Shane exchanged glances with Kyle. Whoever this Konstantin was, he'd just confirmed what Gina suspected—thekidnapping wasn't sanctioned. Which meant Dimitri and his crew were operating independently.
Which was either very good or very, very bad.
"What do they want in return for your friend?" Konstantin asked.
"They want her purse."
Silence. "Really? How much is purse worth?" He sounded vaguely amused.
Gina's eyes flashed. "Stop fucking with me, Konstantin. I know how to find you. I'll always know how to find you. Capitoline is gone. The Repair Shop is not."
"No? I hear different story these days."
"Vladimir Peskov."
Konstantin paused. "What about him?"
"It wasn't an accident."
A long, heavy pause followed. "Fine. It was for crypto payout."
Shane looked around the table at faces that looked as confused as he felt.
Crypto? What does that have to do with April?She never once mentioned any sort of crypto to him.
"What do you mean?" Gina asked, though her tone suggested she already knew.
"My men. They met Romano in prison. The man bragged all the time about his hidden fortune, said that when he got out, he would go after his jackpot. They told him about Dimitri, said he could help. One year after Romano’s release, he comes to Dimitri. He needs help finding his woman who has crypto numbers memorized and promises nice big payout from his jackpot.”
All eyes in the room went to Shane. He shook his head, dumbfounded.
Konstantin continued. “Dimitri brought the matter to my attention. I gave help—job, car, nice apartment. We found his woman, what, couple weeks ago? And persuaded his parole officer to fake Romano’s check-ins. Romano went after her like she might be lovesick bird waiting for him. No such luck for Romano because she has fiancé now. He asked for more help and when I looked into fiancé, I saw my...mistake."
Konstantin's voice went flat. "I told my men, no more help for Romano. The woman was not to be touched, Gina."
"They didn't listen."
"Obviously."
Gina stopped pacing. "What does the purse have to do with it?"
"I don't know."
"Konstantin."
"This is truth. I do not know. She was supposed to have numbers memorized. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe code is in her purse instead."
Shane looked down at April's purse in his lap. Hidden somewhere in this bag that April had carried everywhere in Vegas, that had sat on her top closet shelf gathering dust for years, was the string of numbers that would unlock some crypto. And she never had a clue.
How much crypto are they talking about?
Gina asked the question for him. "How much crypto are we talking, Konstantin?"
"Enough to make Dimitri think he can disappear from me."
"Can he?"
Dangerous quiet. "He can try."
