“HI, DAHLIA, IT’S Emerson Monsoon, I don’t know if you remember me, we met at Katia’s funeral,” I said when she picked up the phone.
“Yes, I remember you. I hope you are doing well. Is there something I can help you with?” she asked over what sounded like squabbling children.
“Is this a bad time?” I said, biting down on my lip, really hoping it wasn’t.
“Not at all, I was just hanging out with the kids while they have lunch, I can spare a minute or two to talk,” she replied, the background sound getting quieter.
“Perfect. Thank you. I really hate to open up old wounds, but I wanted to ask if you knew if Katia had a sister? She told me she was an orphan, but when I went to her grave today I saw someone there who looked just like her,” I babbled, knowing how insane I sounded.
“When I found Katia, she was alone, but I guess it’s possible that she could have had a sister,” Dahlia answered. “I’m sorry that I can’t help you any more than that.”
“Please, don’t be! I’m sorry for calling out of the blue like this. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to answer my question,” I responded.
After I finished the call I decided to step out on Hendrik’s balcony. A light wind helped with my headache but still brought little clarity to the mystery. I was also trying to ignore the fact that Emelius had forced me to go to the hospital to get x-rays for my foot, which had involved waiting an hour in the waiting room, only for a doctor to confirm what I already knew—that I did have a sprained ankle. Following this, on Hendrik’s orders, Emelius had driven me to Hendrik’s place and told me to put my foot up and rest.
He’d offered me some Tylenol for the pain, but I’d refused.
I wasn’t sure I was ready to deal with Hendrik just yet but I’d made up my mind. I wanted to know all the facts about Katia’s assaulter and I wanted to know exactly why Hendrik believed he was innocent.
“You should be resting your foot,” Hendrik admonished from behind me.
I spun around fast, shocked that I’d been so far gone in my thoughts that I hadn’t heard him.
“The swelling has gone down, and it doesn’t even hurt anymore,” I said obstinately.
“Are you fighting with me because you’re still angry with me or because you’re in pain?” he asked, walking to me so that my front was touching his front.
I stayed right where I was, refusing to be intimidated—or rather, enticed into jumping him.
“I want you to tell me about Katia’s assaulter,” I said, ignoring his question and my yearning to grab hold of his head, angle it down, and fix my lips to his.
“No, you have to stay out of it,” Hendrik refused.
“How can I? She was my best friend, Hendrik,” I yelled in agitation. “You didn’t see her in the hospital like I did. You didn’t see her crying as she relived what happened to her. If you’re telling me that he’s innocent then I want to know exactly why you think that,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Helvete, you’re as stubborn as a bull! Fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to rest that leg,” he conceded.
“Fine.” I walked back inside, sat on the couch and put my leg up on the table.
“Now, you have to hear me out completely without saying a word until I finish,” Hendrik demanded as he took the seat opposite mine.
I nodded and readied myself for him to begin.
Hendrik inhaled, his green eyes turning hard. I knew he didn’t want to do this, but I needed to know.
“A witness has come forward saying that he witnessed Ethan Vasco rape and assault your friend, but Vasco claims he didn’t do it,” Hendrik said.
I dug my nails into the couch to give me the strength to listen when all I wanted to do was run and hide. Hendrik’s eyes honed in on the action but he continued, the only sign that he was affected was that his voice had gotten quieter, almost rougher. “I’m not going to lie to you, Vasco has just gotten out of prison for assaulting two girls decades ago so it wouldn’t be wrong of you to assume that he is Katia’s assaulter.”
I stood up, my hands becoming fists, my nails digging in when all I wanted to do was smash something. No, I wanted to smash Ethan Vasco, I thought, through my red haze.
Hendrik had gotten up too and he was completely unruffled by my rage. It made me even angrier.
“Sit. Back. Down, Emerson,” he bit out, his voice so forceful my knees buckled in fear and I found myself sitting back down. “Good. I’m not finished and you promised you would listen,” he said coldly.
I swallowed and bent my head, waiting for him to continue.
“Now, while it seems that Ethan Vasco hurt your friend, I believed him when he said he didn’t do it.” My head flew up and I looked at him in disbelief, but he ignored it. “I tracked down the witness to confirm this, and he told me that he had been blackmailed to step forward and identify Ethan as Katia’s assaulter.”
“What?” I croaked out. “Are you telling me that someone framed Ethan Vasco? Who? Do you have any leads?” I interrogated.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Hendrik said with frustration. “Whoever has done this has planned it very carefully.”
“Wait,” I said as I thought of earlier today when I was at the cemetery. “Hendrik, I think I might have another lead for you. It could be nothing but I need you to check something out for me.”
“What is it? And don’t worry, I’ll just add it to your debt,” he said as he leaned in closer.
“At this rate it’s going to take a lifetime to pay you,” I complained. Then I leaned in closer, wanting to gauge his reaction. “Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but when I went to Katia’s grave this morning I saw someone there who looked exactly like her. At first I thought it was Katia and I thought I was hallucinating, but what if I wasn’t? What if Katia has a sister? The girl—whoever she was—was crying and she said she was sorry. What if she had something to do with Katia’s death?”
“Let’s find out,” Hendrik said, pulling out his phone and dialing someone. “I’m calling Jarek. He’s one of my men and one of my greatest assets when it comes to locating people,” Hendrik shared. “I’ll put him on speaker so you can hear, too.”
“Hi, Hendrik, what’s up?” Jarek answered.
“I have reason to believe that Katia Smith may have a sister. I want you to access the files of all orphanages that operated in a twenty-mile radius of the orphanage that Katia Smith was placed in. I want you to tell me if any children were admitted into an orphanage on the exact same day that Katia was,” Hendrik ordered.
“One sec, I’m running the search now,” Jarek responded. “Yes, I can see that there were two girls admitted, one aged ten and the other aged six at two different orphanages in the vicinity.”
I looked at Hendrik with excitement, and in comparison to me he was quietly pleased. I raised my eyebrows, impressed with his control, and his mouth twitched. I all out smiled, feeling quite smug with myself.
“Perfect, do their files happen to have images of them?” Hendrik asked.
“I’m already way ahead of you. I’m sending you their photos now they are out of date. They must have been taken when they were first placed into the orphanages,” Jarek replied.
Hendrik’s phone beeped as the photos transferred through. I looked at the first photo and shook my head. The ten year old bore no comparison to Katia, but when I saw the second photo, my heart stopped. The resemblance of Katia to the six year old was uncanny.
“Katia told me she was six months old when she was placed in the orphanage, which means that Katia has a sister that’s five-and-a-half years older than her. Why would a mother split up her children like that?” I asked with horror.
“The girl’s name is Evelina Smith. And you didn’t tell me I had an audience,” Jarek commented.
“Evelina,” I whispered to myself, putting the name to the girl’s face and finding it fit perfectly.
Hendrik got up and sat beside me and took my hand in his, giving it a
squeeze. I leaned into his warmth feeling shocked and drained.
“She’s Emerson Monsoon. She was Katia’s friend,” Hendrik said by way of explanation. “Now, Jarek, quit playing around. I want you to see if you can track Evelina Smith’s history and find her current residential address.”
“Sounds like a road trip to me!” Jarek said enthusiastically. “Will Emerson be joining?” he asked seductively.
I said, “Yes,” at the same time Hendrik said, “No.”
“Hendrik, I’m coming with you,” I asserted strongly, releasing my hand from his.
“No, you’re not,” Hendrik disagreed.
“Okay, guys, I’m going to leave you two to sort that out. I’ll message you the address once I find it,” Jarek said, and ended the call shortly after.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t go with you guys,” I said, refusing to back down without a fight.
“I’ll give you two,” Hendrik replied, placing his hand on my neck and sliding it up, stopping at my scars. The rough pad of his thumb caressed them, sending shivers sliding down my spine, but I refused to look away. If this was about him thinking that I couldn’t trust him, then I’d make him see otherwise.
“You’re untrained and you’re hurt,” Hendrik listed. “Also, you’d just slow us down and I need all of my attention focused on the mission. I can’t focus when you’re beside me,” Hendrik admitted like he hadn’t just admitted I got to him!
And that was way more than two! But I kinda liked the last reason.
“So, what you’re really saying is that I am a distraction,” I said, taking his hand that was at my neck, in both of mine. Impulsively I placed a kiss at the center of his palm.
His eyes flared, a simmering heat within them that ignited a slow, burning fire within me.
“An endlessly tempting one. I can’t focus when you’re beside me because I want to focus on you. The way you burned up when you were straddling me . . .” he groaned.
I bit my lip, holding back my reaction and then said to myself screw it, and allowed my smile to fully bloom.
His eyes dropped to my lips.
“There it is again, that sweet smile,” he murmured. My heart squeezed in my chest, and I felt lightheaded and completely off-balance.
“You. Are. Magnificent,” he said drawing closer.
I breathed out in frustration, wanting him to quit talking, to quit delaying, because no foreplay was needed. He already had me right where he wanted. It was only fair that we compromised and met halfway. If he moved his lips an inch closer, then I’d move mine the other inch that would close the gap between the two of us, ending with my mouth on his. And it would be a win-win for both parties.
“And I’d rather you stay that way, in one piece. When you get back, we can continue where we left off,” Hendrik said, drawing away from me once again. Leaving me hanging.
I went from burning hot to ice cold in seconds, the change giving me whiplash. I poked him in the chest with a finger, refusing to allow him to get away with it. “Hendrik, this isn’t done. You do this to me one more time and I’ll make your life a living hell,” I threatened. It was more of an empty threat than anything else but he didn’t know that. I hoped.
Hendrik chuckled, the sound like music to my ears. He drew his phone out of his pocket and I realized that Jarek must have messaged him, which is why he’d drawn away.
“I’ve gotta go,” he said as he grabbed his coat off the couch, and shrugged it on, seemingly unperturbed by my threat. “But, Älskling, just for the record, when you ache, I ache. When you hurt, I hurt. The difference is I know how to hide it. You don’t. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t rather stay here with you till we’re both satiated. But that can’t happen because we both know that I have to pay a visit to Evelina. I want to take my time learning every inch of you. I want to explore all the thousand ways it takes to make you fall apart. It’s gonna happen, just not tonight,” he said as he entered the elevator.
“You think I’m ready?” I asked, forgetting my anger.
“You left, then you came back. You could have stayed away, but you didn’t. So, the way I see it, I don’t need to be careful with you anymore because you aren’t running away from me, you’re running toward me. You’re more ready than you know,” he replied as the doors closed, his words echoing in my head in the silence.
“Crap, crap, crap,” I murmured to myself. I hadn’t realized that by choosing to return I’d already made my choice. But he was right. I had. Now I wasn’t scared of his touch, I was scared of wanting it too much.
“I WOULDN’T CONSIDER this to be a residential address,” I said with disgust as I took in our surroundings.
“It’s a loose interpretation of the word, I’ll admit,” Jarek said from beside me as he gazed at the house that looked like it was abandoned. It was fenced off; the windows were boarded and it had ‘keep out’ written on them in blood red paint.
“Are we really going to go in there? It looks like no one’s in there anyway,” Sev said, and he was standing behind the both of us.
“I never sanctioned you to come along,” I laughed. “You can turn back, but we’ll probably give you a lot of shit about it,” I surmised.
“And by probably, he means definitely,” Jarek said with a quirk of his mouth.
“So, how did you find this place?” Sev asked, trying to take the heat off of himself.
“I have my ways and sources. I was told that Evelina has a drug addiction. While this looks neglected, it’s really a drug nest.”
“Please tell me we’re going to draw her out somehow so we don’t have to go in,” Sev pleaded, dropping his calm act.
“You could be the bait,” I suggested, then seeing the genuine panic on Sev’s face I eased up on him. “How about you stay out here? When we go in she might make a run for it.”
Jarek sent me a derisive look but I ignored it. Sev was clearly as uncomfortable as I’d known he would be. I had respect for someone who knew their limits; it’s when you pushed past them that you made mistakes. And being reckless got you killed.
“I like that plan,” Sev said, leaning back against the fence.
This time I sent Jarek a look as he opened his mouth, no doubt to rib Sev. I went under the cut in the barb-wire fence and Jarek followed suit.
“Why didn’t you let me have my fun?” Jarek whined as he caught up beside me.
“Sev isn’t like us and I don’t want him to be, if you keep pushing, he’ll push back. He’ll adapt out of force of habit and I don’t want him changing, not one bit,” I bit out.
“I don’t like what you just said, but that’s because it’s the truth. He’s the healer and we’re the hurters. And you’re right, sometimes I don’t know when to stop, I guess that’s why we have you,” Jarek replied.
“Ye-p,” I popped out.
“But it seems like you’ve found yourself a healer and it’s not Sev,” Jarek whispered as we drew closer to the front door, or more aptly the black space where a door used to be if the creaky hinges were of any indication.
“I might be a decoder but I have no idea what you’re saying,” I replied.
“Alright, I get it, you don’t want to talk about Emerson Monsoon. We can talk about her later,” Jarek allowed. “So, what’s our plan anyway?”
“Didn’t you think of one before we got here?” I didn’t know why I bothered asking when I already knew the answer.
“No, that’s your job,” Jarek replied, delegating the authority to me like always.
It just so happened I did have a plan. “We act like we’re one of them. We find Evelina, get the answers we need, then get out,” I listed, maybe oversimplifying it a little bit.
“I like the plan,” Jarek said easily. He was a chameleon; he could blend himself to fit his surroundings, which is why I was lucky to have him working with me and not against me.
“Even if you didn’t, it’s the only one we’ve got,” I said, as I walked inside. It was pitch black save
for some candles that were lit here and there. And the smell, it made me want to gag. But I had to act like I was unaffected by it, like I was only after one thing, that I was only after my fix.
Bodies littered the hallway, people curled up in balls, shaking, suffering symptoms of withdrawal.
“Hey, you got som’fin for me?” A guy croaked out, latching onto my ankle weakly. I wanted to kick it off but I’d give myself away.
I shivered and got into my act. “Nah, I’m low on money…couldn’t wrangle anything,” I sniffed. The man let go, curling back into his ball. Jarek turned and asked another person if they’d scored something while I looked around trying to find Evelina.
I walked farther down the hall, listening to the wails, and people whispering to themselves, reduced to animals. A fight broke out between two people, but I avoided it. Being on drugs they’d be able to overpower me and Jarek and I had to stay on point.
“Hey, Hendrik, I found her,” Jarek whispered in my ear, pointing to a girl who was to my right. She didn’t look good at all. Her body was jerking out of control, she was full of sweat, and her teeth were chattering uncontrollably. I could barely make out that she was the same fresh-faced, sweet girl in the photo. She still had remnants of beauty but she was a shell of a human being. That’s what drugs did to you they sucked the life out of you.
I crouched down next to her noticing she was lying in her own filth, and grimaced, moving her out of it.
“Don’t t–touch me,” she cried out, physically in pain. But she didn’t move to stop me because she couldn’t.
“We’re here about your sister, Katia,” I whispered.
“My baby sister?” she choked out, her eyes full of hope. “I saw her the other day. She told me she doesn’t forgive me, told me to stay away from her because of what I did,” she croaked out forlornly.
My breath hissed out. She was so far gone or full of so much guilt she didn’t want to believe that Katia was dead.
“Evelina, Katia’s gone. You didn’t see her alive and breathing. You went to her grave. She’s gone,” I said, trying to soften the blow.
The Leverager Page 20
