Page 64 of In Her Blood
He rubbed briefly at his eyes and sat forward, the aroma of the fresh cup of coffee she’d brought with her finally reaching his nose. A quick glance at the phone beside him confirmed it had just passed eight o’clock in the morning and he bit back a groan. “I’d prefer not to lie to you, kitten.” It hadn’t been his intention to pull an all-nighter, but once he’d found his way in, he couldn’t stop.
Brandi released an exasperated sigh, stepped fully around his desk, and physically turned his chair until he was facing her rather than the stacked display of monitors. Her golden brows furrowed as she leaned into the grip she held on the armrest. “You promised you’d only work hours like this if it wasreallyimportant. And it’s Monday, Michele. You have a client meeting.”
He shouldn’t have chuckled. He knew she had at least two valid points, and he generally only felt agitation at hearing his proper name. But they both knew it hit him different when it fell from her lips.
“You did not just laugh.”
His grin broadened. “It was a long fucking night and I missed you.” He should have pulled her off the job she’d been working and let her help him with his research, just to make it go faster. She was right, he was too stubborn sometimes.
Brandi straightened. “You’ll at least tell mewhyI slept in a cold, empty bed last night, won’t you?” She reached back and lifted the coffee from his desk. “Or should I take this to warm myself up for the day?”
Mikey narrowed his eyes. “Watch yourself, kitten,” he warned. “Of course I’ll tell you, and I’m sorry it took as longas it did. But don’t think for a minute you’ll get past that door with that attitude.”
She held his stare in a silent challenge and took a slow sip of the aromatic beverage. When she lowered the cup, she licked her lips in a calculated move. “Well?”
Mikey sighed roughly and held out his hand for her.
Brandi placed the mug in his hand instead. “I made it extra strong for you.”
He smiled, took a large gulp, and indicated the spare chair he’d learned to leave behind his desk for when Brandi wanted to sit with him. She had it wheeled up to his side by the time he finished waking the last of his monitors.
Nothing on the screens was any type of live feed, of course. There were still photos, many old and grainy, and images of documents scattered across the various displays. And looking at them again reminded Mikey of why he’d sacrificed a night’s sleep.
“Did you find what Dante asked?” Brandi asked. She immediately stretched out an arm, indicating a zoomed-in photo of an early-twenties woman with long, light brown hair, wearing visibly expensive clothes and not directly facing the camera. “Is that her?”
Mikey nodded needlessly. “Yeah. Evelina Mikhailovna Nikolaev, age twenty-six. That picture’s a few years old.” Something unfamiliar twisted in his chest, the next words catching uncomfortably in his throat. “And by all accounts … my younger cousin.”
Brandi drew a breath. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” Mikey tightened his grip on the defenseless mug still in his hand.
He was the one who’d first brought the entire situation to Dante, not quite a week earlier. His pre-set net of alerts had caught a series of keyword search phrases too repetitious to ignore, and of course, they’d assumed the ominous searches had been an indicator of a new threat. The fact that the source of those searches was nestled behind a respectable firewall had only seemed to reinforce the theory.
But he’d been wrong. They had all been wrong.
He still remembered the clipped urgency in his big brother’s tone the last time they’d spoken. Dante’s uncanny instinct had probably already known, but he would never act on something so world-altering without hard proof. It had been Mikey’s job—not Mikey’s team’s job—to get that proof.
Brandi wedged her chair up against his and laid her head on his shoulder. “I assume you haven’t told Dante yet?”
Mikey chugged back the rest of the coffee. “No. Something like this has to be in person.” He indicated the central monitor. “I must’ve fallen asleep while the compiled information was transferring over.”
“Oh, so you did sleep.”
He nudged her with his elbow. “Worst sleep I’ve had in months. All twenty minutes of it.”
She let out a quiet laugh and straightened again. “So, you think it’s true that your cousin just wanted to connect?”
He flicked his gaze back to the clearest picture. “Could be. I can’t say with absolute certainty she never knew she had family outside of Chicago. But I verified Aunt Annetta’s death date,and Evelina’s father’s listed date of death. I even found something from years ago about when our paternal grandfather passed. She’d have been old enough to hear stories by then, but only if those stories were being told.” He blew out a breath. “Itistrue that even we heard Mom’s old man was a self-centered bastard, and that he’d disappeared overnight shortly after she was married. That’s the only time she ever talked about having a sister when I was a kid.”
Brandi reached over and physically pulled his focus away from the display. “Then you’ve done the best you can do. Let’s get you cleaned up, and I’ll go with you while you re-shape the family’s worldview.” She smiled. “I can only imagine how Mama El’s going to feel when she learns about all this.”
Guilt pricked Mikey’s chest for a beat. He’d learned enough, also, to see it was likely that trouble was brewing in Chicago—at least, in their cousin’s corner of the city. Between that, and the rivalry Cris had recalled having run into on his sojourn out that way several years prior, their new cousin was probably in a bad spot. Which meant big brother would put his foot down if or when their mother tried suggesting traveling for a meet-up. There was no way Dante would waltz their mother into a situation that, in more peaceful times, had nearly taken Cristiano from them.
First, though, Mikey needed to take Brandi’s advice.
He reached out with the closer hand, easily putting the system to sleep, and let his lips curve as Brandi rolled back and stood with obvious expectation.Well. Maybe not all her advice.“Before I clean up,” he said, finally pushing to his feet, “I think it’s time for breakfast.”
She raised a brow. “You missed breakfast.”
