Page 20 of Out for Blood
“We?”
“The Hawks and I.”
He nodded.
“… when we were running down the wire transfers from Kensington to Aventine.”
I explained Kensington — how it was a private bank that specialized in discreet international currency, especially rubles — and about how Irina had gone to work for Kensington after graduating from Aventine for the sole purpose of ushering money between the bratva and other clandestine organizations.
“She knew Mom and Dad,” I said.
“Irina?” Bram asked. “Or Anna or whatever her name is?”
I nodded. “They met when Mom was at Bellepoint and Anna was at Aventine. They stayed friends even after Anna moved to London. They weren’t in touch a ton, but Anna came to see Mom after I was born.”
Tears filled my eyes as I remembered my last moments with Anna:I held you once.
Bram reached for my hand. “What?”
“She was murdered,” I said. “We went to see Anna, to ask her questions about what Mom and Dad had been doing before they died. Someone murdered her after we left.”
Bram cursed. “What else did she tell you?”
“Just that Dimitri Kaprolov is more dangerous now than he ever was when he’d been with the bratva, and that he’s part of an organization called Imperium Fratrum.”
I watched Bram’s face for signs that the name was familiar.
“What the fuck is Imperium Fratrum?” he asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “But I think they have something to do with all the girls that have gone missing around here, girls that have gone missing for years, decades even.”
“What makes you think that?” Bram asked.
“A lot of things. First, Dimitri was Aventine alumni, and we both know what was happening there.”
Three years earlier a trafficking ring had been exposed at the university. At the time it had felt like an isolated thing, but Rain, Jasmine, and Nia — the girls whose flyers I’d found on thebulletin board at the coffee shop — had gone missing after the arrests at Aventine.
I went slow, putting the pieces together as I talked.
“Anna went into hiding when she realized she was being used to funnel money to the sex-trafficking ring through the Rooks, and we know Dimitri was a member of the Rooks’ house when he went to Aventine because he was bratva. Anna made it clear he wasn’t working alone, that he was part of Imperium Fratrum, which means?— ”
“Imperium Fratrum is behind the missing girls.” Bram ran his hand over the top of his head. “I don’t know, Cass. How do we know this… Imperium Fratrum isn’t just a private club for rich old guys? Maybe they just sit around on their yachts smoking cigars and counting their money. Maybe the sex-trafficking ring is separate.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“What I believe isn’t the point. We need some connective tissue between Imperium Fratrum and the sex-trafficking ring, something more than a hint dropped by a dead woman.”
I rubbed at the cafeteria table with my fingers, trying to bring myself back to the here and now, away from the world of ultra-rich men in a shadowy organization who thought the world — and everyone in it — was theirs for the taking.
“What if I told you there was a kind of… school, a place where missing girls were taken to prepare for sale?”
Bram’s expression darkened. He looked around and leaned in. “What the fuck are you talking about, Cass?”
I took a drink of my coffee, then chased it with some water when I realized my mouth had gone dry. “I met with Lilah a few months ago and?— ”
“LilahLilah?” Bram looked as confused as I’d ever seen him. “Rafe’sLilah?”
I nodded. “Daisy told me Lilah had been asking questions about the Cantwells and their plans to use the resort on the mountain as a hub for rich men who wanted access to girls. So I met with Lilah.”
