Page 89 of Devious Corruption

“Nah. Of course not.” He shakes his head. “She’s yours. Besides, she’s friends with my soon to be sister-in-law. That would make for one hell of an awkward situation.”

“Why? Because you’d use her and dump her like you do every other woman?”

His eyes harden. “Don’t say it like that. My women know what they’re getting into when they climb into my bed. No second dates. No second chances. One and done. I’m not a complete prick about it.”

I’m being hard on him, and it has nothing to do with him. He’s right. He’s not a total ass to women. He’s upfront. But still, I bet more than half think they’ll be theone to change Kaz’s mind. They believe they’re the one missing link to Kaz Volkov’s heart.

Poor saps. Those are the ones that get hurt. But he’s right, it’s their own doing.

“What did you find out from Sasha?” I turn the conversation.

“That he’s a cranky old man.” Kaz laughs. “He said if he knew working with Rurik was going to bring us to his doorstep so often, he might rethink it.”

“He gets paid well enough. Did he find anything?”

“Yeah. He did.” Kaz reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a folded piece of paper.

I flatten out the paper against the white linen of the tabletop and scan the photos and reports. “They’ve left the country, then.”

“It would appear so. They took a domestic flight to New York and from there they went over to Italy.”

“Italy?” My eyes scan further down. “What the fuck are they doing in Italy? If they’re working with the Petrosyans, why would they be there?”

Kaz shrugs. “I have no clue. Sasha wasn’t able to get much more other than they passed through customs in Sicily a week ago. No car rentals in their names, no hotel reservations. They used their US-issued passports, which was dumb if they were trying to stay under the radar.”

“What if they weren’t?” I toss the paper down. “What if they wanted us to know they’re in Italy?”

“What would be the point of that? These guys know you’re looking for them.”

“If they’ve read any of the hundred messages Maxine has sent them since they’ve gone missing. Yes.” I take a drink of my cognac.

“He didn’t give me any phone records, but we could get him to track them down.” Kaz offers.

“I’m heading past his place to pick up Maxine. I’ll stop by his place and see what he can do,” I say. “Ivan settle in okay?”

Kaz nods with a frown. “Yeah. I’m surprised he agreed to take time off and go to the safe house.”

“He’d do anything to keep Vee safe.”

“Yeah.” He shifts his gaze away. “If only we could get Elana to take safety so seriously.”

“She’s still fighting against the extra security?”

He nods. “Artem’s created a team specifically for her, but she still manages to lose them. I think we taught her too much while she was growing up.”

“Artem’s not handling her security anymore?” I cock my head.

Kaz shakes his head. “With all the bullshit going on with the DeAngelo’s there are other things that need to be done. Baby sitting’s not really his thing.”

I narrow my eyes. “He said that? He said watching over your little sister isn’t his thing?”

He sits straighter. “No, it’s not like that. You know Artem, he’d give his fucking life for any of us.”

“Right. So why doesn’t he want to be the one watching over Elana?”

“We need him in other places, and Elana wasn’t exactly being co-operative.”

I nod. “Ah, that makes more sense.”