Page 118 of Scorned Beauty

“Are you doing this so Dom sends you back to DC?”

“No, it’s just how I work. Besides, you think my brother cares if I make a mess in one room? He’ll just have someone come repaint it.”

I barely heard her when I stood transfixed, staring at a picture on the wall. The emerald necklace caught my eyes first before the person in the image. And just like that, a painful shard that was embedded deep inside a part of me was pulled out, and the wound started bleeding.

“Is this some kind of joke?” My croaked words barely scraped out of my throat.

“What the—?” Lucy asked. “What are you talking about?”

“This!” I pointed to the woman in the picture. She was in the same grouping of photos as Wade Stephenson and Elyse Bailey.

“Vivienne Tomlin? She’s the wife of the congressman I’m investigating.”

“You’re investigating Congressman Tomlin?”

“It was supposed to be a simple background check to find a scandal that would make him vote against the energy bill.”

“You use blackmail to change votes on a bill?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be naïve. Anyway, it wasn’t for me, it was for my client who wanted the congressman to vote differently. But then Wade contacted me. Elyse Bailey was his former coworker and friend who needed his help.” Lucy threw up her hands helplessly. “This became a sex scandal. I thought you knew. Didn’t you work for the Russians?”

“I mind my own business. Is that why Kirill is pissed at you?”

“He’s blaming me for instigating the whole thing, when really, it was Elyse and Wade who were building a case with the feds against the congressman. But when the Russians killed Wade?—”

She cut herself off; her face darkened in anger.

“You became a dog with a bone.”

“This is why I hate the mafia,” Lucy growled. “People who try to do the right thing are silenced. Look, I would have left it alone if it were for power or money because I deal with that all the time, but I couldn’t ignore the sex trafficking of minors. Elyse showed me the evidence…well, part of it.” She exhaled a pained sigh. “Anyway, the congressman’s publicity machine suppressed any link between Elyse and his office. His wife is tired of fixing his fuckups.” Lucy’s eyes bored into me while I was spiraling into a past I’d rather remained buried, but she zeroed in on the pertinent question hanging between us. “But how do you know Vivienne?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.” I turned so I could retreat to my room or maybe go to the kitchen and finish that tub of chocolate ice cream.

“They’ll be there at the gala.”

I paused at the door and pivoted slowly to face her. “What?”

“The Zahkarovs are in a shaky relationship with the congressman. Other Washington heavy hitters will be there but I think the two are sniffing around each other because Grigori has fallen out of the bratva. But he left an important deal on the table that could cost the Zahkarovs billions if Tomlin voted for the energy bill currently being debated in congress.”

“Wouldn’t his appearance at the gala be in poor taste?”

“The thing with Russian organized crime is you don’t know what businesses are theirs with so many layers involved.”

“True.”

“I mean, I didn’t know I was going against the bratva until Wade got killed and my brother informed me Kirill put a contract on my head.”

“What? What happened to… ‘I know this guy’…” Despite my earlier spiral, I marveled at Lucy’s courage, or what her brother might call recklessness.

“Apparently, I’m not that good, as Margo likes to point out,” Lucy scoffed.

“I fear I’ll be waltzing into a trap if I attend the gala. I think Margo knows about my connection to Tomlin and it’s her whole purpose of wanting me there. Why exactly do you want to go to the gala?”

“She claims she has evidence against Tomlin, and she’s only willing to hand it over to me if I get you to go to the gala.”

“Leave me out of it.”

I exited the room, but this time it was Lucy who chased after me. “I’m going to find out your connection to?—”