Page 78 of Jase

“What?”

The top half of my body flew forward as I began clicking through buttons. Maps. GPS. Facial recognition. There were so many windows with so much information, I wasn’t sure which to focus on first.

“What is all this?”

“It’s only exactly what we’re looking for. The root of everything. Remember how I told you I was on to something? That it’s the reason I had to call Rush? Well, seems my theory was right.” My hand waved impatiently so he’d continue. “We were being pinged from satellites all over the world when we tried to track the emails. We couldn’t get a trace on anything.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Watch this.” Rian smiled, leaning over and typing in a code so fast, I could barely catch it. More tabs flashed at his clicks, stopping on a picture of a man I’d never seen before. One, who was on a previous tab I’d gone through. “Recognize anything?”

My head shook as I took in his unfamiliar face and short, dark hair. The man was in his forties. He wasn’t good looking or unattractive. Average, at best. And the more I looked at him, the more indistinguishable he became. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“Look below the picture at the information.”

Scanning, my fist nearly slammed down on my desk. “Victus Antonov. Victus—V. He’s Russian? But?” I pushed the laptop back towards him, my mind going a million miles an hour. “We got him. Unbelievable. You son of a bitch. What made you take that route?”

Rian shrugged, smiling even more. “Wild guess? Desperate guess? I’ve tried everything. Why not go old school? It led me right back to the source of it all.”

I pushed my fingers through my hair, glancing towards the hall. Revenge called to me. It begged me to find this bastard who’d invaded mine and Kody’s privacy. Who thought it was okay to make a living killing others in the worst ways imaginable. But I gave my word I wouldn’t. Hell, I’d just made the ultimate promise.

Rian leaned in, lowering his voice. “There’s an address in Russia we can check out. Give me an hour, I can have us ready to go. I can take care of it all. With planning, we can be back in three days tops.”

My stare cut over, only to go back to the opening of the hall.

“It’s too dangerous. If he has the slightest suspicion of what you’ve done, he’ll be waiting. We need to make sure this is the right person. We’ll surveil him any way we can and track his movements physically and digitally. That can easily be done from here. And we need to figure out who he’s working with. Documentation is key. Most importantly, we cover our ass and play it safe until we decide to go forward and take him out. Understood?”

“You got it, boss.”

I looked at my watch, feeling hope build for the first time. We could do this. We could take them all down. How we went about it was the question.

“You better head home. I’m sure it’s chaotic there, and Rush might need you.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I need to go. Conference at eight?”

I carried my laptop to my desk, hearing the hint of soft music coming from Kody’s room. It had me stepping closer and smiling as I imagined her lying nude in candlelight. “Not this time. Better make it ten.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll let everyone know.”

“Thanks, Rian. Hey…be careful out there. You’re being watched.”

“I know.”

I walked him out, setting the alarm. When I entered Kody’s room, the volume of the music increased. It was soft. Soothing. That happiness that fluttered inside when I was close, blossomed, growing even more as I reached for the knob. The buzz in my pocket snuffed it, making me growl. I took out my phone, glaring at the blocked number. I went back to the hall, letting all my anger out through one word.

“What?”

“Your friend is leaving early? No luck?”

Vengeance caressed my heart, calming me, manipulating my tone to a velvet, acidic deepness.

“You must be V. Depends what you classify as luck. Did you need something or are you just trying to ruin my night?”

“Your night? Why, Mr. Colter, I plan on ruining a lot more than that. You’ll see soon enough.”

“Will I? You keep saying that. How do you plan to do it? More pictures? More threats?”

“You killed my men. You’re messing with my business.”