Page 58 of Deadly Knight

“That’s promising. Anything on Caleb?” Unwittingly, my eyes flick to the couple again, who’s now speaking with a waiter. Well, Katya is. Caleb’s staring at her. Before my fist ends up in his throat, I twist away.

“He was way too simple to dig up. Why’d you want information on this person?”

“Lev.”

“Fine. Caleb Carter. Thirty years old. Lives at—” He rattles off an address, the same place I walked to the other night. “Finished his teaching degree about four years ago in Kingston, Ontario. He got hired three years ago by Toronto’s school district, and he and his girlfriend at the time moved there. He left that job recently, his social media citing ‘a change of pace’, and got hired at the youth centre.”

“Girlfriend?”Be a cheater so I have more reason to kill you.

“Yeah,” Lev replies slowly, like he’s reading from something. “They met in Kingston. She was completing a nursing degree and got a job in Toronto. The two married shortly after their move but divorced last year.”

All my hope dwindles.

“That’s it,” he finishes in an apologetic tone. “No criminal record. Seems clean. Whyever you’re curious about him, he’s a regular guy. Thirty-year-old divorced teacher if I were to sum him up.”

Fuck.“Any reason why they split up?” Anything to suggest he’s wrong for Katya.

“Nothing public, which says it’s not for criminal reasons. He has some old post about first loves and soulmates on his social media. Guess they figured they weren’t right for one another? Which is stupid since soulmates don’t exist. It’s a notion society sells to themselves to make sense of romance.” Lev hardly understands the concept of emotions at all, let alone somethingas strong as impacting love that hits at the soul level, so his comments aren’t unlike him.

Seems he’s looking to make Katya his “right one.”

Bile rises in my throat, and I risk a look towards the couple, now sharing food and deep in conversation.

I feel sick. Murderous.

“Thanks.” It’s more strained than before. “I’ll wait for Corsetti’s call. What’s the update on the list of criminals in this city?”

“Getting that list is easier said than done. I’ve hacked the Toronto Police Force’s systems to look through all the people charged, figuring they’ve probably had quite a few gang members come through. So I’m still compiling the list. Prioritized Corsetti and that Carter guy, figuring they were the simpler tasks.”

“I appreciate you, Lev.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, before you go, I should note I’ll be working from Italy soon. By then, we should have found Ivan, but in case we don’t, just know my timings might change.”

“Visiting Zeno?” Lev doesn’t visit places, especially people he barely knows. Hell, he hardly leaves his basement willingly, where he keeps his computer lair. I think it’s a form of safety. Down there, his father won’t come and toss him into prison again—shit from his past he doesn’t talk about.

“Not quite. He’s asked for a favour. Seems I’ll be following his sister to her classes for a bit. Zeno’s worried her boyfriend is someone from another Cosa Nostra family.”

“The marriage deal Ursin struck with the Vitales,” I muse, thinking of Ursin’s journal Vanessa recently found hidden in his office that detailed the arrangement. “She’s to be engaged to one of them, eh?”

“Da.I get to be the one to verify that.”

“Why’d you agree?”

“Serafina asked for me. Figured if she’s brave enough to request whom she wants as a bodyguard, the least I could do is follow through.”

Nowthat’sinteresting. Lev doesn’t do well in crowds, which a university is packed full of. Even after years, I don’t understand his reactions. He’s clearly uncomfortable at social events, which his father made him attend one too many times. He tolerates very few people. Vanessa out of loyalty and friendship. Me from our time together as soldiers beneath Ursin’s rule, and Anastasia, whom I believe he only deals with because she’s his twin.

He’s putting himself into a busy place for a person he barely knows becauseshe asked him too.

“Well, have fun with that then.”

“Thanks,” he replies wryly. “I leave for Rome at the end of the month. I’ll be in touch when that list is done or anything else that comes down the pipe. Good luck…with all that you’re doing.”

The call ends with my sigh, and my head drops to the seat, eyes tightening. Fuck knows how long their date will last, but she needs to cut it short and go home before I go nuts.

A while passes before Caleb pays the bill and he and Katya leave. I straighten in my seat and switch on the car, readying to follow them back to her apartment. Itbetterbe her apartment, anyway, and not his. Her apartment where he’ll drop her off and leave with his life intact.

With her arm looped around his, they exit the restaurant and walk the short way to his car, a modest Honda Civic. An average car for an average guy who’s taking an extraordinary girl home.