Page 46 of Captive Lies

I smiledtentatively.

Gus Lynch was about to open his mouth when Senator Thorne held up his hand to stop him. “Blaire, please sit,” hesaid.

Grant guided me to the chair. He walked back to the entrance, closed the door, and leaned againstit.

“I’m going to be cliché for a second,” the senator led in. “To say that this was a big surprise is an understatement. I thought Grant was going to tell me he was gettingmarried.”

I glanced at Grant, but his expression was unreadable, he didn’t even crack a smile. Okay, this wasn’t reassuring. My initial bravado deserted me, and I felt like a lamb being led to theslaughter.

“This link to Russian Organized Crime is troubling,” the senator admitted. “But we don’t choose our families. What we want to know, my dear, is if you have participated in any way in thatbusiness.”

I remembered how Grant had stopped Jake from asking me the same question. This time he remained silent by the door, but not a muscle twitched on his face except for a subtledarkening.

“My father brought me along sometimes when I was too young to be left alone, and when there was no one to look after me. The calls mostly came late at night or early in themorning.”

“Jesus, how old were you?” the senator asked while Grant cursed. Gus stopped pacing and watched me intently. I couldn’t look atAndy.

“My mother died when I was two.” I shrugged. “I went with him until I was thirteen.” This explained my relative calm around deadbodies.

“And you didn’t assist in anyway?” Gusasked.

“What? Like hand him the pliers so he could extract their teeth?” Iasked.

“You think this is a joke, Blaire?” Gussnapped.

“I’d watch your tone if I were you,” Grant warned his father’saide.

“You asked me if I assisted him. I remember handing him stuff because he was busy trying not to leave evidence behind,” I retorted. “You think it’s a picnic for me recalling the childhood I had to spend among the casualties of the ROC?” I tapped my temple. “I see it in my head. I hear my father’s voice explaining to me why blood is spattered the way it was or how the person was killed. I had to cope, so my father made it into a science project. But as I got older, don’t think I didn’t see how wrong it was.” I took a deep breath. “I was eight-years old when I was pissed at the dead because they made me miss school and I had to skip art class. Years later, when I think back to how I felt, I realized how this had fucked me up sobad.”

Andy, who was fidgeting on his phone, looked up. “It said here Yuri died of heartfailure.”

“They didn’t want the police looking into it, probably because they also killed myfather.”

“You’re safe from getting prosecuted for his death,” Gusconcluded.

“It was self-defense,” Grant barked, walking across the room to put his hands on my shoulders. I put my hand on one of his to reassure him I wasfine.

“Itwasself-defense,” I said. “My conscience is clear on thatpoint.”

“That’s good,” Gus said. “Look, Grant. I have to play devil’s advocate here. Blaire is on the run from the Russian mafia and, as much as we want to distance your father’s campaign from your relationship with her, it’s impossible. Your relationship with her … is your family’s relationship with her. She’s not some first or second cousin. She’s your girlfriend and, through you, she has direct access to thesenator.”

“The ROC is not a top priority for the FBI,” the senator said. Marcus Thorne was the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It’ll be challenging to pull resources to investigate them. Mobs are just hard to dismantle, especially since they’ve blended so well into thecommunity.”

“I’m having my men look into them,” Grantsaid.

“I’d be careful poking into their business, son,” the senator replied. “The Russian mafia is known to have ties to the Kremlin. In fact, the Russian government and the oligarchy have used the mafia to do its dirty work. Your business interests in Russia could becomevulnerable.”

Grant shrugged, as if unconcerned. “I’ll tell my men to be careful. If I have to pull out of the Russian market so everyone feels better, I’ll do it. I’d just hate to give those fuckers thesatisfaction.”

“As long as they exist and want Blaire, they could be a threat to this family’s safety,” Gus said, turning to me. “I’d like to help you, my dear, I really would. We don’t want the Thorne family to be a target of the Russianmafia.”

“They’re nothing like the Italian Mob, though,” Andy interjected. “They prefer to do things low-key. The last thing they want is to go after a high-profiletarget.”

“They should have thought about that before they went after my son!” the senator snapped, momentarily losing hiscool.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I heard Grant mumble something to hisdad.

“Grant said you have several flash drives that have a collection of evidence regarding the crime scenes,” Gus said. He looked doubtful. “What’s onit?”

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