Page 103 of Deadly Secrets
Instead of answering Uri’s questions, it was time to ask a few of her own. “Are you The Reverend?”
He lifted one bushy eyebrow, the bemused expression still on his face. He shrugged slightly. “The Mexicans are bottom feeders. They’re cutting into the Zion trade from here to Brazil. I had an itch.”
Anitch? “You call murdering dozens of innocent people scratching an itch?”
“I murdered no one. They are so stupid. It was easy to get them to drink their own death.”
Even though her legs were bound to the chair, her ankle swollen to twice its normal size, the anger sent her to her feet, raising the chair legs up and nearly toppling her over. Mikhail grabbed her by the hair and jerked her back down, body jarring on impact.
“Brooke,”—she was closer to Roman now and he grabbed her bound hands with his and said softly—“take it easy.”
“So sweet,” Mikhail remarked, cuffing Roman on the shoulder. “That’s why we kept you, Homeland. My sister is foolish over you. She’ll do anything I want if I threaten your life.”
“The sigils you carved on the victims’ foreheads?” she hissed. “Why did you do that?”
“The Zion trademark.” Mikhail refocused on her just like she wanted and grinned maliciously. “We mark all of our enemies when we kill them. Sends a message.”
Shane had been correct—the sigil was a variation of a pre-Cyrillic letter, bastardized to represent the crime family.
It wasn’t often she missed the mark. So much for her expertise helping the DTT. They’d done more for her than she had for them.
“Your mother was CIA,” Uri continued as if bored with talking about mass murder. “She escaped the family once. I will not let her again. It does not matter if you work for Homeland or CIA, she will come for you.”
Brooke’s jaw fell open and she pictured her adoptive mom in her mind as she spoke. “My mother was a bank teller, and a waitress, and for a while she worked the counter at a Starbucks. She had a drinking problem. A severe one. Believe me, she was not CIA.”
The man sighed and did an impatient eye roll. “Not the woman who did such a poor job of raising you, Brooke. Your bloodmother. Aurora Adams.”
Aurora?My mother’s name is Aurora?
Aurora Adams. It was the smallest piece of knowledge, yet it sent a thrill through her heart.
And if this man and Mikhail were telling the truth, they believed her mother was an American spy.
Holy crap.
Brooke swallowed hard. They knew she’d been adopted, so there was no reason to pretend differently, but there was no way she’d let them see how much they’d rattled her. “I don’t know Aurora, and even if sheisthe woman who gave birth to me, she obviously has no interest in me or she would have stayed in my life. I don’t know why you think I’m compelling bait to draw her out.She left me.” Even playing this crazy game, the truth made her breath hitch and her eyes burn. “You haven’t answered me yet. Why do you want to kill her?”
Mikhail slammed his hand against the concrete wall, making Brooke jump. “Stop acting like you don’t know! She killed our father in order to keep you away from us! You know she will stop at nothing to protect you.”
Killed our father…
Ditto on the holy crap.
Either Mikhail was completely nuts or her birth parents had been.
“Let’s all take a deep breath,” Roman said. His voice was low, soothing. The ultimate negotiator. “We can sort this out. Dr. Heaton doesn’t know anything about her birth mother or what happened to your father, Mikhail. Why don’t you fill us in? Then maybe I can help you find this Aurora. Being a Homeland agent, I have many resources.”
She loved him in that moment. Here she was on the verge of losing her shit, and calm, cool, collected Roman was negotiating on her behalf. Offering to help Mikhail and Uri find Aurora.
Would it buy them time? Would the DTT find them?
Uri strutted in front of Brooke, seeming to contemplate Roman’s offer. Finally, he stopped pacing and stood, feet apart, hands on hips. “Aurora Adams infiltrated our organization, seduced my brother, and became pregnant with his child. I didn’t know all of this at the time because I was in South America, running operations there. Aurora set a trap for Victor, and he ended up in an American prison for nearly seven years before I got him out. I brought him home, but he wanted revenge and once he got his strength back, he started trying to track her down. Although he did not share the information with the family, he knew Aurora had been pregnant with his child before she turned on him. He wanted revenge, and he wanted his child.”
Here, Uri looked directly at Brooke. He must have seen the shock on her face because, being the bastard he was, it made him smile. He hulked over her, trying to make her feel small. “He insisted on returning to America to hunt her down. He couldn’t find her—CIA had given her a new identity and there was no trail—but he found you, Brooke. It took three years and every contact he had in America. He nearly bankrupt our family, but eventually, he narrowed it down to a dozen possibilities. He told me the moment he saw you, he knew.” Uri leaned down so his face was level with hers. “It’s the eyes. Your mother had the same color.”
A tremor raced up Brooke’s spine. This had to be true, didn’t it? It matched up with what little she already knew. “He was the bad man,” she whispered to herself.
“Victor wasn’t bad, just soft in the head when it came to your mother. He actually thought she loved him.”
