Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“Did she ever name this mentor?” Czar persisted.
Reese frowned and looked up, clearly trying to remember. “She did. Once. She’d brought some Jack with her. She knew I liked to drink, and she brought me whiskey. She drank with me that night, which was unusual. Most of the time, she poured and I drank. She was upset with something one of her clients wanted her to do. She didn’t exactly tell me what it was, but she drank way too much, and she started talking. That’s when she said she detested men. Of course, she tried to cover it up and said not me, but most men. At the time I thought she was talking about this client. Later, I knew she really meant what she said—she didn’t like men.”
He took a drink of water from the glass his wife handed him and smiled his thanks at her. “I asked her what this client wanted her to do. When I did, I called her Helena. That was the name she always went by. Everyone called her Helena. She said her name was Mila, but Dellicia said she was never to say that name again. Dellicia cared for her so much she allowed her to use her own last name, so she was called Helena Devin. Of course, she couldn’t use Dellicia’s last name now.”
Czar looked around the room. “Dellicia? Mila? Anyone recognize either name?” When there was silence, he indicated for Reese to continue.
“She wasn’t making any sense, and there were so many names I was confused. Mila. Dellicia. Helena. Devin. Then she began to say this man was bad and he wanted this child so he could do bad, bad things to her. That freaked me out. I might have been drunk, but I understood what she was saying to me. I told her she couldn’t help him get a child. I think I got belligerent with her. I demanded to know if her client had asked her to get him a child because he was a pedophile. I told her if she helped him, she was every bit as bad as he was.”
“What was her reaction?” Czar pushed.
“She got really upset and started crying. I never saw her like that. She left. I didn’t see her for a couple of weeks, and when she came back, she asked me if she had said anything strange or inappropriate. I had a bad feeling that if I said yes, I might end up dead, so I said no. I told her that she just started crying because I wouldn’t agree to be her sex slave. We’d joked about that a few times, so that seemed the best way out of it.”
“That was smart,” Czar said. “I think you were right. I think you would have been killed for hearing that information about her.”
He looked around the room. “That’s it, everyone. Her real name is Mila. That’s what we would have known her by when she was at the school with us. Her mentor is or was Dellicia Devin. Code, you need to jump on that, see if anything pops here or in Russia. All of you, think back. I know it was years ago and you probably tried to block as much as you could, but this is important. This is the woman who wants to kill my family.”
Czar curled his arm around Blythe’s shoulders to comfort her. “We’ll find her, baby. There’s no way she’s going to hurt our children or you.”
“I know,” Blythe said with complete confidence. “I’m well aware you and the others would never let anything happen to the children or to me.”
Ambrielle shook her head. She had never believed anything could happen to her parents. They were very well trained in self-defense. Their house had a very good security system. What did Blythe intend to do? Never go out of her house again? Never allow her children outside? They had to know a sniper could be a mile away and still manage to kill one of the children—or Blythe. There was a glassed-in room just off the great room. The glass wall of the sunroom opened onto the porch. Ambrielle had noticed two spinning wheels set up. Clearly, Blythe spun yarn on one of them. Possibly one of her daughters spun on the other. She could see there was a long, low cabinet with many small drawers. Through the clear fronts of the drawers, Ambrielle could see various colors of yarn. A good marksman could shoot Blythe as she sat spinning with her daughter. And what about emergencies like little Jimmy with his abscess? Would Blythe and Czar ignore a child’s injury or illness? She couldn’t see either of them doing that.
Master felt her shake against his side and tightened his hold on her. “It will be all right. We’re figuring out who she is, princess. Once we do, she won’t get away. Most of her teams are already gone. Now we know where her main go-to team is.”