Page 288 of Unexpected Heroine

“Yep,” Mia confirms. “An underline means we know their whereabouts, but they aren’t arrested yet.”

Below that is a list of Loverboys—the ones who bring in more girls. I’m surprised to see more than the three names I knew about. Davidov has an X over his name. Savin has an asterisk by his.

The next name makes my blood boil.

Through hazy red vision, I circle Yev’s name and grit out, “This one is mine. I have a program running for him on face rec. We need to talk to Yuri about him too. When Shep gets back, I’ll get with him about that.”

Klein reaches over and puts a T beside Yev’s name. “Whatever you want, buddy.”

Rubbing the nape of my neck, I blurt, “Fair warning, I make no promises about what I will or won’t do to him when I find him.”

Shit. Probably shouldn’t have said that.

Both their heads whip to face me.

“Care to explain?” Klein asks.

It hurts to spit the words out, but I do it because I’m sick of fucking lying and hiding shit. “They sent me a jump drive with a video of Yev assaulting Lettie.”

Klein stutters back a step. “Fuck, man. Damn.”

I keep my eyes fixed on Yev’s name on the board.

Mia recovers quickly, immediately shifting into action mode. “Where’s the drive? When did you get it? How was it delivered? What did?—”

Putting my hand out, I halt her interrogation. “The drive was destroyed.”

“What? Why did you do that?” Mia huffs. “That was evidence. And a digital trail.”

“I’m aware, Mia. I didn’t do it. Lettie did.”

Mia’s shoulders slump, and she whispers, “She watched it? That’s... tragic.”

“She didn’t watch it. But she was looking at me from across the room when I did. Neither of us knew what it was at first, so I told her I’d screen it. When she saw my expression, she figured it out, snatched it out of the laptop, and threw it down the garbage disposal before I had a chance to react.”

The agony of that night and what I witnessed will never stray far from my thoughts. My soul shatters each time I think about what Lettie endured in that place.

Mia recaptures my focus with a heavy sigh. “There’s another copy out there. I’ll find it so you don’t have to.” She writes the words Video Evidence on the board and puts an M next to it.

Shaking off the horrid memories, I keep going. “I see you have Viktor Lenkov up there. I didn’t think I passed his name on to you yet.” Rather than incriminate myself for holding back details from my team, I add, “There’s a lot to keep straight.”

“Boss was here when we first started this.” Mia gestures to the strategy wall. “He said Violet told him to ensure we were going after Viktor too.”

Despite not wanting to get him on the list so I could handle him myself, I nod and put a T beside his name. “He’s mine too.”

Curiosity gets to me, compounding my worries about Big Al’s mental state. “Did Lettie tell Boss how she knows about Viktor?”

Klein hums as he sifts through his recollection. “He didn’t mention it to us before he left.”

Staring at Viktor’s name, I bite back an explanation. Something compels me to tell them the whole story. Perhaps it’s the day for total honesty. First with Boss, then with Lettie. Now, with these two.

Fuck it.

“Not sure if we share this with Boss, but Viktor took Lettie on purpose. It wasn’t random. He knew she was Big Al’s daughter.” I clear my throat, fighting off the oppressive guilt. “And my girlfriend. It was payback for our role in removing their foothold at Franco Financial.”

For the second time, Klein’s physically knocked back by something I share. He plops down in the closest chair and drags his hand down his face while stifling a groan.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mia’s firmly in strategic mode. “Tomer, would Lettie be willing to come in and talk to us? Or talk to me? I’d like to interview her about what happened in that house. If she knew that, there’s no telling what else she’s aware of that might be invaluable to us.”

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