Page 140 of A Lethal Game of Trust

Ivan tried to speak, stalling. “What are—”

There was movement and I tried to get a glimpse through the gap at the hinge. Dom was leaning over Ivan, sitting at the dining table. Maybe he had him by the neck?

“Did you pay him to kill Luís? To hurt Leonie? Yes or no?” Now there was fury. So much so that he was obviously trying to contain it as he spat. “Yes or no, Dad!Yes or fucking no.”

Ivan spluttered. “No! Fucking no!”

“That’s funny because the accounts that paid him lead right back to you,” he snarled, standing again. Ivan’s back was to me, but if I were anywhere near Dom right now, I would struggle to breathe.

I couldn’t help the heat between my thighs.

“And I’ve found a pretty compelling motive.”

“A—a motive? To hurt Leo?”

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

ROCCO: Bringing him in.

LEONIE: Kitchen. Quiet.

Dom said, “My sister isn’t your daughter, is she? And you couldn’t quite handle—”

“Stop it,” came a familiar voice. Dom’s mum wasn’t meant to be there. I moved at the door to try and get a better angle. “Count Andy as a traitor. He’s Leonie’s now. Issy will need a new guard. It was all a ruse. My mother isn’t in the hospital,she’s fine.”

“What?” Dom asked, and from what I could see, he shoved his dad back into his chair.

“Dom, sit down, please,” Vera begged. “We have so much to tell you, but—”

“Spit it out!”

“I didn’t want your dad to find out,” she cried as I snuck in. “I asked Anton to help me. He… he had feelings for me, and I exploited them occasionally. He did a DNA test for me to be sure and… and he took things into his own hands. He is the Belov you should be questioning.”

Walking on the balls of my feet, they hadn’t heard me enter yet.

“But I knew,” Ivan said quickly, looking up at his son with desperation. “I knew what happened, but only after. Please, I would never have put you or Leonie in danger. If I knew, I would have—”

But those begs were mine.

I stepped out from behind the door, gun raised and all wide eyes fell on me. “Nope,” I said simply. “That’s too easy and I don’t buy it.”

“Leo,” Ivan said, pushing his chair back from the table, hands up in surrender. “Luís was my best friend. You think I didn’t know? But you think I’d kill him over that?”

Dom’s frown and disgusted grimace suggested that he would do exactly that. He glanced at me. I already knew that was what he would do if it were me. He’d told me he wanted to rip off the fingers that had touched me.

“Yes,” I said, but I was starting to lose confidence and I hated that it showed in my voice. I straightened, cricking my neck left and right as I regained the persona I’d created in thelast seven months.

“No,” he said and almost rolled his eyes. “Put the gun down. Let’s talk this through.”

“Why would Anton kill my dad? It makes no—”

But the flicker of understanding in Dom’s eyes stopped me mid-sentence.

“He was here that night,” he said. “You both told me to go and tell Leonie I loved her.”

Ivan nodded thoroughly. “And you know I would never endanger either of you. Never.”

There was a scuffle outside and then, gun held at Firdman, Rocco shoved the criminal to the ground.