were looking for. Nothing would make sense, particularly in relation to the kidnapping of a child.
“We’re making progress, but the beginning of a search is always painfully slow. Especially when it’s this kind of case. The tendency is to move fast, but then you make mistakes. We can’t afford to make a mistake. My gut tells me she’s alive. Meiling thinks the same thing. I want her to stay alive, so I’m not going to run off half-cocked. They don’t know I’m looking for them and I don’t want them to. It’s imperative to fly under the radar on this one.”
“Give us a way to help you.”
“Keep people out of my way. I can’t be stumbling over your men when I’m working. If I need information, I’ll come to you, Fyodor.”
Meiling returned, walking briskly, the way she did when she was onto something. Her gaze swept the tables, taking in the security team and Fyodor. That didn’t slow her down in the least. She kept coming straight to them, giving Fyodor a faint smile.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I need a couple of things. I’ll just work over there.” She indicated a small table in the corner with her chin while she caught up several of the accounting books, the tablet and a notebook. She didn’t wait for an introduction but hurried to the table and opened the tablet and one of the accounting books.
“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” Gedeon said. “Once she’s caught the scent, I swear she’s like a...”
Meiling’s head came up. “I can hear you. Don’t you call me a hound dog.”
Fyodor hid a smile behind his hand. Timur coughed. The new kid openly laughed. Kyanite and Rodion snickered.
“She’s a hurricane,” Gedeon said. “Sweeping a clear path to where we need to go.”
“Good save.” Fyodor indicated Evangeline. “Took me a good year to get myself out of trouble. I used sex.”
Gedeon wished he could use sex. He didn’t have that available to him. “We’re business partners.”
Fyodor’s eyebrow shot up. “Not yours? Not claimed? Hell, man, I’ve got a few men with leopards looking for mates. When this is over maybe she could meet a few of them, see if they get on.”
Gedeon shot him a look that told him to back off. He didn’t much care if he was the biggest, baddestpakhanaround. Gedeon would be quite willing to take him out and all his single leopards as well if they decided they were going to try sniffing around Meiling. “Not a good idea.”
“I can see that,” Fyodor said.
Gedeon’s cell vibrated. He glanced down at the text from Harold.Bookkeeper unexpectedly died of heart attack. Fredrick put word out we needed a closed-mouthed bookkeeper. Lospostos gave the recommendation.
There it was. Lospostos. The one name Gedeon didn’t want to see. He sighed. If he had to kill the man, there would be hell to pay. He’d send Meiling home first. “Anything we discuss, you keep confidential? Even from someone you may have an alliance with?”
“Gedeon, you’re a man of your word. You say a child has been kidnapped, then I don’t say shit to anyone until you say she’s safe.”
“What do you know about Elijah Lospostos?”
Gedeon could tell he had shocked Fyodor. He wasn’t expecting Gedeon to ask about Elijah. Fyodor’s eyebrow shot up again. “Why would you ask about him? He would never, under any circumstances, harm a child. I can personally vouch for him. If you think he has anything at all to do with the kidnapping of a child, I can assure you, he didn’t. He would be the first one out hunting whoever did.”
“He has a reputation.”
“Gedeon, I hate to point this out, but you have a worse one.”
It was true. He couldn’t deny it. He deserved his reputation. He’d earned it. Maybe Lospostos hadn’t earned his. Gedeon had always thought the thing with his sister was a crock of bullshit. Still, no one had that big of a reputation without a good deal of it being true. The man was reputed to be hard as nails, and Gedeon believed it. Gedeon didn’t need to have an enemy like that on his ass while they were working on such an extremely sensitive and very urgent case.
“Elijah has a wife he loves and three little girls. They’re just babies, but he spends as much time with them as he can,” Fyodor continued. “We visit with him whenever it’s possible. We know our wives and children are never going to have normal lives, so we try to give them the next best possible thing. Friends that understand the life we lead. He protects his family, and he protects my family. He would never take that child.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Meiling texting. His phone vibrated.
Need to know if Fredrick was sleeping with anyone after wife died.
He didn’t die, Lotus.
Was he always going to feel guilty because he couldn’t stop the cycle of sex or violence? She wasn’t the one making him feel guilty. She had backed off and given him the freedom to carry on with his lifestyle. It was just that he didn’t want that lifestyle anymore. He wanted Meiling. He didn’t dare take her and make a mistake. He’d lose her for certain.
Don’t give me crap. It’s important, especially if it was long term.
