“He might not have known who she is,” Ivan points out. “They never called each other by their real names.”
“True,” I say as I pull out one of the desk drawers. “But she knew about Andrei and about me. Which means she knew whohewas.”
“If Kirill didn’t know who she is, he was certainly searching into it,” Andrei speaks up. “My brother wouldn’t stand forhaving someone being able to hold things over his head without the ability to reciprocate.”
“So somewhere he has a file with his own research on every member,” Kenzi muses. She turns to Andrei. “He’s a paranoid narcissist. Where would he hide his most valuable intel?”
Andrei cringes, casting a disgusted look at his brother’s dead body.
“Not it,” Kenzi shakes her head emphatically. “Count me out of that one.”
Ivan chuckles. “I doubt he hid it there.”
Andrei shrugs. “Never know.”
Kenzi grunts unamused. “Imma say it’s not.”
“Most likely it’s in his safe.” Andrei smiles at Kenzi and winks. “Where it could be…”
“Got it,” Kenzi sing-songs from the other side of the room. Ivan shakes his head bewildered.
“How do you move that fast?”
Kenzi shrugs. “Superpowers.” She winks.
Of course the man hides his safe behind his own self portrait.
Narcissist.
Kenzi hums while she fiddles with the dial, her eyes closed as it spins on its axis. It takes a few tries but several moments later the lock clicks into place and the door swings open.
“Voilà.” Kenzi dips a dramatic, flourishing bow, her arm swinging out in a grand gesture.
We all chuckle. “Very well done.” I praise her. She beams up at me like a kid who just received her favorite toy on Christmas.Fuck.I forget how little love the Ward women grew up with. Ava has told me that there is no doubt in her mind that Kendra loved her daughters. But it wasn’t a mother’s love. Not the love she received growing up from her own mother prior to her death.
Kendra’s love was obsession.
Obsession with perfection.
Her daughters were a chance for her to relive everything she no longer could be. Young with pure, untainted beauty. Hope for the future. Now one is dead and the other is slowly working her way to becoming the next Harley Quinn. When I spoke to Vas last, he confirmed my suspicion that the twins weren’t Ward’s biological daughters. They are his brother’s, Dante.
It explains how Elias so easily gave up one daughter and Christian so callously had the other killed.
“Well,” Ivan holds up the large, unorganized file that is overflowing with handwritten notes and crumpled papers. “This might take you a while.”
“We have one thing going for us, though.” Taking the file from him, I flip through it, giving the contents a cursory glance. “The woman who calls herself Caesar is in Seattle and whoever this Sulla is, they have to have people they know in common.”
“The canes are one way we know how to identify them,” Dima speaks up. He joined us in the office after he secured the perimeter. “However, that style of cane is popular.”
“What is with these names?” Andrei asks. “Caesar? Sulla? Are they cosplaying as Romans?”
“Two points to grandpa for knowing what cosplay is,” Kenzi cackles.
Andrei shoots her a glare which just makes her crack up more.
“We think it’s their code names,” Ivan rolls his eyes. “So far they seem to be all after Roman generals. Caesar appears to be the one pulling the strings.”
“Who we know is a woman.”