“He’s not the only one with a spider tattoo, Rhia.” Roman loosened the buttons of his shirt and dropped the collar over his back as he turned. Large black legs and a full body came into view over the expanse of his back. She’d spotted it the first night they shared.
Sevastyan popped the buttons to his shirt and revealed the ones on his neck. Matteo and Lucian next. Lucian’s clung onto his left shoulder blade three times the size of her fist.
“We got them the night we decided to go all-in on Haven. So we matched Mikhail. My brother,” Sevastyan added softly, as he held her gaze.
“It makes sense now. I know the spiders’ meaning. You’ve opted for a life of crime and when others see it they know. It’s a calling card.” She paused. “My father knew your brother. The night you found me in the offices upstairs I was there looking for any kind of deeper connection to my father when I found this.”
She pulled out the papers she ripped from the ledgers. “With this I knew I was in the right place. I just had to wait long enough until someone slipped or I found something that I could take to the police.”
“The police can’t help with this.”
“I know that now. There are two names besides my father’s. Dimitris’ and a man named Volkov, who I now know is your brother. Imagine how I felt when I found a Sevastyan Volkov with the same tattoo as what my father drew on that matchbook.”
“You know I had nothing to do with his death.”
“Like I know this can’t be a coincidence. Finding these names together means they were all working together. I had a friend look into the other names on the list too, but he couldn’t find anything.” Her stomach rolled with the implications of finding her father associated with a monster like Dimitris and others knowing about it.
Sevastyan stood. “I doubt your friend will be able to help. Those are names of people who don’t like to be in the limelight. They give meaning to being reclusive. My brother was among those people. Only he and our father really knew what he was up to.”
Which meant her father had to be guilty just like Indigo had said. You don’t have to be the one to pull the trigger in order to be at fault.
Oh Father, what have you done?