Page 40 of Blood Mosaic

But maybe Grimace could help her with something else.

—any idea how to get access to accounts that I set up for Z? I’m sure she changed the passwords.

—my paws are itching.Grimace sent a gif of a cat furiously typing on a laptop.—give it to me.

Tatyana couldn’t stop her smile. She glanced over her shoulder at Pushkin but couldn’t imagine an animal less interested in typing. It felt good to smile, but she was reluctant to drag Grimace into anything involving Oleg or Zara.

—I don’t want to get you involved. These people…

A memory flickered in Tatyana’s mind.

Cool skin and callused fingers.

Memories of trees and a shining bird on a jewel-green background.

Eyes the color of woodsmoke, rimmed by thick black lashes.

What are you?

She shook her head and kept typing.—these people are really dangerous.

—I don’t like this. Someone broke into your house. They know where you live for real.

—my boss flew into town last night. I don’t think Z is going to cross him.

—you trusted Z.

—I won’t make that mistake again.

—be careful, pidge.

Sevastopol

Two years before

Zara leaned over her,keeping one hand on Tatyana’s shoulder while she worked. “Tell me what you’re doing.”

“Okay, so I’ve identified all the income streams that ZOL should be paying taxes on but they aren’t.”

“Okay.” Zara could be surprisingly affectionate with Tatyana. She did it with everyone in the office, but Tatyana knew her family was Albanian originally. It must be a cultural thing.

“And I’ve written a program that will skim a small percentage from each of those transactions once they’re entered into accounts receivable.”

“And you can do that on this computer program?”

Not with the factory settings. She didn’t tell Zara that part. It was a slight tweak in the code that Tatyana had created, and she would only ever use it with Zara’s permission.

It was Zara’s company. She wasn’t doing anything illegal. She was helping her boss prove to authorities that her father was corrupt and that she’d been trying to do the right thing.

Zara brushed a hand over the back of Tatyana’s neck. “You’re too stressed.”

Tatyana let out a nervous laugh and felt an immediate wave of relaxation. “I feel like I’m breaking the law.”

“You’re not. I promise.” Zara laughed too. “This probably isn’t even enough to cover what all the fines and everything will be when I turn him in, but at least we’ll be able to show the police that we were trying to withhold something.”

She took a deep breath and nodded as she uploaded the program into the accounting software at ZOL.

“This will funnel a percentage of each transaction into an outside account.” She sat back and stared at the screen as lines of code started to fill the monitor.

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