"Are you saying that Viktor is even scarier than Gavriil?" Lissa was half joking. She couldn't imagine anyone being more frightening that Gavriil.
"That school was disbanded after Viktor and about seventeen others finished. Even Kostya Sorbacov realized it was too brutal. There are rumors that the seventeen disappeared along with Viktor. Sorbacov has put out hits on all of them, but they can't be found. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to find out that Viktor secretly organized them all in school and they've disappeared together. Even young he was a leader."
"If Viktor knows Sorbacov put a hit on him, wouldn't he just leave whatever job he's doing and go into hiding?"
Casimir burst out laughing. "Viktor isn't the kind of man to hide from anyone. He's going to go after Sorbacov, which is probably what he's planning on doing the moment he finishes off his mark. He's after someone big, Lissa, and he isn't going to stop because of a little thing like Sorbacov turning on him. He's always been in the most dangerous of situations. Always. He went after the most high value targets, the ones that were considered extremely dangerous."
"Isn't that what all of you do?" Lissa asked. She found the conversation fascinating. She wasn't alone in what she did, or in her conviction that the job was needed in certain circumstances - when the law couldn't touch the offender. "The seafood is delicious," she added, because it was.
"Mine too," he acknowledged. "And yes, we all go after targets, but Viktor and Gavriil's targets were men surrounded by heavy protection. One had to find a way to penetrate that protection and get inside the inner circle. They spent months, or even years, doing that and living that life day in and day out, never making a mistake. It's not easy."
She nodded. "You admire them."
"I know how difficult role-playing is. Each character I play is for a short period of time; they have to be that person for months or years. You can lose yourself in a role. Life gets confusing when you don't have anything to anchor you."
His gaze held hers. She knew what he meant. Her. She was his anchor. Gavriil had Lexi now. Viktor had no one. "Maybe he's not alone, Tomasso, maybe some of the men and women he went to that horrible school with are with him right now. Maybe they have one another's back."
"Maybe. I doubt it. They went off the grid, one by one. No one has found them. Or if they have and someone quietly killed them, no one has taken credit for it. I can't imagine Sorbacov not crowing about it to someone. He prides himself on being smarter than any of us."
"He isn't," Lissa said. "His arrogance is going to be his downfall. Uri never married. Is he gay?"
Casimir shook his head. "No. He likes women. I honestly think he got caught up in his political role and just didn't have time for a real relationship. He's had a couple of mistresses, but they didn't last long. I haven't heard he's into kink. He was close to his mother and reveres his father. Cleaning up his father's mess isn't just about his own political aspirations, it's also about keeping his father's reputation clean for the history books."
Lissa nodded. "That's good to know. Uri and Kostya Sorbacov are part owners of the very prestigious Krasnyy Drakon hotel in St. Petersburg."
Casimir frowned. Shook his head. "I know practically everything there is to know about that family. How would I not know that?"
"They bought into the hotel or acquired the shares through a dummy corporation. Renovations were done, mostly to make the hotel over for the Sorbacovs to have an underground tunnel system that doesn't just extend beneath the hotel, but under other buildings as well. They want the hotel to compete with St. Petersburg's finest. By staying silent partners, the extra renovations, the tunnels and hidden hallways, enable Uri and Kostya to have a public place to go where they have extra protection."
"You've been reading the file you got from Ivan Belsky."
She put another forkful of delicious shrimp pasta in her mouth and nodded as she chewed. "Yep," she admitted after she chewed and swallowed, trying not to moan, the food was so delicious. "Belsky has a reputation for delivering the real information. It was somewhat of a point of honor with him. You got what you paid for. Of course he often killed those he delivered to, but in his mind he earned his money because he actually came up with the information. Nuts, but I suppose in his mind, it worked for him. So, yes, I believe the information is reliable."
"Gavriil." Casimir nearly spat his brother's name. "He had to have supplied you with enough information to give you a direction. Damn him. He put you on the trail."
"I was already going there, Tomasso." She emphasized his name to remind him that he was there because his brother had sent for him to protect her. "He knew he couldn't stop me and apparently he kept his word to me and didn't tell anyone, not even you, what I had come here to do."
He ate quietly for a few minutes, obviously getting his temper under control. There was no way his temper didn't burn hot and ferocious, not when he was a fire element. Hers did. She'd learned to control it, just as he had, but she didn't fool herself into believing it wasn't there, smoldering just beneath the surface and ready to burst into flames at any moment.
"Did Gavriil give you Belsky's name and a way to contact him?"
"Casimir..."
Casimir leaned close, his eyes behind the dark contacts burning with fire. "Did he? It's not that hard to answer the fucking question, Lissa. A yes or no will work."
She sighed. "Yes. He warned me not to trust him. He also said the information would be reliable. He'd heard a rumor that the Sorbacovs had bought into the hotel."
"Gavriil always did have a good network."
"Why are you angry with him for helping me?" She put down her fork and rubbed his thigh with soothing strokes of her hand. "I was going to go after them whether Gavriil helped me or not. I wasn't going to tell anyone, least of all him. He came to visit me and he found my maps strewn all over the floor. He guessed, and there was no dissuading me. I should be the one upset with him because he called you in."
He didn't answer her question. "Once we get the job done here, we're going to sit down and plan out an attack. I take it you have an appointment with the owners or management of that hotel in St. Petersburg."
She nodded. "They said they read an article on me and were intrigued with my work. I sent them some of my designs and they loved them."
"They made the initial contact?"
She nodded. "I know what you're thinking. Of course they know of my association with Sea Haven. My hometown was in the article."
"This doesn't concern you?"
"I think that's what got me the foot in the door. But regardless, they're going to look at my work for their hotel. Uri Sorbacov is a control freak. He won't be able to resist being at the meeting. I don't know about his father, but he'll be there for certain. Everything I've read about Uri says anyone entering into any kind of business deal with him is doing so at their own risk. He's a shark. He isn't going to let someone else decorate his hotel. My guess is the other owners wanted the chandeliers dripping crystals. I sent other designs after they contacted me, blown glass with crystals dripping from twisted glass ropes. Very cool. Modern, beautiful and yet old-world enough to satisfy the more traditional hotel owners."
He sat back in his chair, his hand once again covering hers and pressing her palm deep into the heat of his thigh. "You plan on charming the socks right off of him."
She smiled. Faintly. Because there was something in his expression she didn't like. "Something like that."
"Well you can just forget it, Lissa. He is a shark, and you can't play him. He's intelligent and he knows his life is in danger as long as any of the products of those schools are still alive. He will have had you thoroughly investigated. Thoroughly. You may think Lissa Piner has a great history and won't be discovered, but he'll find out who you really are."
Lissa nodded. "Honey, I'm counting on that. I intend to tell him my entire history. Volunteer it myself. Luigi will be dead, my adoring uncle. Tio Luigi insisted on changing my name and sending me to the United Stat
es in order to protect me. It will work, Casimir. You know it will."
"And what of your connection to Sea Haven and the Prakenskiis? He knows Ilya is there. He has to know Gavriil is as well."
She smiled at him. "I'll admit that as well when he brings it up. He'll try to trap me, but by that time, I'll have maneuvered him just where we want him."
He sighed and shook his head. "You have a plan."
"The beginnings of one, but we'll get into that later, not today when I want to spend my time alone with you."