"This isn't your fault." She pulls me into a hug, and I feel her trembling. "You were doing the right thing by going to the police."
"The right thing almost got you killed." I pull back and wipe tears from my face. "I have to go. But call me as soon as they release you, okay?"
She nods, and the paramedic helps her lie back down while I walk toward the police car where the officer is waiting. He opens the back door, and I climb in with my duffel bag on my lap and no plan for my future.
"So, we're ready for the shelter?" he asks cheerfully, as if my home wasn't just ransacked and my privacy violated.
"No… To the Titan. I have to work," I lie, and he nods at me.
"And you'll have a safe place after that?" he asks.
"Yeah…" I lie again, feeling my throat constrict as the car takes off. "They have an employee room I can use for a few days."
And if Dimitri finds out, he's gonna fire me for sure. Sneaking smoke breaks is one thing. Sleeping in the storage room where I know there's more than a few old couches will cost me dearly.
11
DIMITRI
My eggs are cold, but I eat them anyway while staring at the tablet propped against my coffee cup. I was up until three in the morning reviewing security footage from every angle that captured any movement near the alley the night Volodin was killed. The cameras don't cover the alley itself, but they caught snippets of the Kozlovs arriving and leaving. A car pulling into the employee parking lot. Two figures walking toward the back of the building. The same two figures returning twenty minutes later and driving away.
Not enough to identify them. Not enough to build a case. Just enough to confirm what I already knew.
I went to bed exhausted and woke up four hours later with my mind still racing through all the pieces that don't quite fit together. So I came here to this diner down the street from the casino where I can think without interruption.
Lev sits across from me with his own tablet and a plate of pancakes he hasn't touched. "I've been running the partial platethrough every database I can access but nothing's coming back clean."
"Keep trying." I take a drink of coffee that's gone lukewarm. "There has to be something."
"The car was probably stolen, anyway." Lev scrolls through whatever he's looking at on his screen. "The Kozlovs aren't stupid enough to use their own vehicles for a hit."
"They're stupid enough to do it on our property." I set my coffee down and continue, "Which means they're either desperate or they're trying to send a message."
My phone buzzes on the table and I glance at the screen. Unknown number, but the area code tells me it's local. I answer it and hear a familiar voice on the other end.
"Gravitch… It's Rashid." I grow instantly curious as my friend on the police force begins speaking. "I hear you have a problem."
My eyes narrow on Lev and he sits back, watching me with concern etched on his features. "We might have one… What have you heard?" I've already asked the security guards to remove anything incriminating from our series of recordings and forward what's safe to the police. Rashid should have this information already after the body was reported and found.
"The woman?" he says more quietly. "I guess there's been more trouble with her."
"Woman?" I ask, now getting a tightening sensation in my chest because even before he explains anything, I know he's talking about Tatiana.
There's some noise in the background, some men talking, and then their voices fade and he comes back. "Yeah, somewoman was in here reporting a murder last week. I guess she got assaulted two nights ago. She's in the hospital with a concussion." I stop for a moment, pausing to think. Tatiana has been at work every day, which means she's not in the hospital at all. So who is this other mysterious woman? And what does she know?
"Assaulted?" I ask him, and my wheels are turning. Lev leans forward over his tablet, but he's not focused on it. Now he's invested in my call too.
"Yeah, home invasion, robbery. She'll be fine, but I thought if this is one of yours…"
"Thanks, Rashid. I'll look into it." My thumb swipes across the screen to end the call while I start stewing. It doesn't make sense that a different woman other than Tatiana was the one to report the murder when she is the one in my penthouse shaking like a leaf in the wind daily. That assault and robbery, though, maybe it's not related. Regardless, we now know how the authorities found out.
"Problem?" Lev sets his tablet aside.
I lean back in the booth and process what this means. "Someone witnessed the murder and went to the police… So it wasn't just someone reporting a body." I know what this means as well as anyone else and it's what I've feared all along. Whoever reported the murder is at risk, and whoever that woman is in the hospital is somehow connected. And after watching those security videos putting Tatiana out back smoking only hours before the cops showed up, the math is easy to calculate.
"Fuck." Lev runs his hand through his hair. "Did they say who filed the report?"
"No, Rashid just said someone claimed they saw it happen." I stop short of telling Lev, but Yuri knows my suspicions. I gotta stop puttering around the massive elephant in the room and just confront Tatiana about this. She'll refuse my protection—I'm sure of it—but that won't stop me from trying.
