Page 26 of Night of Shadows
"Okay."
She accepts him. She turns and goes back to Cormac, who is still kneeling, still holding Brontos, and will likely remain in this position for some time.
Lex is watching Dimitri. Dimitri is not looking at Lex. Dimitri is, instead, looking at me, which is a separate problem, becauseDimitri Konstantinos has just understood three things that no one else in this room understands, and he’s now turning his attention to the woman who has been carrying the secret with him.
I meet his eyes. Somewhere inside, everything has gone cold and quick, because the most contained man in Boston has just solved, in two silent seconds over my daughter’s head, the one equation I have spent three years making certain no one could solve. There is nothing I can do about it now. So I do the only thing left.
I do not look away. I have gotten very tired of being looked at by men who think they know things about me. Dimitri sees the not-looking-away and registers it, and he gives me a small nod that is the nod of one professional acknowledging another professional, and then he sits down on the couch, and the briefing begins.
? ? ?
The briefing is forty minutes.
I will spare myself the recounting of the forty minutes. The men describe things they have already described to Lex in their own briefings, in language that has been adjusted because I am present, and I listen, take notes on a legal pad I brought down from upstairs, and at minute thirty-seven, I ask the burning question on my mind.
"What does Nikolai gain from killing me before the grand jury testimony, given that the prosecution has my deposition on file?"
The room goes quiet.
Cormac looks at me, and for the first time since he knelt for Brontos, he is not being a giant. He has been courteous and easy for thirty-seven minutes, the version of himself that a man like Cormac uses with women he has already decided will matter to this family. The look he gives me now is the look of a man recalculating.
"That is the right question," he says.
"It has been the right question for four weeks. Nobody has asked it."
"You are correct."
"So…"
Cormac looks at Lex. Lex looks at Cormac. Declan, who stopped pretending to track the briefing about thirty minutes ago, watches his brother.
"So," Cormac says, "the contract on Maeve is not about silencing the testimony. The deposition is on record. Killing her doesn’t stop the grand jury. Therefore, Nikolai's contract is something else."
"Vengeance," Declan says. "Reznikov family blood debt."
"Partially. Vengeance is part of the wrapper. But Nikolai is not Viktor. Nikolai is a strategist. He doesn’t spend a hundred thousand dollars on vengeance unless the vengeance pays a second function."
Dimitri speaks for the first time in the briefing. "Leverage."
"Leverage," Cormac agrees.
"He wants her alive," I say. The room turns to me. I am still holding the legal pad. I am still wearing the cardigan. I am the witness, and the deposition, and the woman whose daughter is currently arranging Brontos on Cormac's knee, and I have just said what none of these men were going to say in this room with me in it. "He wants me alive long enough to use me. Against the Konstantinos family. Or the Walsh family. Or someone whose cooperation can be bought with my body."
Lex's hand has gone still on the arm of his chair.
"Yes," Cormac says. "That is what we believe."
"Then this is not a protection detail. It is hostage prevention."
"That is correct."
"All right," I say. "Tell me what you need from me."
? ? ?
They leave at 12:15, separately, the way they came.
Cormac kneels one more time before he goes. He hands Brontos back to Nora with a small ceremonial seriousness. "He’s been a fine companion this morning. Thank you for trusting me with him."
