Page 111 of Demitri

“Who killed the others? The siblings?”

“It might have been Andrey. But he wasn’t much of a kid killer. Couldn’t torture them like he likes.” Sasha pauses to look at Demitri’s hand, silently proving his point. “He might have beat you when you were younger, but I know for a fact he went easy on you. Never broke a bone then. We have a different theory.”

“Daniel and his team have been helping us with that,” Aunt Linda says, looking back at the man himself. “We don’t know for sure, and the records and people have been lost to time in some cases.”

“When the family was brought down the first time, it was by Davis Mills, who you know. His keeper, Marks, with the FBI,is currently serving jail time for assisting the enemy. When we started looking into her, there was a direct line between her and Katya, who we knew as Karina.”

“What do you mean?” I ask again, hoping these are the things Demitri wants to know.

“Karina had no past. No family, no record, nothing. She was too clean, which raised flags for us. No one is that squeaky. Joker couldn’t break her file. She had help. After we learned her real name, we were able to start piecing things together. Marks grew up in the same foster home as Katya. They became close, and from what we can tell, Marks helped Katya hide. She turned a blind eye to her when drug investigations were going down. She provided her with the information on the inheritance Ivan had, and what part of it was legal.”

“She betrayed her office.”

“And put a lot of people in danger. Life-threatening danger.”

“Why would she help Ivan get away with everything if she was Katya’s friend?” I ask.

“Money. Plain and simple. The woman was greedy and at the end of the day only out to take care of herself. Sure, she’d help her friend get a new identity, find others who would help her, stuff like that. But Ivan was the money and Marks was making money.”

“What happened to the other uncles? Katya said they were disposed of.”

Sasha clears his throat, looking away from both of us. “Andrey. Katya found them and asked for their help before I made myself findable. They didn’t want to help.”

“Where does Demitri come into all of this?” I ask, needing to know.

“I needed to keep him protected. Linda has been the watcher of the family since I joined. She was my handler, for lack of a better term. But she watched the family for me. She kept tabs oneveryone coming and going through the house and the family. The women Ivan had, what happened to them, where they ended up. The lower levels that disappeared. She helped me keep my cover by remembering the details I couldn’t think about.”

“My siblings?”

“Yes,” Aunt Linda replies. “I know all of their names and where they are. I know what’s happened to all of them.”

“Mika? What really happened?”

Sasha bows his head, doing the cross over himself. “I couldn’t save her, Demi. I didn’t get there in time.”

Demitri folds in on himself. He still feels the pain in his heart that will never heal. I don’t blame him. There’s a part of me that will always be jagged with scars. He reaches for my hand, pulling it to his lips and pressing my palm against them.

Sasha stands, coming to our sides, putting his hands on both of us. “I’m done. I’m an old man,plemiannik. I want to enjoy what time I have left. I want to spend it with my real family. With my wife, with you, if you’ll have me. It’s time.”

“What about you?” I ask Aunt Linda, already knowing what her plans are, but asking for Demitri’s sake. “What are your plans?”

Without hesitation, she pulls out a box and hands it to me. “This is for you. When you’re ready. We hope that you and Demitri will think long and hard and come to the same decision Sasha and I did.”

The couple stands and says their goodbyes, leaving us to stare after them.

“You know?”

Daniel looks at Demitri and nods his head. “I guess in some ways, no matter how removed we are from ‘the family’, we’re never really too far away, are we?”

“Are you embracing your Italian roots?”

“Hanging out with you and the Irish man too much.” Daniel grins back.

When Daniel leaves I hold up the box between us, not sure if it’s a gift or a time-bomb.

“Open it.”

I do as he asks, and on top is a letter. Opening it, I scan it quickly before quietly reading out loud to Demitri:

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