Talia opened her mouth, ready to say that real life was more complicated than that. But then she stopped herself. Because…maybe it wasn’t?
“I know you’re right,” Talia she said softly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not still terrified.”
Vera gave her a small smile. “My grandmother once told me that being scared is just nature’s way of letting us know we’re alive. I’m not sure I always understood that but in this case, I guess that means being scared means you’re putting yourself out there for a chance at finding love.”
Talia got what Vera was trying to say but she wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to ever face that kind of fear, even for a chance at love.
“It must be nice now that you’re here in San Diego and your husband is no longer involved in all that dangerous work he used to do,” Talia said, wanting to move the topic of conversation to anything other than herself.
Vera sighed. “I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, Bogdan continues to associate with people who want to put him in dangerous situations whether he wants to or not.”
“What kind of people?” Talia asked, her mind coming back to the possibility that her employers were involved in Anna’s disappearance and all this other cloak and dagger stuff.
“People who think that Bogdan, with all his connections in Europe and Asia, can help them with their schemes. People who don’t care who gets hurt as long as they get what they want.”
Crap. Veraisinvolved in all of this stuff with Anna and these international terrorists.
How could she have been so clueless? But Vera had seemed so sincere when she’d said she thought of Talia as a daughter. How could she think that and still put her and the other au pairs in the middle of all this?
“Is that where your husband is now?” Talia asked hesitantly, trying to make her voice casual even as she hoped Vera would slip up and tell her something else incriminating. “With these dangerous people.”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Vera’s worried expression suddenly bordered on panic. “He had a meeting with them this afternoon and I don’t expect him home for another hour or two at the earliest. Even then, he’ll probably be working on all the paperwork in his office until dawn.”
That was when Talia realized that was why Vera had been waiting for her with mugs of hot tea. She’d needed the company while she waited to see if her husband would make it home safely. Talia felt for her, even if she was involved in everything going on.
“You should go to bed,” Talia said gently. “You’re obviously worn out from worrying and sitting here waiting isn’t going to make the wait any easier.”
For a moment, it seemed like Vera would argue but then it was like all the energy went out of her and her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You’re right.”
Getting to her feet, she picked up her empty mug.
“Leave it,” Talia said, standing up as well. “I have to go through the kitchen on the way to the cottage anyway.”
Vera nodded then came over to give Talia a hug before disappearing down the hallway to the master bedroom.
Picking up the mugs, Talia went downstairs and dropped them off in the kitchen. But instead of going out the back door and heading to her cottage, she walked through the immense dining room and down the hallway toward Bogdan’s office. While Verahadlooked sleepy, Talia had an ulterior motive for suggesting she go to bed. This might be her best chance to search Bogdan’s office.
Slowing when she got to the door, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure that no one was around, then tried the knob, fully expecting it to be locked.
But it wasn’t.
Peeking inside, she turned on the light. Like every other room in the house, Bogdan’s office was huge. Floor to ceiling bookcases lined the walls to either side of the door and a big round table with half a dozen chairs stood on her left. It was the desk piled high with papers and file folders that grabbed her attention. The urge to go inside and nose around was difficult to resist. At the same time, there was a voice in the back of her head telling her to walk away.
But what if there was something among all those papers to help her find Anna?
Taking a deep breath, Talia glanced over her shoulder again then slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. It wasn’t until she crossed the room to Bogdan’s desk that she realized she had no idea what she was looking for. This spy business was definitely not for her.
Maybe she should go upstairs and get Maria. She’d probably know what to do in here better than Talia.
After a few minutes of shuffling through papers, Talia figured out that most of them were detailed background checks on various people and companies. Or at least it looked that wayto her uninformed eyes. Everything was written in Belarusian, so she threw a silent thanks to her grandma for pushing her so hard to learn.
The first few file folders were on what seemed to be random international corporations. She wasn’t skilled at reading these kinds of profiles, but she recognized that the first one was an oil and coal company while the next two made weapons. Then came a banking and investment firm, followed by a technology company, a microprocessor manufacturer, and a shipping company.
Not sure how any of this international corporate stuff could matter to what was going on in San Diego, she was about to skip on to something else more interesting, when a familiar name caught her attention. John Fredrickson was the owner and CEO of the shipping company.
Talia skimmed the rest of the papers in that folder, stunned to find half a dozen pages devoted to Anna, including information on where she was born and various family members.
Curious, Talia went back through the other files on the desk, digging through the one on the technology firm until she found information on Dayton McDaniel. Just like the file on Fredrickson, this one had a section on Katrina.
