Page 18 of Hunt Me, Daddy

“With Maxim, it is evidence. You know this.”

I watched Kit shift in her seat. One strand of hair slid free and brushed her jaw. She tucked it behind her ear without looking away from the screen. Pavel’s gaze flicked up at the movement and my fingers tightened around the phone.

Sergei was quiet for one second too long. “Ivan.”

“What?”

“Your breathing changed.”

I relaxed my hand.

I disliked brothers.

“Pavel is sloppy,” I said. “If Orlov sent him, they do not know much yet.”

“Or they sent someone obvious to see who reacts.”

I smiled faintly. “Now you are thinking like me. Careful, it causes headaches.”

“I already have one. It is called family.”

I ended the call before he could become more useful.

I went back on Thursday. Pavel came in eleven minutes after she did, and this time he wasn’t alone. I clocked the sedan from half a block away. It was parked near a hydrant, had tinted windows, and its engine was running. There was a person in the passenger seat. Back in the café, Pavel had changed seats, angling himself for a better view of her screen, and his right knee bounced with the specific energy of a man needing to report to someone above him.

He was nervous.

I stepped away from the newspaper box and called Sergei.

Sergei answered with, “Finally.”

“Pavel has support. Black sedan, north side, hydrant.”

“I have eyes, you know.”

Of course he did.

“Move them off,” I said.

“How hard should I hit them?”

I watched Pavel lift his phone as though preparing to take a photograph through the reflection in the glass. Something inside me cooled from irritation into decision.

“Hard enough that they report failure. Not hard enough that Mikhail asks why.”

Sergei was silent for half a beat. “And the woman?”

“The woman is not to see it,” I said.

“Understood.”

Ten minutes later, Pavel’s phone buzzed. His face changed into a look of anxious concern. He stood too quickly, bumping the table hard enough to spill his untouched coffee. Kit did not look up, but I saw her register it. Her eyes shifted by one millimeter, then returned to her screen. Pavel left and the sedan pulled away thirty seconds later.

I sent Sergei a text on the way out.

Me:Do not touch him yet. Find who he reports to.

Sergei:You want to leave an Orlov runner on her?