Gedeon had to suppress a groan at the use of the crime kingpin’s name. Twice he’d tried to subtly insert his body between hers and Timur’s. Fyodor was a ruthless man, there was no doubt about it, but he wasn’t a man to kill a woman. But if Timur thought Meiling was a threat to Fyodor, he would end her in a heartbeat. Timur was the biggest threat in the room and Gedeon would kill him first, but he needed Meiling safe. She persisted in moving, pacing, but keeping her slim body between his and Timur’s. He was going to strangle the woman when he got her alone. He knew damn well she was protecting him. She just couldn’t seem to help herself.
“We’re going to help you. I want to understand what you need from us, Meiling,” Timur said. “What exactly do you plan to do?”
“When Lola gets to work, which will be any minute, she’ll find Atwater in his suite, with a doctor giving him IV fluids and insisting he can’t have visitors or anyone in the rooms with him. His orders will be he needs round-the-clock quiet, with lights dim and no one to upset him. Only Harold will be allowed in. Drake Donovan already had a team of shifters here and he allowed us to put them in place to guard Atwater. We believe Lola has been drugging him. By cutting him off from everyone, it will be impossible for the drugging to continue. We also had people sweeping the house for bugs last night. Anywhere Atwater would go, his office, the conservatory, his library, even Lilith’s room and his private suite, had bugs. The rest of the house was clean. We left them in place so she wouldn’t be tipped off. The only ones destroyed were the ones in the conservatory, and we flooded the plants where they’d been placed.”
“It strikes me that if you’re correct about this, the old adage of a woman scorned can be really frightening,” Fyodor commented.
“You’d better think about that,” Timur pointed out. “Evangeline might look as sweet as can be right now, but you mess around on her and life as you know it could get very rough.”
“Touching another woman would be out of the question for me,” Fyodor said, his voice gruff.
Gedeon could hear the truth in the crime lord’s voice. Fyodor would never cheat on his wife. Clearly he didn’t even joke about it.
“Keep going, Meiling,” Fyodor encouraged.
“Once Lola realizes she can’t get to Atwater to judge his reactions, she may think she’s pushed him too hard. Harold will have left a communication in the established place demanding proof of life. They don’t use text messaging. That’s good for us. That means Lola will go out this morning and she’ll deliver a message to someone asking them to get a proof-of-life photo of Lilith. I intend to follow Lola to whomever she passes that message to and then follow him back to wherever Lilith is being held. If I’m spotted, I believe they’ll kill Lilith and dispose of the evidence immediately. Who would believe anyone in the Lospostos organization would have anything to do with a kidnapping of a child?” Meiling explained.
“And you figured this out in just under two hours without knowing any of these people?” Timur said. “You’re sitting in a damn bakery with customers coming and going and you’ve already decided who’s guilty.”
Meiling looked at him, her long lashes veiling the expression in her dark eyes for moment, and then she nodded. “Gedeon and I often have to work fast in order to save lives. It is possible we’re wrong in our summary of who is behind this horrendous crime and why, but we had to make a decision, and this is our best one.”
“You believe it?” Fyodor said.
“I do,” Meiling reiterated.
“Time is slipping away,” Gedeon reminded. “You have to make up your minds whether or not you think you can help based on what we’ve given you.”
“The answer is yes,” Fyodor said. “I don’t have to like it, but yes.”
“You do see why it would be impossible to go to Elijah Lospostos with this even if we did have the time.” Gedeon made it a statement. “These are members of families deeply entrenched in his organization. One man, Georgi Chaban, we know for certain Elijah gave a personal recommendation to Atwater to hire as a bookkeeper after his longtime bookkeeper died of a heart attack. We both believe it is possible Lola helped him along with that heart attack. It seems just a little too convenient.”
“Tell us what you have in mind,” Timur said.
“We have to spot anyone backing up Lola. Gedeon will be backing me up. This is the first time Atwater has changed things up, so I would expect them to be on edge. Gedeon tells me if it were him, he would put one of the men on Lola and the other on Georgi. It may happen that way. If I spot Lola making contact with Georgi, I’ll signal Gedeon. I’ll follow Georgi, hopefully back to where Lilith is being held. Your man cannot move on Lola until we know for certain her backup has been handled and so has Georgi’s. I have to also be assured that whoever takes down Lola is fast enough to get to her before she can text Georgi to kill Lilith. She will do that. A woman who would plan this elaborate of a revenge plot most likely planned to kill Lilith all along.”