Page 15 of Lash

"Believeme, Tata," I say, taking the phone from Lash. "It was Filip and Ivan. Filip killed Ana and Katya right in front of me. He molested me and he would have raped me. He was working for Mercado. Lash saved me."

A long, tense silence. "Tati, is it you? You say so?"

"I say so, Tata."

"Then you can come home. Lash can deliver you."

Lash takes the phone back. "I am not certain that is a good plan, Stjepan. If Mercado turned Filip, who else in your circle has he turned? Who can you trust?"

Another silence. "Filip was my trusted right hand."

"And Mercado bought him. You cannot trust anyone."

"But I can trust you, eh, Nicolae?"

"I never betrayed you, Stjepan. You know what I went through. You know what happened. Would you have stayed?" He shakes his head. "Nicolae Dragos is dead. He has been dead for many years. Now there is only Lash."

"You always had a flair for drama, Nicolae." Tata sighs. "What do you suggest, then?"

"For one, I am not Nicolae, I am Lash. For another, you release my friends. For a third, you do some quiet investigation into the finances of those you think you can trust. Until you know for sure who Mercado owns and who he does not, Tatiana is safer with me."

"If I release your friends, what leverage do I have over you?"

Lash sighs in annoyance. "You are thinking about this all wrong, Stjepan. You do not need leverage over me. And holding a man like Solomon Cabot is not the leverage you think it is. I do not know the other two, but if they are with Solomon, then you have not one tiger by the tail, but three. Release them, and soon, before you discover what I mean the hard way."

"You have my daughter, Lash."

A sigh. "I do nothaveher, Stjepan. I amwithher. She is not my prisoner or my hostage."

"Tata—Father," I say, switching to Croatian. "Listen to him. Please. I do not know what is in the past between you two, and I do not care. It has nothing to do with me."

Tata sighs, thinking. "I cannot trust you,Lash. When my daughter is returned to me, I will release your friends. I will do as you say, however—I will look into those I feel I can trust."

Lash shakes his head. "You always were stubborn, Stjepan. At the very least, keep your men close. Sending them after us only muddies the water, and I have enough to worry about with Mercado's men after your daughter."

"They are after my daughter? I assumed he was using her to get to me."

Lash snorts. "I do not knowwhathe wants, but I do not think it is you. His men, before I killed them, said he wants her alive. Why, I do not know. Perhaps it is to control you."

"If what you say is true, then would she not be safer at home in my compound, protected by my men?"

"Not if your men are not yours."

"Who can I trust, then, if not the men I have paid handsomely for so many years?"

Lash shakes his head, snarling in frustration. "You are a fool, and I just told Tatiana that you are not a fool. You make a liar out of me, Stjepan."

"Insulting me is not the path to earning my favor."

"I do notcareabout your favor!" Lash snaps. "I care about your daughter's safety."

I touch Lash's thick bicep. "If you know my father," I murmur so only he can hear me, "then you know he must make up his own mind. You will never change his mind.”

A disgusted sigh. “Yes, yes. You are right, of course. I forgot what a stubborn old donkey your father could be." He ends the call, cutting short my father's spluttering bluster. He gives the phone back to Tomas. "Go back to him and tell him what happened here. I have not hurt you when I could have."

Tomas, short and wide, tough and dimwitted, nods eagerly. "Yes, yes, I will tell him."

"Come." Lash strides away, and I follow after him.