Page 35 of Blood Mosaic

“No,” he whispered to himself. “Not another. Not again.”

“Are you still working on this thing?”

Oleg glanced over his shoulder when he heard Mika’s voice. “Of course I am. It’s not finished. What are you doing here? Does Klaus need something?”

“Not that I know of.” Mika approached but kept his distance. “I’m here trying to figure out why you sent your new bookkeeper to Sevastopol in the jet when I just put the word out what she’s in Odesa.” Mika sounded annoyed. “Oksana and Ludmila were already tracking a group of Albanians in the city. Is there something I need to know?”

Oleg spun, feeling the fire burst to life on his shoulders as he rounded on Mika. “She went where?”

“Back to Zara’s old territory,” Mika said. “And she took the plane, which means that either you, I, or Elene sent her. I’m guessing from your expression and all the smoke that it must have been Elene.”

Oleg’s fangs dropped, and he snarled at Mika. “Get my driver. We’re going into the office.”

“I cannot keepthe girl captive, Oleg.” Elene looked over her reading glasses, just as annoyed as Oleg was. “She had a perfectly reasonable request to go home and sort out her family and living situation before she returned to work. I thought itwould be more efficient to use the plane. She’ll be back next week.” She returned to her computer and started typing again. “She’s working while she’s there. I gave her copies of ZOL’s records for the past three years and she’s?—”

“I don’t give a damn about the work,” Oleg barked. “She’s part of a…” He glanced at Mika, who walked over and poked his head out of the office to ask Marta to get him a coffee from a café down the street.

Once the office was clear, Oleg sat in the chair across from Elene. “She’s part of a larger plan. Mika already put the word out that the woman was here.”

“There are Albanians,” Mika said. “They look promising.”

“If Zara has already sent people after the girl, they’re not going to pack up and return to Durrës because she went home for the weekend. And they don’t have the connections you do, so they’re not likely to jump over to Sevastopol, are they?”

“They could.” Mika leaned against a wall and kept an eye on the outer office. “They’re primarily water vampires. Albanian vampires travel fast when they want to.”

“And Zara could still have people in the city.”

“So do we,” Elene said. “I told Kiril to keep an eye on her.”

Oleg only relaxed a little bit. Kiril was a competent human, but he would be no match for Zara. He looked at Oleg. “Our people in Istanbul, have they reported any movement from her?”

Mika shook his head. “Nothing. She’s sitting in Laskaris’s house and ruling it like a queen. If anything, she’s probably busier than you are juggling the shipping traffic.”

“She’ll have people watching all her old haunts though.”

Elene said, “I doubt she thinks Tatyana is a threat. Do you think she would have neglected to pay her if she thought the bookkeeper was a threat?”

“God only knows,” Oleg said. “It’s Zara. Sometimes she schemes for a decade, and sometimes she tosses mud at the devil just to see how he’ll react.”

Elene raised her eyebrows and Mika shrugged.

“You’re not wrong,” Elene said. “But it was the right thing to do. Tatyana has some issue with her mother, and she wouldn’t have been able to concentrate until she had her settled. I don’t want to deal with a distracted accountant when I’m trying to find thirty million dollars.”

“The money is hardly worth noting,” Oleg said. “It would be nice to recover, but?—”

“Do you know how much we’re paying in bribes now?” Elene raised her voice. “We’re dealing with three different hostile human governments on any given day and also paying Athens. Thirty million isn’t something to be ignored.”

Oleg saw Elene’s phone light up. “Someone is calling you.”

Elene picked up her phone and shot a look at Oleg and Mika. “It’s the bookkeeper.”

Oleg sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Answer it.” He’d had to put on a suit to come into the office, and the collar of the shirt raked against his skin.

Elene rolled her eyes, but she tapped a lit-up button on the phone console. “Hello, Miss Vorona. I trust the flight was?—”

“There is a problem.”

Oleg sat up and leaned forward. He’d heard Tatyana’s voice clearly, but he snapped his fingers and pointed at Elene’s phone. She tapped something on the screen so Tatyana’s voice was louder for Oleg and Mika.

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