I welcome him inside and Kon jerks awake as Charlie pounces on him. He sees Gio and clears his throat. “I was just um ..”
“Falling asleep on a date is bad form, Konstantin.” Gio reprimands. “If Juliana wants to be disappointed, she can go after some college fuckboys.”
Kon glares at Gio, but says nothing. I sit between them and look at the file Konstantin brought. We go over it in detail, but there’s nothing about the hitman. There’s a note from Chase saying that it was done in cryptocurrency and can’t be traced.
Then Konstantin pulls out another list. “These are hitmen that have worked with the Volkov clan. Hunter got it off his father somehow. I don’t know if we can cross reference this with any kind of sniper hits, but I thought it would help to have.”
“Thorough.” Gio says, almost complimenting him.
“So, we have a starting point. What are we going to do with this?” I ask. “I don’t know what to do with a list of names other than check Facebook.”
Konstantin glances at me. “Let’s see what Max can do. If the hitman’s fee isn’t finished-”
“But it says they were ...” It clicks into place. “Half up front.”
“Exactly.” Gio agrees. “But we didn’t have any outward hits until Konstantin was removed from your detail and it was obvious it was for good. And even then, it was only after you’d gone out. I’m wondering ...”
“It couldn’t be an inside job. Not with how Mr. Giovani vets everyone.” Konstantin muses.
“And there haven’t been any recent hires.”
I can feel myself pale. There has been a recent hire. One who’s been either in the lobby or with me since she was hired until today. When Gio was in the lobby and Max was up with me. One person who knew that Konstantin was replaced and no longer in the picture. One person who has the access and knew right where I was, where I’d be, and when.
But that’s not possible is it? Daddy wouldn’t just hire anyone to be my bodyguard. He went through the Volkovs for Kon and Kon had worked with us before. He’s known Gio since he was born. And Max and him go way back. So he wouldn’t just hire someone without a recommendation.
“Who vouched for the new chick.”
“Sharon?” Gio asks.
“She’s the only new one. She had today off ... I don’t know her.” I say softly.
Konstantin makes a frustrated sound and looks over the list. He circles two female names. “Names don’t mean anything but faces do. I’ll take this to Hunter tomorrow and see if he has any pictures.”
“Your father doesn’t have this address yet, does he?”
I shake my head. “No. And let’s hope Max doesn’t give it up.”
5
KONSTANTIN
This is my fault.
That’s all I can think as I head to the mansion the next day. If I hadn’t gotten caught with Juliana, if I had just been a little more careful, then the hitman - hitwoman in this case – wouldn’t have gotten in closer.
All I had to do was lock both doors. If I had taken an extra five seconds before having my way with Juliana. If I had just controlled myself better ... I never would have been removed and she never would have been shot at.
I know I can’t fix it, but seeing her look so lost and upset when I’ve only seen her strong, flirtatious, sure ... I take a slow breath and put myself together before walking into the Volkov mansion.
Valerie sees me and leaves Chase’s side to walk over to me. There’s hellfire in her footsteps and the smile doesn’t do a damn thing to soften it. She narrows her eyes at me and puts out her hand. “What do you have?”
“It’s about the girl.”
“I assumed as much. She’s our client, yes?”
“Yes.” I agree. I hand her the two names I had circled. “I wanted to see if we had any pictures of these women.”
Valerie talks to Chase quietly and he nods before heading up to his office. Valerie looks me over again. “You like her.”