Page 129 of Hunt Me, Daddy

Yes, my expression said.Now you see her.

Kit moved the mouse and pulled a side document onto the monitor. “You were going to ask about the trust after the three questions,” she said. “You don’t need to. I already found the current trustee. The name on paper is useless. The actual controlsits with a shell tied to a man called Viktor Sokolov. He isn’t in the release packet yet because I didn’t know whether he mattered until Mikhail started moving around him.”

Maxim’s attention snapped back to the screen.

She had just given him the fourth piece he did not know he needed.

Aleksei crossed to the side of the desk and looked over the document, careful not to crowd her. “Sokolov. I know that name.”

“You should,” Sergei said from the wall. “He handled two Orlov property transfers in Chelsea five years ago.”

Kit glanced at him. “Three.”

Sergei looked at her.

She turned the monitor slightly. “The third one was hidden inside a failed restaurant group. Badly, honestly.”

For one full second, no one spoke.

Then Nikolai laughed. “I like her.”

Maxim did not laugh, but something in his face warmed just a little.

“Sergei,” Maxim said.

Sergei’s gaze remained on Kit. “She’s better than the last three analysts we hired by a longshot.”

“That she is.”

The words came out before I considered whether they were wise. They were not, but they were true. Kit looked at me then, briefly, her eyes lighting up.

Maxim exhaled slowly through his nose. “Morozov resources are approved.”

The room seemed to settle around that sentence.

Maxim continued, “Sergei will put protection on the witnesses. Aleksei will start pulling pressure on Sokolov’s paper trail. Nikolai will handle anyone Orlov sends physically.”

Nikolai cracked his knuckles. “Finally. A plan with emotional range.”

Aleksei adjusted one cuff. “Your emotional range begins and ends with property damage.”

“Not true. Sometimes I branch into threats.”

“Growth,” Kit said dryly.

Nikolai pointed at her. “See? She understands me.”

“I understand obvious systems,” Kit replied.

Aleksei coughed into his fist. Sergei looked down. Even Maxim’s mouth tightened like he had almost allowed amusement and resented everyone for it. Then he looked at me and the humor, faint as it was, vanished.

“This does not absolve you.”

“No,” I said.

“We will discuss what you withheld.”

“Yes.”