Page 45 of Broken Empire
“I’m with the Schöneberg Group. I was asked to come up here and drop off a few things,” I said, holding up the bag in my left hand.
The men immediately straightened up. “Sorry, sir. We didn’t know,” the first one said. “We’re not just messing around out here. We unpacked stuff for an hour before this, so we thought we could take a quick smoke break.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to check up on you,” I said with an amiable grin. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
I headed closer to the manor, heartbeat pounding in rhythm with my heavy footsteps. The stained glass front door opened just as I reached it, and a familiar face appeared.
Shit.It was Murray Engler—the guy who ran my Schöneberg initiation. I’d hoped to run into unfamiliar members up here, because they’d be more likely to believe my bullshit story.
“Killian? What are you doing here?” Murray asked, looking perplexed.
“Robert sent me,” I said, pasting on another pleasant smile.
“Robert who?”
“Lind.” I raised my brows. “From the DC chapter. You know him, right?”
“Oh. Of course. I just…” Murray stopped and cleared his throat. “I had no idea you were coming. I haven’t heard anything from him. About you, I mean.”
“We’ve been pretty close since he helped me take down the Riordan and Vandenberg families,” I said. “As soon as I was initiated into the organization, he told me he was part of the DC chapter.”
“Ah, right.” Murray still looked confused. “So… you said he sent you? Why?”
“He told me he was responsible for the sale of the doll in here,” I said, putting the word ‘doll’ in air quotes as if I found the whole thing amusing. “He’s busy with work at the moment, but something came up regarding today’s shoot, so he asked me to do him a favor seeing as I’m close to the area. He just wants to make sure everything goes smoothly, seeing as it was his sale and all.”
I didn’t know for a fact that Robert was responsible for capturing and selling Shay, but after everything I’d figured out so far, I was pretty damn certain that he was.
Murray nodded. He didn’t look suspicious, which meant I was on the right track, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I needed him to buy the rest of my story as well. “What’s the favor?” he asked.
I leaned my head a little closer and lowered my voice. “Pyotr changed his mind about one of the specifications.”
Murray’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I didn’t receive any correspondence about this.”
“You didn’t?” I raised my brows. “Sorry, I assumed you did.”
“No. I know Robert arranged the sale, but he did it in New York throughourcontacts, so it’s our responsibility to take care of everything. Pyotr should be in touch withus, not him.”
“Yeah, I know, but I think there was some sort of problem on his end. I can’t remember the details, but I spoke to one of his employees about it earlier.” I paused and pulled out my cell phone. “I’ll call her back now and let you speak to her about it. You probably know her. Davina Hewittson?”
“Of course.” He dipped his chin toward my phone. “Go ahead. Give her a call so we can get this straightened out.”
I dialed Leah’s number and put the call on speakerphone.
Leah answered on the fourth ring. “Good afternoon, this is Ms. Hewittson’s office. I’m Leah. How can I help you?”
“Hi, Leah. I think we spoke earlier. My name is Killian Knight,” I said. “I need to talk to Davina again. Could you put me back through to her?”
“Of course, sir. One moment, please.”
Davina’s posh voice emanated from the phone a minute later. “Hello again. What can I do for you?”
I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. She was playing ball.
“I’m up at Blackwood Manor with Murray Engler right now,” I said. “He has some questions for you.”
“Oh, Murray!” Davina said, sounding utterly thrilled. “How are you?”
