“And you figured this out in just under two hours without knowing any of these people?” Timur said. “You’resitting in a damn bakery with customers coming and going and you’ve already decided who’s guilty.”
Meiling looked at him, her long lashes veiling the expression in her dark eyes for moment, and then she nodded. “Gedeon and I often have to work fast in order to save lives. It is possible we’re wrong in our summary of who is behind this horrendous crime and why, but we had to make a decision, and this is our best one.”
“You believe it?” Fyodor said.
“I do,” Meiling reiterated.
“Time is slipping away,” Gedeon reminded. “You have to make up your minds whether or not you think you can help based on what we’ve given you.”
“The answer is yes,” Fyodor said. “I don’t have to like it, but yes.”
“You do see why it would be impossible to go to Elijah Lospostos with this even if we did have the time.” Gedeon made it a statement. “These are members of families deeply entrenched in his organization. One man, Georgi Chaban, we know for certain Elijah gave a personal recommendation to Atwater to hire as a bookkeeper after his longtime bookkeeper died of a heart attack. We both believe it is possible Lola helped him along with that heart attack. It seems just a little too convenient.”
“Tell us what you have in mind,” Timur said.
“We have to spot anyone backing up Lola. Gedeon will be backing me up. This is the first time Atwater has changed things up, so I would expect them to be on edge. Gedeon tells me if it were him, he would put one of the men on Lola and the other on Georgi. It may happen that way. If I spot Lola making contact with Georgi, I’ll signal Gedeon. I’ll follow Georgi, hopefully back to where Lilith is being held. Your man cannot move on Lola until we know for certain her backup has been handled and so has Georgi’s. I have to also be assured that whoever takes down Lola is fast enough to get to her before she can text Georgi to killLilith. She will do that. A woman who would plan this elaborate of a revenge plot most likely planned to kill Lilith all along.”
“Kyanite is fast enough,” Timur assured. “He wouldn’t move on her unless he knew he could take her down and get the phone before she gives the order.”
“We know we’re putting you in a bad position with Lospostos,” Gedeon said. “For that, I apologize, Fyodor. I had hoped we could handle this without you.”
“He’ll understand a child’s life was at stake,” Fyodor said. “I ask that you meet with him after this is over. You’ll be able to hear the truth in his voice when you speak with him.”
Gedeon nodded his head but didn’t speak. Before he agreed to meet with Elijah Lospostos, he was going to have a long talk with Meiling and lay down the law. If she wasn’t willing to comply, there would be no meeting. They would be getting on a plane and heading back to New Orleans within an hour of taking the kid back to her parent.
***
GEDEONwatched as Meiling weaved in and out of the marketplace, crowded with wares and fresh fish. She was graceful when she moved, dressed in dark navy denim overalls that were still very feminine on her slight figure. Under the overalls she had on a striped navy-and-red long-sleeved cotton tee. She wore a cropped denim jacket over the tee. She seemed to blend into the shadows cast by the numerous overhead umbrellas shading the long tables of vegetables, fruits, fish, meats and wares offered by so many vendors.
She was patient, looking at everything, exploring each table, picking up a tomato or a cucumber and smelling it before putting it back down. She bargained for a basket of cherry tomatoes, and when she’d settled on a price, she placed them carefully in the woven basket hanging off herarm. She left that vendor’s table but backtracked, returning to purchase two cucumbers and a small basket of mushrooms.
Meiling was several feet behind the person she followed—a tall, beautiful woman wearing thick glasses with her chestnut hair tied up in a bun. She had a larger basket on her arm and was busy bargaining at various booths or tables for goods. It was clear she was known to the local vendors. They all greeted her warmly by name and pointed out their best and freshest produce.
Gedeon’s job wasn’t to watch Lola. It was necessary to find her backup as soon as possible. He wasn’t the only one looking. His primary role was to serve as Meiling’s protection. That meant he had to ensure no one was aware of Meiling trailing after Lola. He couldn’t imagine it. Meiling was extremely good at tailing her quarry. She didn’t look in the least interested in her. She was by turns in the same aisle or two rows over. Sometimes she was in the opposite row. She was so small, she was lost in the crowd often. Even if someone was up above the marketplace looking down on it, as he was, Gedeon doubted anyone would focus on her. She didn’t look in the least like a threat.
He scanned the crowd continually and then quartered the area around him. He paid attention to the rooftops and surrounding windows and balconies. Gedeon had detested bringing Timor and Fyodor Amurov into the entire affair. There was no way of guaranteeing that friendship wouldn’t override the Amurovs’ compassion for the child. They might decide to let Lospostos know what was happening. If the man was involved, he could send shooters after Meiling and Gedeon. That possibility was very real. Gedeon never let any possibility of retaliation go unheeded. That was what kept him alive.
“Two o’clock,” he whispered. “You see him? That’s definitely Alan Cano. Meiling called it. He’s watching Lola’s back. You have him, Rodion?”
“I do.” Rodion’s tone was clipped.
Somewhere, Timur was out there watching the entire scene unfold. Gedeon knew the head of security wasn’t happy that Fyodor had insisted he come along as well. Both men were upset that members of Lospostos’s lair were involved and he was not informed. Wars were started over much lesser things.
Gedeon didn’t trust anyone—apart from Meiling—and she’d earned his trust by saving his life on more than one occasion. He intended to have a gun trained on Elijah Lospostos if he ended up meeting with him. He wanted to have Meiling somewhere safe, out of sight. He’d lived his entire existence this way, since the moment his father’s friends had come to murder them all.
Gedeon had been very young, but he remembered each of them. They’d eaten at his family’s table. His parents had helped their families time and again. He’d played with their children. Still, they’d come to murder them. Their only sin had been their extraordinary gifts, which seemed to intimidate and frighten the others. And make them jealous. Never mind that his parents had used those gifts to aid the others.
From those early days he had learned that anyone could pretend friendship and end up betraying you. It had been his father’s best friend who had come late in the night, knocking on the door. His father would have been prepared for an attack had it been anyone else. He had opened the door without hesitation. He had grown up with the man and thought of him like a sibling. Gedeon had called him uncle. That betrayal had hurt his father almost more than the torture and death that followed.
Gedeon was thankful his father had died. It had spared him seeing what thepakhanhad done to Gedeon’s beloved mother. Selling her to any man. Beating her at every opportunity when she resisted. What he did to Gedeon was beside the point, but it built a rage in him and hisleopard that would never go away. Gedeon could push it down, but it would always be there, and sometimes the nightmares were relentless.
Gedeon was intelligent and he had waited for his opportunity, looking compliant so thepakhantrained him to become an assassin for him. He found his father’s best friend first, and he spent days making him suffer. First by killing his family one by one in front of him. He made certain the man had no one left. Then there were days of merciless torture, every single one in retaliation for what his mother had suffered. Finally, a slow, agonizing death. Gedeon had never felt a single ounce of remorse. He was still very young and knew he should—but he hadn’t. That had only been the beginning of a long, secret campaign to get the murderers of his family.
Thepakhanhad never suspected a young boy would be behind the brutal killings. How could he be? These men were experienced. They had vicious leopards to warn them. And Gedeon always had an airtight alibi.
Time was slipping away. The longer Meiling spent tailing Lola in the marketplace, the greater the risk of her being discovered. Where the hell was the man on Georgi Chaban? For that matter, where was Georgi?
“She just made contact with Georgi,” Meiling whispered in his ear. Her voice was so soft he barely heard it.
