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“You’ve known my entire life?” I asked.

“Yes,” Theo answered.

“So, why work with the Russians, why try to kill me? I don’t understand.” Nothing made any sense, and I was left feeling off-kilter as I tried to wrap my mind around Theo being my fatherandtrying to harm me.

Theo’s head reared back as if I’d slapped him. “Allow me to disabuse you of this notion that I’ve tried to kill you. I wouldneverdo anything to harm you. That’s why I never spoke up about who I really am to you. It’s why I worked so hard to maintain a friendship andworking partnership with Hugo, so I could stay close to you in case you ever needed me. I am absolutelynotworking with the Russians.”

“How do you explain the intel we found that says you are?” Az interjected, reaching into his suit jacket and producing a photo of Theo and the Russian mobster.

I forced myself to shove everything I was feeling aside to focus on the moment at hand. I couldn’t let the news of my paternity derail us from the reason we were here. We needed answers; there would be time for me to freak out later when we were back at the Innocenti’s.

“That is Misha Antonov,” Theo replied, tapping the photo. “He’s FBI and my contact for passing information about Hugo’s dealings with the Petrov family.”

“We looked into this man and his name is Sergei Kumarin, not Misha Antonov.” Craig spoke, causing Theo to look at him and frown.

“He most assuredly is not.” Theo retorted. “I don’t know all the details, but I do know that he has been undercover with the Petrov’s for quite some time now. When Hugo got mixed up with them, he contacted me under the guise of wanting to bring me onboard as well. Instead, I’ve been feeding him everything I can get my hands on from Hugo’s interactions with the Petrov’s. I’ll give you his card before you leave and you can call him yourself.”

“Let’s say for argument’s sake, that we believe you. How do you explain your emails with Rinaldo Marino? You were offering him some sort of gift.” Az asked.

Theo frowned, his brows drawing down in a way I was familiar with. His hand moved to rub his chin, the final sign that he was sorting through his memory for the name. After a moment, his eyes widened. “Oh! I don’t know how I didn’t make the connection when his name was released after the situation at the manor. He had made quite a large donation to the youth center in exchange for a meeting with Victoria. Fairly standard stuff. He and about twenty others received the same, along with a Rolex as a thank you.”

“Oh, oh shit! That’s right! We did send out Rolexes the last fundraising round.” I said. “I can’t believe I didn’t recall that at the time.”

“Not your fault,Ma Petit.You were under a lot of stress at the time.” Leighton piped in. He’d been so silent the entire time I’d nearly forgotten he was there.

“What about the men downstairs?” Az asked. I could tell from the look on his face he was trying to process all the information Theo had thrown at us.

“Private security. While I trust the feds to do their job, I wanted to take extra precautions. The last bit of information I handed over gave me the impression that the Russians are working with the Jackals. Hugo had notes about them asking him to take on a case for one of them and they wanted the guy to walk.”

“Why use Tiffany to get to me? Why not call one of the guys?” I asked, unsure what to make of anything he’d said.

“Would any of you have answered if I had?” Theo sounded defeated.

“You didn’t have to tell her anything about Hugo’s involvement with the Russians when you asked her to have Victoria meet with you.” Az drawled.

Theo moved around the island, stepping between me and an empty barstool. “Do you know what Tiffany is involved in?”

“What?” I asked, my gaze shooting to meet his.

“I needed to know she was still loyal to you. She’s been working for Helen for three years now, Ihadto be sure. If she hadn’t told you everything I said, I’d be telling you not to trust her.”

“What do you know?” Az asked as I studied Theo’s face for any signs of deceit.

“Helen is my estranged sister. We haven’t spoken since she decided to step into her grandmother’s role, but I’ve kept tabs on her movements and I knew within weeks that Tiffany had gotten involved with Helen’s gang.”

“Why didn’t that come up when I looked into you?” Craig demanded.

“Helen is my half sister. My father never formally acknowledged her, not even to sign her birth certificate. I onlyknew about her because my mother told me.” Theo shrugged. “There wouldn’t be anything to find connecting us.”

The trill of a cell phone rang out, and Leighton startled, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his phone. His eyes narrowed at what he saw on the screen before he signaled that he was stepping from the room, answering the call just as he strolled out of the kitchen.

“This is all… a lot to process.” I muttered.

Theo reached out and took my hand gently in his. “I know it’s probably a shock to find out that I’m your father, but I promise you, Jellybean, I’d never do anything to hurt you. Everything I’ve done has been to try and keep you safe. If you don’t believe anything else I’ve told you, believe that.”

“I…” the words cut off in my throat. I didn’t know what to think, let alone how to respond.

“We’ll look into everything you’ve told us. If we can confirm it, then we’ll leave it up to Victoria to decide how to proceed. If not…” Az shrugged, letting his words trail off to leave their implications hanging in the air.