Page 28 of Night of Shadows
"Three years ago," I confirm.
"The Boston gala. The hospital fundraiser at the consulate."
"Yes."
"You worked the perimeter that night. I was in Athens. Mama was honored."
"Yes."
"You met her there."
"I met her there."
Dimitri nods once. The nod is the nod of a man who has just slotted the final variable into a calculation he’s been running silently for six hours, and who now has the complete answer.
"Have you held her?” he asks.
"Yes, I carried her to bed and read her bedtime stories.”
"Have you been alone in a room with her?"
"No. I have been in a room with her and her mother. I have not been in a room with her and her mother absent."
"She’s decided you are acceptable?"
"She has."
"Maeve has not."
"Maeve is processing."
Dimitri looks at the bourbon. He doesn’t pour himself one. He’s not had a drink in four years.
Nico had already been here earlier in the week for the briefing I had promised him on the phone. I gave him the threat picture — the contract, the Orlov flag, the architecture going up around the brownstone. I gave him everything operational and nothing else.
He let it sit, because that is what Nico does, and because he trusted that whatever I was keeping, I was keeping for a reason.
"You should tell Nico."
"I will."
"Soon is when?"
I do not answer.
"Lex," he warns me.
"What?."
He presses harder. "Soon is when, Lex?"
"After grand jury. When the threat is closed."
Dimitri looks at me, and then shakes his head. "That is two months from now. That’s not soon."
"Yes, it is."
"You are going to keep her existence from your brother for two months?"
