Page 25 of Darling Wildfire
“We need to talk about how he was able to take a picture at Kaelin’s house and access her work cameras,” Graham said. “We need to have her tighten that up.”
“We’ll head over there after this,” I said.
“So—are you going to ask me?” Demetrius asked, his hands steepled in front of him on the armrests and a sly look on his face.
When I didn’t answer right away, Demetrius chuckled, looking amused.
“Come on, T,” he said with a knowing smile. “I know the only reason you took over as my supplier all those years ago was for this moment. Hell, I’d even go as far as saying that’s why you saved my brothers in Syria if we want to goback that far.”
My brooding look lasted a moment longer before I smirked. “It worked didn’t it?”
“You’re lucky you’ve grown on me,” Demetrius said fondly. “Well, go ahead—let me hear it.”
I barked out a laugh. “Demetrius, I’m calling in my favor.”
He chuckled. “I thought you’d never ask. I have to say, ten years is a long time to owe someone. I’m ready to even the score.”
“After this I’ll probably owe you,” I admitted.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “So what’s the plan?”
An hour later, we were back in the SUV driving towards Kaelin’s office.
Graham was quiet for the first part of the drive, no doubt trying to process everything we’d just discussed in the office. When he finally did speak, it wasn’t what I expected.
“Syria, huh?”
I looked at him briefly.
“Yeah, one of the firstNorTacops we were hired on to guard a gas refinery in Syria. We were attacked by a group of Russian special ops. When the dust cleared, we’d taken a few hostages—”
“Viktor and Konstantine?”
I nodded. “I had heard of the Volkov brothers and their associations with the Russian mob. Back then, Demetrius was a newPakhan, the big boss, so I saw an opportunity to get in their good graces—they run deep in illegal arms and I needed to get my foot in the door in a big way. I staged a breakout and let the brothers go. When I came back, I got rid of the Russians usual supplier and approached them. Demetrius wasn’t happy obviously—almost killed me—” I chuckled at the memory. “His brothers showed up just in time and told him who I was—”
“Wasn’t saving your life repaying you saving theirs?”
I smirked. “I told them all of that was independent and that one day I would call in my favor to them. They could either shoot me right there, or become a client. I gave them a commission rate and also cut some of their costs—basically gave them a deal they’d have been stupid to refuse.”
“So now you’re calling in your favor.”
“Yup. Demetrius and I grew pretty close after that and our businesses cross over sometimes. He has a lot of contacts in Russia where we have a lot of accounts. He also helps run the clubs. Our teams help each other out and Viktor and Kon kind of latched on to me after we reunited after Syria so when they’re not needed with mob business, they’re with me.”
“Powerful friends,” Graham mused.
“In order to go after Vetticus, I needed to have money and power. I wasn’t going to risk going in with just Nyx and Atlas. Too emotional, not enough support—too much margin for error and failure,” I gripped the wheel. “It’s not an option to fail.”
“So I have to ask—are you using Kaelin for herPhoxconnections then? She’s pretty powerful in the military contracting world.”
I knew he’d ask me some variation of this question at some point because I knew what it must look like.
“No, my feelings are genuine. I didn’t know who she was in the Warren—I found outPhoxwas involved early on but of course, didn’t know Kaelin’s association—”
“Wait,Phoxis involved?”
“Yeah, they supplyAtrox, Vetticus’ company, with military drones.”
That was a detail few knew about. I’d discovered invoices going back years and when I looked into it, it turns out, Kaelin was behind the design of the military drones Vetticus now used in his games. She didn’t know of course—Atroxwas just a client out of thousands—but now, Vetticus knew about our connection and I hated to admit it, but she was a weakness I wasn’t anticipating in all my years of planning.
