I frown. “Perhaps. But”—I drop my jaw—“the teapot. That was you too, Chet. Wasn’t it?”
His grin widens. “Indeed it was. I planted it in Dr. O’Rourke’s car. It was too easy to disguise myself as the valet at your apartment, Miss Bianca.”
“And that led us to Vanya.” I turn back to Harrison. “Without Chet’s intervention, he’d be dead. That’s good enough for me. And there’s strength in numbers. Like Vanya said, there are at least three more Kings. We’ve taken down Hearts and Mr. Rose, but we still have the Kings of Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades. She could have more muscles at her disposal that we don’t know about, too. And don’t underestimate my sister’s own strength, either.”
Harrison draws in a deep breath, sighs. “Fuck. Fine.” He leers at Chet. “But if you fuck us over once, we’ll slit your fucking throat.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Chet replies.
Harrison looks back to the rest of us. “So what’s our move from here? Where do we confront Rouge?”
“The club, perhaps?” Chet asks.
I shake my head. “No. She’d be expecting that. It won’t be long before she tries to get into contact with the King of Hearts asking about taking Vanya out, and from there she’ll be able to figure out what we’re up to. We need to catch her by surprise.”
“Where can we do that?”
I draw in a breath. “We need to break into her home and confront her there.”
“Great,” Vanya says. “Where does she live?”
I bite my lip. “That’s the only problem. I have no idea.”
33
HARRISON
“You don’t know where your own sister lives?” Vanya asks.
Bianca whips her hands to her hips. “It’s not as if Rouge is a normal person. If she were, I’m sure she’d let me know her address. But she’s extremely private. She’s something of a celebrity in the city, so she keeps all her personal information on a need-to-know basis.”
“It’s true,” Chet adds. “Even I am not privy to that information.”
“Then why the hell are we bringing you along?” I fire back at him. “Your whole argument for joining us is that you know Rouge in and out.”
“Emphasis on in.” Chet’s lips twitch.
I have to swallow to avoid losing my lunch at the visual Chet just conjured. Once the nausea has waned, I pull out my phone. “Surely we can find her on one of those people-finding websites. In this day and age, no one has true privacy.”
“Good luck,” Bianca says. “Remember when I told you Rouge had every document listing her actual date of birth scrubbed out of existence? Her birth certificate, her licenses, social security? She’s made it as difficult as humanly possible to track her down. When you wield the influence and power she does, you can make pretty much anything happen.”
“But she must live somewhere,” Vanya says. “And it must be within the Chicago metro area. It’s not as if she’s taking a private plane in every day.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her. She has billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds in her safe in her office,” I say.
Chet raises a hand. “I can say with near-absolute certainty that isn’t the case. Her Maj—I mean, Rouge—is too involved with the goings-on in the city. The only time she leaves the state of Illinois is typically when she is looking for replacement waitstaff.”
“If you happen to be telling the truth,” I respond.
Chet shrugs. “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
“What?” Bianca asks.
“It’s Shakespeare,” Vanya says. “Cymbeline, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Excellent ear, Mr. Dmitriev,” Chet says. “You too are a student of the Bard?”
“I read through his complete works to help me master English,” Vanya says. “This was after I spent months watching movies with Bianca to get my first grip on the language.”
