Niko stepped closer to the bedside. “Katya, once Antonov arrives, we will have to go for a while. But by then, Papa will be here.”
“Ma will probably stay, too.”
Niko continued. “The driver will stay behind as well.”
“I’ll have Coop and Squatch come up, too,” Hawk cut in.
“Oh my God, I get it. I will be smothered!” I said with an eyeroll.
A small laugh left Hawk’s throat as he leaned over and kissed my forehead. “No, just surrounded by family.”
Chapter 39
Hawk
As Niko predicted, Antonov arrived right around the same time Petrov, Sr. did. If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed he was one of Petrov’s men. His suit was much nicer than Hicks’, and he was built like Falcon. His dark blond hair was cropped short and he was clean shaven with a salesy grin like Niko’s. Nothing about this man screamed FBI.
After a lengthy and painful goodbye to my woman, we agreed to go to the Atlanta field office with Antonov. Niko had pulled me aside when the nurses came in to check the dressing on Kat and assured me this would happen but it was a formality.
Seeing their father so chummy with Antonov, I assumedsomething was up with them but I’d dig further into that later.
Before he arrived, I’d already called Eagle and told him to melt down any guns used earlier. Even my Desert Eagle. That one stung. I loved that gun.
Whether Antonov was in cahoots with them or not, he probably couldn’t keep the Atlanta office off our ass, and we didn’t need any way to have any casings traced to us. None of our weapons were registered, but if they got access to the guns and the casings, they could match them.
Niko and I were both escorted to a conference room, not an interrogation room. No two-way glass, no bad lighting, no shitty chairs. I’d been detained plenty of times by local and state police and had never been in a room like this to be questioned.
“Gentlemen, water? Coffee?” Antonov offered.
I declined out of habit. I wasn’t about to hand over DNA or prints, even though they probably had it already somehow. Niko, on the other hand, graciously accepted.
Antonov had a larger pad and a fountain pen. I hadn’t seen one of those in person, ever. As he casually spoke to Niko and jotted a few things down, I took note of his cufflinks. Not your basic steel or black. Nothing I’d seen before, but definitely ornate and pricy.
Blurting between their chatter, I asked, “Are you a senior agent? Supervisor? Higher?”
Antonov’s toothy grin spread. “Maybe soon, thanks to this. But no. Special Agent.”
Niko said, “Still a coveted role.”
Goddamn, he was such an asskisser.I had to remind myself it was Kat’s brother and my business partner for a very long time. But fuck,have some self respect, man.
“Thanks, Mr. Petrov. But let’s dig into this. Miss De Luco… how long ago did you meet?”
“Maybe a couple years. I’m not a hundred percent sure. A lot of women gravitate towards us,” I said, leaning back in the comfortable chair.
“And she worked at your dance club? Perhaps we can use her start date?” he asked, writing as he spoke.
“I’ll have the file pulled.”
He continued. “And you didn’t recognize her as Gianna De Luco? Mr. Petrov, had you not recognized her?”
“I don’t come often. Like Mr. Jones, I see a lot of women.”
I thought of all the times Niko had been there. Even though I wanted to have a reason to not trust him, he’d probably seen her all of twice. “She didn’t come around as often.”
Antonov pulled out some files and pushed them across. “We have reason to believe she had modifications done. So it’s reasonable, if even you’d seen her, you wouldn’t immediately recognize her.”
Niko looked over the photos. “I know this man, but unfortunately, these women all look the same.”
