Page 50 of Lethal Torture

And underneath the banter,I think,they’re all exhausted and strung out as hell.

Anatoly’s and Charlie’s shoulders are perpetually hunched, and they scrutinize every face like it’s coming for them. Nadja is far too thin and jumps at the slightest sound. Enzo, for all his bravado, is wired tighter than a bomb.

All of them have deep shadows under their eyes, and hands that shake just a little when they drink their pitch-black coffee.

Zin’s inner circle is taking care of her, all right. But they’re doing so at a pace they can’t keep up. They’re scared, overworked, and desperately worried.

And despite the incessant jokes, they don’t trust me at all.

Which, ironically, makes me like them rather more than I expected to.

They all pull up chairs as I begin going through the system. I’m familiar with most of it already, but it’s good to get behind the camera lenses.

I work away in silence for a while, letting them all get comfortable bantering around me. I learn, among other things, that Enzo has been asked to set up a date with the privatesecretary to the minister for business and trade, whose name is Andrew; that Anatoly recently beat the hell out of a journalist he caught taking photos out the back of the Quartier; and that Charlie hasn’t had sex for a month, which, in Enzo’s opinion, is why she’s so tetchy.

“You should be nicer to me, you raving queen,” Charlie says indignantly. “I got him the job here,” she explains. She’s leaning up against the counter on which I’m working, having edged gradually closer as she’s been speaking. “Got Zinaida to poach him from the Shangri-La a few years ago.”

“For anindecentsalary, darling,” Enzo adds, visibly preening. “And I’m worth every penny.”

“Ven you stop talking, maybe,” Anatoly growls.

“Oh, stop it, you great bear.” Enzo blows Anatoly a kiss. “You know you love me.”

Anatoly rolls his eyes with a long-suffering air, but his wry smile betrays him.

“I’ve been with her from the start,” Nadja says quietly. “Me and Anatoly. Ever since Brixton.”

“Her first club?” I ask, still watching the screens.

“Yes,” she says. “But before that, I was a dancer in her father’s club.” She throws the line out with a slight edge, as if daring me to treat her differently.

“Oleg sounds like quite the treat,” I say, smiling at her.

“He vas bastard.” Anatoly folds his arms. “Good riddance.”

Nadja returns my smile. “At least it helps me understand the dancers,” she says. “Do you know Shelby, our top dancer?” She goes on to tell me that Shelby is not only her girlfriend but also the current favorite of a Saudi prince.

“He pays her a fucking fortune to dance at his parties,” she says, grinning, “but he’s never once worked out that she bats entirely for the other team.”

It also means she’s mixing with some dangerous people.

Then again, all Zinaida’s staff mix with dangerous, high-level, powerful people.

Enzo is dating the private secretary of a government minister. Anatoly is beating up paparazzi.

They’re all vulnerable, and they could all be a problem.

Nadja and Anatoly have worked for Zinaida the longest.

Which doesn’t rule them out.

The truth is that one of them is likely betraying her—all of them could be. And yet they all seem so fiercely loyal to her that it’s hard to imagine any of them doing so.

The same instincts that have saved my life a thousand times are telling me that none of these people are the problem.

No wonder she came to Mak.

I keep my focus on the security as I listen in to their conversation. The setup throughout her clubs is far better than in Zinaida’s penthouse, or even in her own office here, which I don’t have access to. It’s not lost on me that Zin seems to take the security of her clients far more seriously than her own.