Page 41 of Cowboy

“Books?” asked Red.

“Yes. But not just any books. These are first editions. I remember Annette showing them to me. She allowed me to take them and read them as long as I returned them. This one isA Christmas Carole, by Charles Dickens. This isPride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. This one isFrankenstein, by Mary Shelley. And the last one is, well, this is odd. I never read this one.”

“What is it?” asked Cowboy.

“It’s Leo Tolstoy’sAnna Karenina. I’ve never read it. That’s odd, but maybe she just thought I’d enjoy it.”

“It’s an amazing book,” said Thomas, taking it from her. “And this is a first edition as well. It’s about the betrayal of family, faith, marriage, and friendship.”

They all stared at one another, then back at the book.

“Is there anything tucked inside it?” asked Cowboy. Thomas carefully flipped through the pages hoping to find something tucked between them. But when nothing appeared, he shook his head. They flipped through the other books but didn’t see anything.

“It was worth a try,” said Autumn. She pulled out a silver platter that Annette had on her dresser. It held her perfumes and other items. “I loved this piece.”

“Apparently, she thought a great deal of you,” said Cowboy. He looked back into the box. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know,” said Autumn, pulling out the black leather envelope bag.

“That,” said Noah, “is often referred to as a pack.”

“Oh, shit,” muttered Autumn, carefully opening it. “I’ve never seen this before. It’s a copy of his original will. The note on it is from the attorney saying he has a copy, and now I do. He says I should put it somewhere for safekeeping.”

“Let me see,” said Georgie.

She scanned the pages, much of it the usual legal mumbo-jumbo. It was clearly stated that the casinos would be sold to one of the men listed on the sheet, and the profits given to the designated charities. The homes would be sold, and the same was true for the profits from those sales as well.

“Oh, shit,” said Kari, looking over her shoulder.

“Oh, shit? Oh, shit, what?” said Autumn.

“Constantine still owned the majority of his family’s shipping business. He wants it sold and the money given to charity. He also has evidence,” said Kari, digging through the folder. She pulled out dozens of photos and documents. “He has evidence of Dimitri kidnapping and selling women and children.”

“He knew that Dimitri would try to find this,” said Autumn. “How could he put me in this kind of danger? If he had all this evidence, why didn’t he just send it to the FBI himself? Why make me the victim here?”

“I don’t know, honey. We may never know, but now we have something that might be able to stop Dimitri. The shipping business alone is worth billions. Dimitri would have nothing if that gets sold to an outsider. He wouldn’t be able to control anything that goes on with the ships.”

“But shouldn’t Constantine have stopped it? I mean, if he owned the majority, he should have put a stop to all of it. Why didn’t he?” she demanded.

“My guess is that his wife was the priority. He didn’t have the energy to watch her die and to stop his nephew. Or he could have been threatening Annette. I mean, he tried to kill her once. I’m sure Constantine thought about that all the time,” said Cowboy.

“We have to stop him,” she said resolutely. Cowboy raised his brows, staring at her. “I know you think I’m crazy, but we can’t let him continue taking women and children and using them like this. Look at these photos, Cowboy. Look!”

“I see them, honey. I’ve seen photos like these before. We’ll find a way to stop him. I promise we will.”

As they looked through the documents, Keith walked up to them.

“I’ve been looking at the tapes the boys got from Constantine’s office. I think you’re going to want to come to the office and see what I found.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

As Keith signed to everyone, Alec translated for Autumn, who was the only person who didn’t use ASL fluently.

“There’s no doubt that Constantine was paranoid. The cameras were placed so that you could see him, his guests who were seated around the office, and the door. Nothing was left untouched by the cameras. You can see him open the door and wave off the bodyguard, saying it’s okay, that they need to meet privately.

“Dimitri takes his seat, and you can see that he looks nervous, almost like a child getting ready to face his father or his boss. He’s picking at his clothing, but he’s not saying anything yet. The cameras were designed to follow movement, even something as subtle as lip movement.”

“I’d say that’s indicative of what Constantine thought might happen in the office,” frowned Luke. Keith nodded.

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