Page 110 of Devious Truth

“Where are you going to be?” I grab at him as he turns for the door. “Ivan, I’m sorry. I know you’re mad and you have every reason to be mad, but please, tell me what’s going on.”

He spins to face me, anger and hurt contort his features. “Mad? I’m fucking furious. You should have come to me as soon as he reached out again.”

“I know. You were in meetings, and I didn’t want to?—”

“You didn’t want to what? Come to me for help?” His words cut sharp. “You didn’t want to depend on me? Because what would happen if you did, Vee? What would happen if you let your guard down for one fucking minute?”

He’s right. If I started to lean on him, it would make what I feel, how deeply I feel for him more concrete. It would make all of this—real.

“I just—” A knock on the door cuts me off.

“I need to get over there.” He rolls his shoulders back, raises his chin. “Go with Lev.”

He yanks the door open, talks quietly with Lev.

I’ve told Ivan over and over again I didn’t want this. I didn’t want him. And now that it’s not true, now that I’ve proven to myself to be a huge liar, maybe he doesn’t want me anymore either.

“Vivienne?” Ivan pokes his head through the door.

“Yeah?” I hold my breath, waiting for him to demand I be a good girl. Demand I obey him.

“You’re fired.”

“Ivan.” Kaz’s voice breaks through the dense fog I’ve been in for the last twenty-four hours.

“Yeah?” I bring my glass to my lips.

The adrenaline of dealing with Devon has finally worn off. Exhaustion has set in.

The door shuts softly as he enters. “Joann said you were in here.”

He stops short when he gets close enough to see the blood splattered over my face, hands, and clothes.

“Fuck. Is any of that yours?”

“No.” I finish the brandy in my glass, disappointed that it’s done nothing to soften my mood. “What do you want?”

“Rurik’s guy, Sasha, finished going through Kieran’s phone this afternoon. I said I’d bring it by.” He drops the device ontothe table beside me. “There’s been no contact between Kieran and Declan in the last three months.”

I look up from my drink, surprised. “None?”

“No. He said it looks like the device was only activated three months ago as well.”

“So, it’s not his real phone?”

“Or, he swapped to an untraceable when he came to town. Artem found where he’s been staying. A shit hole, run down, paid his rent in cash.”

“He’s been in hiding.” I take my empty glass to the wet bar in the corner of my office and pour another drink. Then I think better and make it a double.

“Looks like.” Kaz folds his arms over his chest. “Did you get anything from the asshole who took Caroline? You were down there for a long time.”

When Artem and his team dragged Devon down into the pit beneath Obsidian, I had him tied up and left in the dark. The first twelve hours he’d been able to hold onto his fake bravado. He threw threats out into the stillness of the pit. But when I finally went to him and threw on the lights and he got a good look at the thick metal hook hanging from the center of the room, he changed his tune.

“You know, it shouldn’t surprise me how easily a man folds when he sees his death in front of him. But I still am.” I take a long sip, letting the crisp burn of the whisky hold my control intact. “He offered everything he could, hoping we’d spare him. Told me where two other houses are. Told me Kieran offered him easy pickings.”

I pause to down the rest of my drink in two large gulps.

“Caroline wasn’t the target?”

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