Page 32 of Traitor

A SODMC member? An ex of hers with a vendetta? Just some random crazy? Who had the knowledge to hack a dead man’s social media accounts?

“Mike, you said he was dead!” Katya screamed at me and I reached out to touch her.

“He is! I swear to you!”

She recoiled and slapped at my hand. I’d forgotten—she didn’t like to be touched. “Then who the fuck is on his account?”

She began sobbing hysterically and Nikolay pulled her into his chest, protectively, while giving me a stern look. “Detective, where is Landon Scott? I paid you to do a job. It appears that job was not done.”

Oh, hell no.

Not after all of this.

Katya fixed me with another one of her wide-eyed looks. It gutted me. “Mike—I’ve been to every psychologist in the area, but nothing helps! Do you know what that’s like? I’m scared to fall asleep…I’m scared to stay awake—I used to love the city and now I’m scared to even leave my building! You’re saying there’s a chance he’s still out there?” Her voice was tinged with hysteria and Nikolay fought to keep her steady.

I was going to have to do it. It was the last thing I wanted to show her, but it was that or be labeled a liar by her father. “Here, you want proof he’s gone? Look!”

I scrolled through my club phone until I found the picture of Landon’s corpse and held it up. She took one look before her knees buckled underneath her. Katya had lived since December, convinced that Landon was lurking somewhere around Denver, just waiting to strike. This was the only way she was going to be able to move forward. She buried her face in her father’s jacket and sobbed.

I lowered my voice. “It’s not him. I told you I took care of it. Now, what I’m trying to do is figure out who’s behind this. I need your help, Katya.”

She continued sobbing and shook her head. “Mike, I’ve told you everything I know. I haven’t spoken to anyone about it. I can barely talk about what happened to me, much less what happened to him.”

I looked back to her father. “Nikolay, you’ve got to get her out of here. Until we can trace these messages, I don’t think it’s safe for her.” It was what I’d done with Lauren and, while she’d been incredibly pissed off, at least now I knew that she was safe.

“Detective, believe me when I say that I know a thing or two about hiding. I will keep my daughter safe.” There it was again. Vague references to a life before his daughter. I was leaning more toward spy than CIA operative, only because he would’ve had an arsenal at his disposal with the CIA and wouldn’t have relied upon a local detective.

I could’ve done with a CIA black site when dealing with Chon last month. Maybe someone there would’ve gotten him to talk. Nikolay settled Katya at the bar and worked to convince her to leave.

My phone vibrated and I glanced down to see a text from Grey.

“When are you coming back?”

I sighed and responded,

“If I can get her to leave Denver tonight, I can be on the first flight home tomorrow morning. Is Lauren okay?”

I wasn’t opposed to leaving here and heading for the airport immediately if she wasn’t okay. An eternity later he responded with,

“Feds are gone. Investigation closed. Lauren’s seeing someone.”

He was a man of few words, but every single one of them packed a punch. The Feds weren’t known for just calling off investigations and Lauren sure as shit wasn’t known for seeing anyone but me. I wanted to punch something until my hands bled. I wanted to grab that water bottle of vodka and suck it down.

Fuck sobriety.

Fuck her.

Fuck this.

Instead, I interrupted a moment between Katya and Nikolay and snapped, “I say we get her out of Denver tonight. I’ve got my guys working on tracing everything. Without knowing who or what we’re dealing with, it’s for the best.”

So, I hadn’t exactly alerted the authorities just yet, but I was going to take care of that, just as soon as my blood pressure dropped back down into a normal range. I stabbed out a quick reply to Grey.

“I’m getting out of here tonight. Why’d the Feds call it off? That strike you as strange?”

Then, for good measure, I used my other phone to send an email to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office with all of the information on Katya’s case. This could be a good thing; having the authorities convinced that Landon was still out there. I was going to fix this.

Katya approached me as I hit send. “I’ll do it. If you think it’ll keep me safe, I’ll leave. I don’t know what to tell my agent—they’re expecting me to fly out to California on Monday.”

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