Page 45 of Kings of Violence

“Why would his body have incriminated our family?” I ask sharply, sitting upright. “That doesn’t make any sense, Silvano. What the fuck aren’t you telling me here?”

“The dead body of a notorious gang leader?” Kyran laughs harshly. “Sierra, you’re smart, but you aren’t part of this world.” His words make me bristle, and I want to snap that it’s their fault I was never part of that fucking world. I keep listening, though. “The feds already tore through the house. If they’d seen his body, they would have had every excuse to investigate every single person and operationPa was involved in. There’d have been nothing left of the Winters by the time they were through.”

“There isn’t anything left of it now anyway,” I retort bitterly. “All part of the Crescis now, isn’t it? How nice for you, Silvano.”

“Indeed.” Silvano makes a thoughtful noise. “I’ll see what I can do about getting the phone to you. In the meantime… It seems you’re perfectly situated to get us some information, too. I realize you are not a fan of the Crescis, but may I remind you that the Voronkov Bratva is the more immediate danger? Perhaps we can find a way to have Konstantin Voronkov join Petrov in federal prison.”

“You’d have to take out Konstantin, Nikolai,andYuri,” I say without thinking. “It doesn’t matter if Konstantin goes to jail. The others will just pick up where he left off.” And they’d probably kill me if the Cresci family has anything to do with it.

“Nikolai? Yuri?” Kyran asks. “Who are they?”

“Nikolai Bacurin,” Silvano answers before I can. “He’s Konstantin’s second-in-command. His consigliere, if you will.” There’s something different about how he says the word consigliere. It sounds soft, affectionate. It makes me a little sick, honestly, and I wonder just what’s happened in my absence. “I don’t know the Yuri person though.”

“That’s because Sean was responsible for putting him in jail for a while. I’m his favorite person,” I say, my voice teeming with sarcasm.

Kyran instantly pounces on the words. “What? Is he hurting you?”

“Of course not,” I lie, dismissing his question like it was utterly stupid instead of something completely valid.

“I’ll have somebody look into this… Yuri,” Silvano says, and I can hear Kyran muttering in the background. “Now, regarding other matters?—”

I suddenly hear footsteps coming down the hall. “Shit, I’ve got to go. I’ll contact you again.”

“What? When?—”

I close the program before Kyran even finishes, and I quicklyswitch to the account they’d made for me. I barely manage to pull up a browser with some generic programming help when the door opens.

“You could have knocked,” I say, glaring at Konstantin.

He shuts the door behind him and chuckles. “Why? It is my house.” He strides over to me and places a hand on my shoulder, rubbing with just enough pressure to feel like a threat. “I was told you came looking for me?”

“I thought you might want to know I’m making progress,” I tell him smoothly. “I just have to figure out how to get past the two-factor authentication. I’m working on getting into his emails, but he has a lot of separate accounts.” I pull up a spreadsheet of the information I’ve gathered so far, wanting to make it feel like I’ve actually been at work on this instead of on getting around their spyware.

Konstantin leans down to get a better look at the screen, and my heart pounds faster in my chest. There’s no evidence that I was calling anyone. The room isn’t bugged—I’d searched it thoroughly the first time I’d gotten some alone time. And unless Konstantin has super hearing, he can’t have known I was on a call.

That doesn’t prevent the fear, but I know I can’t show any hint of nervousness.

“What is this account?” Konstantin asks, pointing to a line on the screen. He’s practically boxing me in, and I can feel his warmth against the back of my neck.

I glance at the line. “This is one of his public-facing business accounts,” I tell him, trying not to flinch. “I guess he put less security on it because there was nothing to hide. It was the easiest to get into.”

“No,” Konstantin says. “That address, I know it. There is nothing there. Just small offices.” He strokes his beard thoughtfully. “We may need to visit that place.”

I glance at the line again, and try to see what he’s seeing. If the address is bogus, that’d be one hell of a tell to the IRS. I’m sure Pa did lease or own the location… but it’s also possible there’s a clue there.

“Let me know what you find,” I say carefully. “Even if it’s nothing. That’ll at least cross something off my list.”

“Yes.” Konstantin sighs and stands up again.

I sigh in relief, but when I look at Konstantin, I notice that he’s scowling. “Is something wrong?”

“What would be wrong?” Konstantin asks, still tense. “You are making progress.”

Those two things aren’t necessarily related, though. I remember that the guard said Konstantin was talking to his father. If his father is anything like mine was, I’m sure he isn’t the nicest of guys.

“Things okay back home?” I ask carefully.

Konstantin’s gaze turns sharp. “Back home?”

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