Page 101 of Dark Duet: Platinum Edition

“I can try,” she said and Matthew realized he believed her. He still strongly believed Olivia was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but it didn’t mean she was trying to stop him from doing his job.

“Demitri Balk has gone through a lot of trouble to cover up his past. According to this, prior to 1988 he was known as Vladek Rostrovich. Allegedly, he was a small-time arms dealer out of Russia,” said Matthew.

“He disappears after ’88, and then reappears as Balk in ’98. In 2002, his company goes public and he becomes a billionaire seemingly overnight.”

“What does that mean?” asked Olivia.

“I’m not sure,” Matthew said. He obviously couldn’t give Olivia all the details. She didn’t have a need to know. However, he hoped giving her some of the information might lead her toward divulging information she was either keeping or didn’t know she had.

Given the information, Matthew surmised that Pakistan, like many of its neighbors, bought weapons from Russian arms dealers in the 1980s. It was the most plausible explanation for Rafiq and Vladek crossing paths. For a moment, Matthew wondered if the bad blood between Rafiq and Vladek revolved around the sale of weapons to enemies of Pakistan, but that didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would justify a vendetta spanning twenty years. It had to be personal.

At least now, Matthew had a timeframe for when it might have occurred. Also, given the fact Olivia had been kidnapped for the purpose of human trafficking and not drugs or guns, there was a large piece missing from the puzzle.

“Did Caleb ever mention why he and Rafiq want Balk dead?”

Olivia cocked her head slightly to one side and looked up toward the ceiling, as if answers were written there. Matthew recognized the behavior of someone trying to remember something. He found it interesting how people, with all their differences, were still inherently the same. Olivia finally responded. “Yes and no. The night Caleb told me he was…” She suddenly looked sad.

“What is it?” Matthew asked.

“I think you’re right, Reed,” she said, her voice rough at the edges. “I’m going to need a lot of therapy.”

“I’m sorry,” he said and meant it.

“Me too,” she whispered and took a deep breath. “Anyway, the night he told me he planned on selling me, he said something about Balk needing to pay for what he did to Rafiq’s mother and sister. Apparently, he did something to Caleb, too. I remember because later I wondered if that’s where Caleb got the scars on his back.”

“Is it?” Matthew asked.

She looked away, getting choked up again. “No. He said it was some guy named Narweh. He wouldn’t tell me much – just that he was the one who whipped him when he was younger. Caleb said his life was hell until…Rafiq rescued him.”

Matthew wrote everything down, hoping all the pieces would fall into place for him soon. Every piece was valuable because he knew alone they meant nothing, but together, they would lead him toward realizing the whole picture. That’s what he loved. It was all he lived for: solving the puzzle.

“Did he say anything else about this ‘Narweh’ person? Do you have a timeframe?”

Olivia shook her head. “Sorry, no. I know Caleb was younger than me when it happened.”

“How do you know?”

“He told me. We…we became very close by the end, Reed. Last time you were here and Sloan had just left, I was scared that maybe I made it up. I was scared that what I feel for Caleb was my way of surviving. Then I think about all the things he told me. I think about the way everyone gave him shit for being soft with me, and I…. I just don’t think I made it up. It’s real. The way I feel for him is real,” Olivia said.

“I couldn’t tell you one way or the other.” Matthew shrugged. “My job is the case, not to determine if your feelings are real. Not to say your feelings are irrelevant – it’s just no one can answer that question but you.”

“I know, Reed. I just….”

“I know, Miss Ruiz,” said Matthew. “When this whole thing started, my job was to get your statement and bring someone to justice. It’s become something much larger than I, or my superiors, had anticipated. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, or discount them, but the bottom-line is: Someone has to stop that auction. Everything else? I’m not sure,” Matthew said. He had done a lot of talking with Olivia over the last week. He’d learned a few things, but whether or not it would lead him to the auction was still unclear.

Luckily, he had a team working on it now.

“Why don’t you tell me the rest?”

Olivia was staring off again, but she nodded. “Yeah, why not.”

***

My attachment to Caleb was evolving, but it wasn’t just that. I found myself anticipating his needs and learning the meanings behind his many silences. Some days he was brutal, and I scrambled to obey his every whim as flawlessly as I was capable. Other days, he seemed content just having me near while he attended to mundane things.

Caleb liked to read, but when I asked, he never let me know what it was he was reading. When I mentioned how muchIliked to read, he gifted me a copy of Shakespeare’sHamlet. I thought it was ironic he gave me a story about one man’s obsession with revenge and how it literally poisoned everyone around him. He didn’t seem to find it amusing but let me keep the book anyway. I wasn’t sure what to make of the gesture.

I thought a lot about the night he had sex with Celia in front of me. It was a painful memory for many reasons, but the worst seemed to be my nagging sense of jealousy. No matter the circumstance, I found having Caleb near was always better than not having him around. It wasn’t only his presence I came to crave, but also the man himself.