Page 69 of Exacting Vengeance

“If I’d dumped seven bodies in that lake,” Deke said, “I wouldn’t want to build on it, sell the houses, and take the chance some kid might go fishing and hook a corpse.”

“How is it you remember the pet resorts after all this time?” Morrison narrowed his eyes on her. The man might as well have a sign on his forehead that said: I don’t trust you.

Victoria understood his reluctance to believe anything she said. Federal criminal charges could be in her future. She had every reason to fabricate a story to give the appearance of being cooperative and sharing useful information.

“I always wanted a dog,” she answered honestly, “but we couldn’t have one in the place we were living in at the time. The kennels got me thinking about having a dog again, then not two hours later Yuri showed me our new house. I remember telling him that now we could have a dog.”

For a long moment, Morrison remained silent. Finally, he grunted and pursed his lips, giving her a slight nod and leading her to believe she’d passed his truth-test. This one, anyway.

Using the cursor, Kyle outlined the lake property in yellow, then handed his brother the laptop. “Deke, can you find out who owns this property now and if either Yuri, Lebedev, or any of Semyon Novikov’s people ever owned it under their names or a company name? Ten years ago, when we seized all their assets, this property wasn’t on the seizure list. See if you can find out who’s been paying taxes on it all this time.”

“On it.” Deke took the laptop. “I’ll do a new search in FinCen.”

“What’s that?” Victoria asked.

“A financial database run by the FBI.” Kyle’s voice still held no warmth. “We can see if there are any accounts connected to Yuri or Nikolai that we might have missed and whether they’re linked to that property.”

Abruptly, he stood and tucked a hand behind his head, massaging the back of his neck. “I’ll reach out to AUSA Washington tomorrow, see if we can get Victoria immunity in return for her testimony.”

“Good.” Morrison also rose. “And now that she’s a witness in a Bratva homicide investigation, I’ll see if I can get HQ to approve official protection and a safehouse.”

“No!” Without thinking, she jumped up and latched onto Kyle’s forearm. When he flinched, she released her grip. The air between them was colder than ice. “I told you I won’t go into another safehouse.”

His nostrils flared, and his lean jaw clenched. “For now, she can stay here with me. That hasn’t changed. At least until we can make other arrangements.”

The icy bitterness in his tone sliced a jagged hole in her heart, because contrary to his words, everything had changed.

It was clear the last thing he wanted was to be anywhere near her. For him, this was no longer about the personal safety of a woman he cared about. Now she was nothing more to him than a witness.

“What’s going to happen to me?” she whispered. Could they really get her immunity? Or would they send her to jail for what she’d done?

“I’ll talk to AUSA Washington and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago,” Kyle said, adding, “It’ll be their call, but I’ll have to tell them who you are to Yuri.”

Her heart plummeted. There were three ways this could end. Prison, a new identity in another part of the country, or she could take control of her life…and run. This time, she’d be running from Yuri and the FBI, but it was better than being at the mercy of others for the rest of her life.

“Do you think Yuri will tell Nikolai Lebedev that Victoria’s here in the New York area?” Jack asked. “Lebedev’s on the hook for these murders, too. He’d also have a vested interest in wanting to keep Victoria from testifying about the ledger.”

Another reason not to stick around.

“Maybe.” Kyle nodded. “But Mike’s CI said Lebedev wants Yuri to fork over half the ransom money in his account. I don’t see Yuri going for that. He spent twice as much time in prison as Lebedev. I think he wants to keep all that money for himself. To make that happen, he’ll have to hide the fact he knows where Victoria is. Even after he gets his money back.”

“Unless Lebedev gets to her first,” Jack said. “That way, he gets the ledger and the money.”

All eyes turned to her. My mistake.

There was a fourth way this could end for her.

“The only way for him to do that,” she said, acknowledging the obvious, “is for Nikki to kill me.”

Kyle shook his head. “The FBI won’t let that happen.”

The FBI won’t. It wasn’t lost on her that he hadn’t said he wouldn’t let that happen.

She’d thought her worst nightmares were behind her. I was wrong.

Yuri’s form of abuse was one thing, but she never imagined there was something far worse. This, she would never survive.

She looked into Kyle’s beautiful eyes. It was there, on his face and in the resigned demeanor of his entire body.