“Do you really think you’ve got enough evidence? That you can prove he orchestrated the Fetisov massacre?”
“I know I can.”
“How?” She steps closer, lowering her voice. I turn my head slightly to watch her approach. “Gabriel, it’s been twenty years. The evidence is gone. The witnesses are useless or too scared to say anything, and that’s assuming they’re still alive. What do you think you’re going to—” She stops. Her eyes widen. “No, you’re not seriously planning to use her?”
I don’t answer, which is answer enough.
“Jesus Christ.” Amanda laughs, sharp and bitter. “You’re going to tell her who she is. You’re going to dredge up all of herchildhood trauma and weaponize it against Kolya.That’syour plan?”
“That’s my plan.”
She narrows her eyes. “And what happens when she finds out that you’ve been lying to her this whole time? That you didn’t just meet her at that auction, that you’ve known her since she was five years old and never said a word?”
My jaw tightens. “She’ll understand.”
I don’t like being second-guessed, but as much as I don’t want to admit it, this situation is delicate enough that I need to proceed with both caution and certainty.
“When she knows the stakes,” I go on, “she’ll understand. She’ll have to.”
“Will she?” Amanda moves around my desk until she’s in my personal space. Her voice is cutting. “Or will she hate you? Because from where I’m standing, this looks less like protection and more like obsession.”
I turn to face her.
“Careful,” I say softly.
She doesn’t flinch.
“Listen, I’m your lawyer. Part of my job is telling you when you’re being an idiot.” She crosses her arms again, cocks her hip to the side. “Keeping her here is dangerous. Using her against Kolya is reckless, and if you think for one second that she’s going to forgive you when the truth comes out?—”
“I don’t pay you to psychoanalyze me, Amanda.”
“No, you don’t. But what you dopay me for is to keep you out of prison and alive.” Her expression hardens.
I find myself wondering if there’s more going on than she’s letting on.
“Let me give you my professional opinion—the one you pay me such a handsome retainer for. Send her away. Put her somewhere safe, somewhere Kolya can’t reach her. And leave her out of this. You believe you owe Lev Fetisov a debt? Fine. You’ve paid it. She’s alive, and she’s safe. Peel off a few million, put it in a trust for her, and rest easy knowing that you’ve done your duty.”
“It’s not enough.”
She arches a brow. “Why? Why isn’t that enough, Gabriel?”
Because I’ve spent twenty years watching her from a distance, and it’s not fucking enough anymore.
Because when I saw her on stage, I didn’t see Lev’s daughter. I saw a woman who takes the long way home because she likes walking through Prospect Park. A woman who tips more than she can afford and apologizes to inanimate objects when she bumps into them.
A woman who has no idea how beautiful she is.
I’ve already decided that she’s mine, and I don’t let go of what is mine.
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
She scoffs. “So this is about justice? Please.”
The massacre was horrific, and now Thea is without a family because of what Kolya did. If she hadn’t been away that night, she most surely would be dead.
“What Kolya did was against the code. We don’t murder women and children in cold blood.”
Amanda mumbles something under her breath.
