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“I have good news and bad news!” He grinned, waving a small stack of papers in his hand. The grin dropped the moment he noticed Victoria’s state. “What happened?” his tone turned dark. “I swear to God, if Joey’s done something else, I’m going to fucking end him.”

“No,” Victoria sniffled, shaking her head. “I mean, he’s the one that gave me these, but it’s not his fault.”

Leighton’s gaze flicked to me as he closed the distance to the couch, shoving the coffee table out of the way so he could drop to his knees in front of Victoria. “Explain.”

“I’m not my father’s daughter after all.” Victoria let out a pained laugh and added the papers in her hand to Leighton’s stack.

Leighton scanned them quickly before returning his gaze to Victoria. “You think these mean he’s the one that set us all up.” Victoria shrugged one shoulder and toyed with her empty hands in her lap. “I’m sure Craig has already explained in detail how we cleared Daddy-O already, but these,” he shuffled the papers around so the ones he’d brought were on top, “should erase any doubts about it from that pretty head of yours.”

Victoria took the papers and scanned the printed-out pictures. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she studied each one. “What are these, Leighton?”

“Well, remember how I said I had good news and bad news? The good news is,thisis a lead. That guy right there,” he pointed at the man Theodore was speaking to in the photos, “he’s Russian mafia. Which means the bad news is dear ol’ Uncle Theo is our lead.” Leighton cringed and ducked back as if he expected her to hit him.

“This… no, this can’t be right.” She muttered. “Uncle Theo is a prosecutor, he wouldn’t work with mobsters unless they were a witness.”

I gingerly took the papers from her as she muttered to herself that the evidence in black and white wasn’t real. I scanned the photos of Theodore meeting with the shady character, and if Leighton’s intel was that this guy was Bratva, then it was good. I rubbed her shoulders and smoothed down her hair in an attempt to comfort her. These were heavy bombs to drop, but her denial of what was in front of us wouldn’t be good for her either.

“Bunny… A heavy prosecutor might meet an informant that’s a witness, but not,” I paused to consider my words for a moment before continuing, “not like this. People that work for the state that do this kind of meet up aren’t lawyers. This is a hand-off of some kind.”

“You don’t know why he was there or what he’s doing. This doesn’t prove anything.” She pulled away from me, the look on her face turning hard as the idea this was all some kind of mix-up took root in her mind. “Matter of fact, give me a phone. I can call him and clear this up right now.”

Leighton shot me a questioning look as he slipped his hand into his pocket and retrieved his phone. I ran through a mental list of the pros and cons of letting her call Theodore and decided that whatever comfort or information she could glean right now was worth more than the downsides. When I nodded to Leighton, he handed her his phone. Victoria dialed Theodore’s number and put it on speaker so Leighton and I could listen.

“Theodore Abrams speaking.”

“Uncle Theo, it’s me, Tory.”

We could hear his breath whoosh from his lungs over the line. “Jellybean?” his voice was shaky, almost like he wasstunned to hear from her. “Where are you? Are you okay? Your father has been going out of his mind with worry, his doctor had to sedate him.”

She shot us both a look as if to say, ‘Told ya so’ before turning her attention back to the call. “I’m safe. I can’t say where I am right now, but I promise I’m safe. Actually… I have a question I wanted to ask you; I think it might be related to everything going on. It could be what finally lets me get back to my life.”

“Of course, Jellybean. Anything I can do to help, just say the word.”

“Do you happen to have any cases going on right now dealing with the Russian mob?”

“What does that have to do with your situation?” Theo asked, his tone hesitant.

“Please, Uncle Theo. I just need you to trust me and answer the question.”

The call went silent for longer than should have been necessary. It was as if Theodore was working overtime to choose his words carefully. Leighton and I exchanged a knowing glance. If things with Theodore were as above board as Victoria believed, he would have answered already.

“I had to check my files, but I’m not currently on any cases with bratva.” He answered finally before dropping his voice to nearly a whisper. “What makes you think they’re involved, Victoria? Has somethingelsehappened?”

“Bunny…” I started before Leighton took the phone and hung it up.

“What the fuck, Leighton?” Victoria protested.

“There’s no way you’re getting into that conversation with your dear old Unc in a way that’s not going to lead to him knowing more than he should,Ma Petit.” Leighton said with a shrug, pocketing his phone again.

“Bunny, he just lied to you,” I said, and she started to protest again, but I shook my head. “Best case scenario, he lied about the cases he’s working on. Worst case scenario, these pictures areexactlywhat they look like.”

I could see her turning that over in her mind as my words sunk in, her brows furrowing as she processed everything.

“He could be a good guy,thebad guy, or a bad guy on your side, like nationwide for bad guys.” Leighton snorted, “But we need to find out for sure.”

“Okay… well… Maybe he’s not in a position to be able to tell me what’s going on. I mean, we all have our secrets right now. Doesn’t mean he’s behind all the bullshit.” Victoria said, her stubborn streak still a mile long.

Leighton let out a long-suffering sigh. “You could have at least laughed a little at my joke before taking a trip to denial. Now, do you wanna find out for sure or not cuz I need Craig to get this shit done.”