That point edges closer and closer.
***
“What do you mean someone is killing twins, and you just decided to inform me of this?” The vein throbbing on Aleksei Kamenev’s neck doesn’t bode well for our survival.
I turn to Vex. The two of them can duke it out.
“Your children were never in danger. They’re only killing people who submit their DNA on these websites. We all know you’d never let your kids do that.” Vex leans back without a care in the world, like he didn’t just flirt with death talking to Aleksei like that.
Is Aleksei going to come across the table and kill him or pull out a gun and shoot him between the eyes? It could go either way.
“So, this is all the information you have?” Aleksei does neither.
For the time we’ve had, it is. “Yes.”
“I want all the crime scene photos and images of the bullets.”
Why? “The caliber is listed in the file along with the pictures you asked for.” I nod to the files in front of each of the people in this room. Well, it’s more of a Faraday cage mixed with a fancy meeting room that added in all the toys people can imagine electronically. We couldn’t take the risk of sending any of this to them electronically.
“I need images of the bullet casings. All of them.” Aleksei pushes the folder forward.
“Why?” The forensic report should be enough.
“Every assassin has a signature. And for the ones that don’t, that is their signature. At one point or another, I’ve hired half of them in the world.”
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Aleksei Kamenev has worked with most of the trained killers in the world.
“I’ll take it too. If Aleksei hasn’t hired them, I probably trained them,” Ethan chimes in.
What? Ethan trained assassins? It’s probably a good thing I don’t ask that many questions about what my grandfather does.
“Can we get back to talking about Marlie?” Vex glances down at his watch. “I need to pick up my wife from work.”
“We should have picked up Adonis and introduced him to my snakes before they killed him.” Maddox is just mad he didn’t get to kill him.
Which is totally fair. If someone hit my woman, they’d be in a cage so I could take them out and beat them within an inch of their life every time her battered face popped back up in my memory. Then they’d slowly become pig food.
Ethan lifts up a folder. “You were right to leave it alone. This looks way too organized for a simple human trafficking ring.”
“There aren’t many rings left in Urbium. I put a warning out when my wife moved back here years ago.” Aleksei flips through the folder. He seemingly lost interest when we changed the topic to Marlie.
“Obviously, they didn’t. They just went deeper. We need more information from the women’s shelters to see if we can identify someone other than Plant who’s working for them.” Vex leans forward. “We should send in a spy.”
“No.” This is the first time my father has spoken a word. “We aren’t risking the life of another woman. That isn’t an option.”
“Have you thought of checking men’s shelters?” Aleksei doesn’t look up from where he’s reading.
What?
“Why? We know they’re selling women.” Vex says irritably.
Aleksei sets down the file and looks at Vex. “Your contact who found the ‘aliens’ that took Marlie in the helicopter said he escaped from them. Now, his sanity is questionable. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility that his lack of mental clarity came from a failed medical experiment. And both menand women are being taken for that purpose. Didn’t you say the women in the shelters are being medically profiled? They could fit testing parameters.”
Men’s shelters…interesting. “I can start hacking their files, but sending someone inside might help us see how they’re working.”
“When you get the list, I’ll start infiltrating them,” Vex offers.
Maddox snorts. “You can’t go undercover. Everyone in the underworld knows your face.”
