Page 37 of Nothing More

“Okay, I get it,” Miles said, tipping his head in concession. “But who’s to say one of your rivals isn’t leagued up with the mafia or something? That one lady was working with Waverly, wasn’t she?”

“Never mistake Nikola Howard for a lady…but I take your point. I’ll allow that it could be a rival who’s outsourced to some sort of mafia.”

“That leaves the Italians, the Russians, and the Japanese, for starters,” Miles says. “Have I missed any nationalities?”

Toly was frowning. “Chinese, Ukrainians, Colombians. About a dozen Mexican cartels come to mind.”

“Brilliant,” Mile said, drily.

Raven was fixated on Toly’s frown, though, the three lines between his notched brows. “What?” she asked. “You have someone in mind, don’t you?”

His gaze lifted to hers, unreadable as ever. His jaw worked a moment, as though he was physically chewing over his thoughts. “I don’t know yet,” he said, finally.

“Bollocks. Your poker face isn’tthatgood.”

He lifted a single brow.Really?

“Not to me, it isn’t,” she pressed. “What are you thinking?”

He hesitated another long moment, then said, “When I was still in Moscow, there was a man there called the Butcher.”

“Charming,” Miles quipped, and Raven shushed him with a light smack to the shoulder.

“I think he was an actual butcher,” Toly continued. “Worked in a market selling fresh cuts on five days a week. That’s how my Pak – my boss found him. There was…” His gaze shifted between them, accompanied by more working of his jaw, more thought-chewing.

“There’s been anearon my kitchen countertop,” Raven said. “Nothing you say is going to be a great shock.”

He exhaled, looking put-out. “There was a hit my boss didn’t want us to handle. Political, too messy. Someone needed spooking. So he got the Butcher to do it. He had a taste for carving people the way he carved beasts.”

“And you think he’s got it out for Raven?” Miles asked.

“Not possible. He’s been dead for years. But this is what he liked to do: send little tokens to people. Torture them with fear for weeks, one finger, and ear, and pinky toe at a time, until whoever he was after was so paranoid and jumping at shadows that it was easy to make their murder look like a suicide. It was how he kept from getting caught. The police never suspected him of anything.”

“Then why is he dead?” Raven asked.

“Because my – boss” – she wondered what word he kept stumbling over – “decided he was a liability. He went into the Volga.”

Miles nodded, unsurprised, and unbothered.

“Well,” Raven said, “as colorful as that little story was, I don’t see how it helps us.” A thought occurred. “Unless it’s your roundabout way of saying you think your old bratva is behind this.”

He shook his head. “No. I dunno.No,” the last said firmly. “They’d have no reason.”

“Except, the Lean Dogs pitted them against the Italians with Waverly, and got half their crew rounded up and thrown in holding on sex trafficking charges.”

“Which makes them even weaker than they were,” Toly countered. “And they were weak to start. Kozlov gave up on the New York branch a long time ago – it’s why it was so easy to break away from them. It’s not them,” he said, and sounded convinced. “There’s no way.”

“Well, then, back to the drawing board,” Miles said. “I’ll call Maverick and fill him in,” he said, pulling out his phone. “See if he wants us to check in with Prince and the Alpines. They might have heard something.”

Toly nodded.

From down the hallway, Cassandra called, “Can I come out of my room, now?”

Raven traded a look with Toly, who shrugged.

“Yes,” she called back, and took another sip of her drink. Unless someone had a sudden epiphany, or Melissa’s lab tech came through on short notice, there was nothing to be done tonight, and, frankly, Raven didn’t want to think about it for the rest of the evening.

Cassandra trooped in, changed out of her school uniform and into leggings and a K-Pop hoodie. She’d been begging for concert tickets the past few weeks, and Raven felt guilty because it wasn’t safe to take her. None of the ten of them had grown up under normal circumstances, but Raven had worked hard to gain the insulating wealth and security that would enable her to providesomethinglike normality for her little sister.

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