Gedeon nodded and went to work. They had a name now. Lola Morales. They had to find out where she came from and who she had working with her, if she really was the one behind the missing money and the kidnapping of Fredrick Atwater’s four-year-old daughter, Lilith. He tried finding Lola Morales, then anything she might have to do with Chaban. He came up empty. And then he tried Lospostos. He scored big there.
Lola Morales was the daughter of Pedro Morales, a trusted lieutenant of Elijah Lospostos. More, she had grown up with three boys close to her: Georgi Chaban, Alan Cano and Caleb Basco. The four had been inseparable. The boys’ fathers also worked for Lospostos.
“We’ve got a hit, Lotus. We need to call a meeting with Timur.”
8
MEILINGrarely spoke in meetings with clients. She left that up to Gedeon, fading into the background so those around her almost forgot she was in the room with them. It was the way they conducted business deliberately and it worked. But this was her find.
Gedeon wanted these men to see her as an equal partner. To take her seriously. And, most of all, to know that he would hold them accountable if anything happened to her. They knew him and they knew he wouldn’t just have a woman talk for the two of them. If she was speaking, it was because he respected every word that came out of her mouth, and he expected they would as well.
Fyodor, Timur, Gedeon and Meiling met in Fyodor’s office. It wasn’t behind the double doors that led to the kitchen, but rather down the hall, past where Evangeline and Ashe made the coffee. A nursery had been set up just behind the bakery, and on the other side of that wasFyodor’s office. There was access to the kitchen from his office and to the nursery as well.
It was a sweet setup for Timur. He could get to the children, to the women and to his main responsibility, Fyodor, any number of ways in under a second. He had multiple ways of extracting the family should there be an attack on them. Gedeon didn’t know who had designed the interior suite of rooms, but it was brilliant. He hadn’t seen all of them, and he would bet there were hidden ways to get to the roof or to the basement. Timur wouldn’t take any chances with his family.
Meiling looked straight at Timur, not in the least intimidated, even though she was half his size. “Timur, we need someone fast. When I say fast, he has to be fast enough to stop a woman from sending a text in a crowded public place. She’s leopard and she’ll have someone looking out for her. It might be a woman he knows. He can’tthinkhe can get to her. He has toknowhe can. If he misses, that little girl will die. Do you have anyone that fast?”
Timur nodded slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on her face.
“At the same time, before we can make a move on any of them, we have to find whoever is watching out for the woman. I believe her backup will be either of these two men.” Meiling showed Timur photographs of Alan Cano and Caleb Basco she had on her phone. “In any case, both men are most likely involved.”
Gedeon watched Timur’s face closely, and then Fyodor’s as Timur passed Meiling’s phone to his brother. Both men had to know the two shifters Meiling was all but accusing of being in a conspiracy to abduct a small child.
“Do you have proof?” Fyodor asked.
“If I had proof, Gedeon and I would be slitting their throats instead of sitting here talking to you,” Meiling said. “Timur offered help. He said anything. I know I can get the evidence. We asked for proof of life. If I’m right, thiswoman”—she took the phone and showed him the photograph of Lola Morales—“will be handing off instructions to Georgi Chaban.” She swiped the photograph of Lola to one side and replaced it with a picture of Georgi. “It will happen this morning.”
“You’re aware all four of the people you suspect are a part of the Lospostos lair?” Fyodor asked, his voice mild. Gedeon instantly went on alert. So much so that he signaled to Meiling to put some distance between her and the Amurov brothers.
“Generations of their families,” Fyodor continued, “have lived their entire lives in the Lospostos lair and served them with honor.”
Meiling shrugged her shoulders and wandered over to the window to look out on the street. “I am certain what you say is the truth. I’m also certain I’m right that Lola Morales had a very long affair with Fredrick Atwater after he lost his wife. She believed he would marry her and take her for his mate. The woman Atwater lost was his true mate and he was never going to replace her. Lola didn’t understand that because Atwater didn’t bother to explain it to her, not until she realized he had several other lovers.”
Fyodor held up his hand to stop her explanation. “Atwater confirmed this?”
“Harold, his right-hand man, confirmed he had an eighteen-month-long relationship with Morales and that he regularly takes advantage of the women working in his home. Morales still works there and is aware of Atwater’s sexual practices and appears not to care. She was the one to end the relationship. Atwater expressed a fondness for her and would have fired the women he was having sex with, although he made it clear to her he wouldn’t marry her or have children with her.”
“If he was willing to get rid of all the other women for her,” Timur argued, “that was saying something about the way he felt about her. She was special to him.”
Meiling glanced at her watch. “She wasn’t his only. She wasn’t the one he would havechildrenwith. Build his life around. Be the center of his world. He hadcheatedon her regularly with her right there in the house. She didn’t mean enough to him to stop using other women. He was everything to her, but she didn’t mean the same to him. In any case, gentlemen, we asked for your help. If we’re not going to get it, we have to come up with another plan. Lola is going to go to work this morning and find out that her boss has collapsed under the pressure of his child being kidnapped and money being siphoned from his businesses along with the fear of Lospostos’s retaliation.”
Gedeon had to suppress a groan at the use of the crime kingpin’s name. Twice he’d tried to subtly insert his body between hers and Timur’s. Fyodor was a ruthless man, there was no doubt about it, but he wasn’t a man to kill a woman. But if Timur thought Meiling was a threat to Fyodor, he would end her in a heartbeat. Timur was the biggest threat in the room and Gedeon would kill him first, but he needed Meiling safe. She persisted in moving, pacing, but keeping her slim body between his and Timur’s. He was going to strangle the woman when he got her alone. He knew damn well she was protecting him. She just couldn’t seem to help herself.
“We’re going to help you. I want to understand what you need from us, Meiling,” Timur said. “What exactly do you plan to do?”
“When Lola gets to work, which will be any minute, she’ll find Atwater in his suite, with a doctor giving him IV fluids and insisting he can’t have visitors or anyone in the rooms with him. His orders will be he needs round-the-clock quiet, with lights dim and no one to upset him. Only Harold will be allowed in. Drake Donovan already had a team of shifters here and he allowed us to put them in place to guard Atwater. We believe Lola has been drugging him. By cutting him off from everyone, it will beimpossible for the drugging to continue. We also had people sweeping the house for bugs last night. Anywhere Atwater would go, his office, the conservatory, his library, even Lilith’s room and his private suite, had bugs. The rest of the house was clean. We left them in place so she wouldn’t be tipped off. The only ones destroyed were the ones in the conservatory, and we flooded the plants where they’d been placed.”
“It strikes me that if you’re correct about this, the old adage of a woman scorned can be really frightening,” Fyodor commented.
“You’d better think about that,” Timur pointed out. “Evangeline might look as sweet as can be right now, but you mess around on her and life as you know it could get very rough.”
“Touching another woman would be out of the question for me,” Fyodor said, his voice gruff.
Gedeon could hear the truth in the crime lord’s voice. Fyodor would never cheat on his wife. Clearly he didn’t even joke about it.
“Keep going, Meiling,” Fyodor encouraged.
“Once Lola realizes she can’t get to Atwater to judge his reactions, she may think she’s pushed him too hard. Harold will have left a communication in the established place demanding proof of life. They don’t use text messaging. That’s good for us. That means Lola will go out this morning and she’ll deliver a message to someone asking them to get a proof-of-life photo of Lilith. I intend to follow Lola to whomever she passes that message to and then follow him back to wherever Lilith is being held. If I’m spotted, I believe they’ll kill Lilith and dispose of the evidence immediately. Who would believe anyone in the Lospostos organization would have anything to do with a kidnapping of a child?” Meiling explained.
