“I was wondering how long it would take for you to appear,” I say, fighting the urge to take her out.
She throws her head back and laughs a sinister laugh. “I’ve been here sleeping in your bed for the last three nights. I was hoping you would come up and ravish me like you do your nanny.”
My stomach turns. “Viv, you’re sounding jealous.”
“I suppose I am. I wanted to take the maiden voyage on your cock after Cecelia died.”
I want to rip her face off, but I restrain myself. I cock my head. “What do you want from me?”
“I want Cecelia’s journal. She was looking into her brother’s death. She put a lot of things together, but she missed the biggest piece of the puzzle. You know she never knew Christina was an Oxy whore and sold her out.” She tsks as she slithers toward me. “Cecelia just poured her heart out to Christina, who then told me everything. Christina had been banging her brother for months to get her Oxy fix. She was so easy to manipulate. Christina would do anything for a few pills.”
My stomach clenches. “Why would you implode your whole life over a bunch of Oxycodone?”
“You’re so silly, Nate.” She sizes me up, but I feel confident I can take her. “I bet you’re hung like a fucking horse, aren’t you? That’s what Cecelia told Christina. And I bet you know how to use it.”
I think I might throw up. I need to get this conversation back on track. “Viviana, I don’t have Cecelia’s last journal. She must have taken it with her when she was killed.”
Viviana cackles again. “Oh yes, she came quickly to get the inside dirt on what had happened to Alex—or so she thought. Christina lured her out, and convinced her to come without her bodyguards. She got her to do that quite a bit, actually. But I know for certain Cecelia didn’t have the journal on her when she was killed.”
I stop breathing. “You were there?”
“Maybe.” She comes closer to me, dragging her finger across the wall. “And if I can’t find it here, I’ll send my assault team to Magnolia Homestead for your precious Lilly, Katrina, and Rebekah.”
I shake my head. I can’t tell her Walker already has it. “We don’t have her journal. If we did, we would have given it to Walker with the others. If there was anything incriminating in them, he would have arrested you already.”
“Cecelia had no idea what I was up to. And I got her to give me twenty-million dollars of your money for one of my made-up companies.”
“She actually gave you money from Katrina and Rebekah’s trust, so you stole from the girls.”
“Those spoiled brats won’t miss twenty million.”
The kitchen island is between us, and I don’t trust her for a second. With each step she takes toward me, I step away. It’s like a dance as we slowly circle the island.
“You didn’t even need it,” I counter. “You sold your company for three billion dollars. You had more money than you could spend in a lifetime.”
Her lips quirk. “You know how complicated finances can be…” She eyes me for a moment. “Anyway, I need the journal. Where is it? Or should I let the assault team know they can go in and take down everyone at the house in Montana?”
“I don’t have it, I swear.”
“I’ve read most of the journals already. They were so sweet at the beginning. Your wife was quite the writer. She has some pretty saucy passages about you in there. But then she was so disappointed in her brother. I really feel for him. He wasn’t such a bad guy. He just couldn’t get a leg up in this world—not even from his billionaire brother-in-law.”
“That was our deal. No family in the business,” I say. It was our deal, but it changed.
“You hired your sister-in-law,” Viviana says.
“She was a contractor who helped us deliver our first government contract. She did so well we won it all, so I gave her part of the company. She earned her spot. Alex had no skills and no interest.”
“Oh, he had skills—according to Christina. That’s the other reason she kept going back to him—that and it drove her lover, Gregori, crazy.”
“What is in the journal that’s so important? Cecelia’s brother was a drug dealer. That doesn’t surprise any of us.”
“Cecelia saw something she shouldn’t have.”
She takes two steps forward, and I take two steps back, keeping the distance the same and the kitchen island between us.
“What does it matter?” I ask. “You’re a billionaire yourself.”
“My alliance provides me increased wealth, control, and power for me. Women are always fucked over. We’re never treated as equals, particularly when we’re smarter than the men involved, and we’re more ruthless. The alliance Cecelia discovered gave me control over resources in a criminal empire. Having legitimate businesses made me wealthy, but the control of dark money makes me powerful. Cecelia was going to fuck all of that up.”
I need one more piece of information before I alert Trevor and Jim that Viviana is here. “Who are you allied with?” I ask.
“I don’t need to tell you that.”
“I bet they’re Russian. All that Russian tech from the yacht, in Whistler, and then what you left here at my house—maybe the Tredivyatoye Tsarstvo?”
Her brow quirks. “You’re a little too smart for your own good, but you’ve missed the biggest piece.”
“Obviously I’m not too smart, then.”
We’ve made at least a half dozen turns around the kitchen island. She’s not going to give me anything else. I reach into my pocket and push the button.
Suddenly a large bang that throws me to the floor. Gunfire pops over my head, crisscrossing through the kitchen. Viviana must have an assault team with her, and she’s using them for cover as she escapes. Fuck that! I grab her foot as she attempts to scoot past me. She kicks me in the face with her other leg. I grab it and feel a bullet graze my shoulder.
Bullets hit above me, and there’s blood everywhere, but I’m not letting go. Viviana’s strong, but I’m stronger. She rolls on top of me and grabs me by the hair. I don’t even feel it. All I hear is my blood pumping in my ears. I can’t let her get away, and I certainly can’t let her call in her hit squad on the girls.
I won’t let her win.
Jared and Michael take bullets. They’re on the ground. This is like what I saw in Afghanistan. How the fuck is this happening in my kitchen?
It takes some wrestling, but I’m finally able to roll Viviana onto her stomach and secure her arms behind her with my knee on her back. I don’t want to hurt her. I just don’t want her to get away.
Holding a kitchen knife, I’m ready for anyone who wants to come at me. I’m trained, and fuck if someone is going to do this under my roof.
The gunshots finally stop, and Jim comes running up. “You’re bleeding!”
“It’s a flesh wound,” I say.
He looks down at Viviana struggling below me. “Look who you found.”
“Yes, I have the trash.”
“Fuck you both,” she screams.
The smoke from the gunfire gradually lifts. It’s chaos, but several men in FBI flak jackets help me with Viviana, who’s now swearing in Russian.
“She’s pretty pissed at you,” Jim says.
I’m so confused. “I never did anything to her, and I know Cecelia considered her a friend.”
Jim puts his hand on my shoulder. “We may never fully understand her motivations, but at least we know who was behind it.”
I reach up to where I was shot in the shoulder, feeling it for the first time as the adrenaline starts to wear off.
“Lilly is going to skin me alive,” Jim announces.
I chuckle. “Naw, it’ll convince her I’m a real hero.”
The kitchen fills with FBI agents, and Walker joins them. He pats me on the back. “You were fantastic.”
“Did you guys get everything she said?”
“We did,” Agent Cora Perry announces. “And we have six of her men in custody.”
Once V
iviana’s in handcuffs, I walk up to her. “You’re right. Women are much smarter than men. Cecelia figured you out. And this is Special Agent in Charge Cora Perry. She’ll figure out the rest.” I start to walk away, but turn back to her. “Oh, and by the way, Lilly had Cecelia’s last journal, and we turned it over to Walker Clifton and the FBI. You won’t see the light of day.”
I walk out to my front yard, which is covered in police, fire, and other emergency vehicles. I hear Jim yelling after me, but I’m exhausted. I allow the paramedics to dress my wound and refuse a ride to the hospital. I just want to call my flight crew.
“I’m going to Montana,” I announce to anyone who’ll listen. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Walker says.
I nod, feeling a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Knowing who did this to my family—and knowing she can’t do anything else—is a great relief.
Trevor pulls up in a Volkswagen Passat, and he points to the back seat. “I’ll give you a ride.”
I smirk and pull a baseball cap over my head. He hands me a pair of aviator sunglasses to complete the look. “Thanks.”
As we drive away, the chaos thankfully remains behind, though I’m sure this is hitting the national news. I need to let the girls know everything is okay.
Me: I’m on my way to Montana. I should be there in two hours. I was going to surprise you for the weekend, but now it’s over. We have Viviana in custody.
Lilly: Thank goodness you’re okay. You were all over the TV. I’ll let the girls know and they can wait up to see you.
Me: I can’t wait. To see them or to see you.
Lilly: I’ll be here.
I need time with Lilly. I need to hear her heartbeat. I still can’t believe this is over. Or at least it seems over. I’ll know more over the next few days. Meanwhile, I plan on enjoying the beginning of the rest of my life.
I sleep during the flight, and it isn’t until we shake, rattle, and roll across the field at Magnolia Homestead that I wake.
James is at the base of the stairs as I walk down.
I wave. “Good to see you again.”
“Based on the news, I think it’s us who should be happy to see you again.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear on the news,” I warn.
He looks at me as he puts me in the front seat of the truck. “Uh-huh.”
I wince at my shoulder and notice that blood has seeped through my shirt.
“Molly should probably look at that shoulder of yours,” he says as he puts the truck in drive. “The girls are going to be hopping mad that you’re hurt.”
“It’s not too bad. It was only a graze.”
We ride in silence up to the house, but once we’re there, the girls come running out and almost knock me over. “Daddy!” Bex and Katrina scream.
“How are my girls?” I ask.
“Better now that you’re here,” Katrina says.
I look at Lilly, smiling from the porch. My life is full, and I believe we’re going to be truly happy.
Epilogue
Nate
The Las Vegas Strip below me is swamped with people. From my penthouse suite, they look like ants on the busy sidewalk. I love the energy here, and there’s something for everyone. I wrap my arm around Lilly as we watch the fountains spray and dance to music we can’t hear.
After my last visit to Sin City, I didn’t think I’d ever want to return. But being back in Las Vegas is much easier now that I know why everything happened.
When we found Cecelia’s journal, it had a peculiar entry about her running into Viviana and a high-ranking US Senator. Cecelia always mentioned everyone and anyone she’d encountered in her journals, so it wouldn’t stand out to most—a cute little girl gave her a flower, a homeless woman needed help. It didn’t initially occur to us that it was anything more than a conversation Cecelia had with Senator Adamson in passing, but the FBI put together his work on the Foreign Affairs committee and the access he had to State secrets.
Once the FBI pulled that thread and dug a little deeper, they found that Senator Adamson was not what he appeared to be. He’s since been arrested for working for a foreign government and selling secrets. Senator Adamson was Viviana’s contact with the Russians. When he was arrested, Viviana evidently didn’t think it was a big deal that they’d been seen together. He was happily married, and Viviana’s company did manufacturing in his state. Only it didn’t make sense to Cecelia. She knew Viviana no longer owned the company, and she was sure it wasn’t a romantic rendezvous, so she made the mistake of musing to Christina that something didn’t smell right.
That was the domino that changed my life.
It’s believed that Viviana is a Russian sleeper agent who befriended people in technology to get secrets for the Russian government. But she also wanted money, control, and the power that came with commanding both a criminal and legitimate empire. She had an insatiable ego.
She created false companies and collected venture-capital money. She also used the Tredivyatoye Tsarstvo as a front to earn money with drugs, arms sales, and human trafficking.
Jim has been coordinating with multiple clients who were tight with Viviana. The FBI has found several instances of possible espionage and is still investigating.
As the US-based face of Tredivyatoye Tsarstvo, Gregori Petrov is now in Atwater, the federal maximum-security prison, and his family is in hiding.
Cecelia’s journal points out other strange occurrences and traces her brother’s involvement with the drug side of the criminal enterprise. He’d been involved with a Mexican drug cartel and got Katrina kidnapped when she was five years old. That’s what ended his relationship with Cecelia. But when the FBI shut them down, he found a new path for quick and easy money, which happened to be with Tredivyatoye Tsarstvo.
But Cecelia didn’t know he was involved with Russians, and she never put Alex and Christina together. Alex was a pawn for the Bratva and didn’t realize the bigger side of the business. Alex was a good kid, I suppose, but somehow he lost his way. Cecelia always felt that because he was handsome, things were too easy for him. He was always looking for a quick and easy way to get rich.
It’s also clear now that Cecelia was taken advantage of by Christina Daniels. Cecelia trusted her, but Christina only nurtured the relationship for her benefit. She even killed Cecelia’s brother, Alex, under orders from Gregori Petrov. Now Christina’s locked away in a federal maximum-security prison in Canyon City, Colorado. I’ve thought back many times to her relationship with her ex-husband. She spent hours trying to convince Cecelia they were married and he was cheating. In reality, he left her because of her drug abuse and her affair with Petrov. So tragic. Her daughters have been moved to boarding school under different names. At least that means Katrina doesn’t have to worry about Jenny anymore.
My girls are doing better, starting to gain confidence and really flourish, and I know that’s because Lilly has been there for them and for me. She is our sun.
I kiss her on the cheek. “Ready to go see our friends and get this party started?”
“I can’t wait.”
After a long time when it wasn’t, life is good. And I love this event. This poker weekend starts tonight in a private meeting room on the third floor of the Shangri-la, overlooking the Strip and fountains. We have some new players and some old ones joining us this time.
We enter the meeting room just in time to see Judith and Tom Sutterland arrive with their daughters, Francesca and Alexandra. Their girls are the same age as Katrina and Bex, and they’ve begun to hang out together and do lots of chatting online. Katrina and Francesca are both shy, but boy crazy.
My girls appear from somewhere to join them, and they walk off as if we don’t exist.
“Teens and tweens,” Judith says as she shakes her head.
Following Viviana’s arrest, the press coverage was oppressive, and the tabloids hounded us. But we all took it in stride. The girls bonded an
d talked, and it’s my belief that having someone her own age to open up to helped Katrina immensely. We’ve asked that the girls use PeopleMover’s instant messaging system to communicate. It’s encrypted, so it’s less likely to be hacked, and they know we can monitor it. Tom set up different keywords that would trigger their conversations to be sent to his email so he could review them.
At first, I wasn’t too excited about invading Katrina’s privacy, but Tom explained that they were specific words related to bullying, foul language, body image, and some of the other crap Katrina had been exposed to when she was having problems at her school.
We watch the girls make eyes at one of the waiters, and my stomach tightens.
“Can you add boys to the list of keywords?” I ask.
“Man, I did that, and I got over a hundred messages in less than an hour,” Tom says. “I prefer that we just lock them up in an all-girls school.”
I chuckle. “Lilly’s father did that to her, and she swears it was worse than a co-ed school.”
Judith looks at Lilly. “I give you credit for saving my mom, but I’m beginning to think you’ve saved our daughter, too.”
“I can’t take credit for any of that. Katrina and Francesca have found real friendship for the first time. And, they have plans with Caroline tomorrow. She’s been right where they are. If anyone understands what they’re going through, she does.”
“I hope you know how lucky you are to have Lilly,” Tom says with a smile to me.
“I do.” I put my arm around her and hold her tight.
Gillian bangs a gong, causing the noise in the room to die down. Our long weekend of poker and letting our hair down will now commence.
I turn to Tom. “I hope you’re ready to lose some money.”
He shrugs. “At least it’s for a good cause.”
Gillian calls me up. There’s some polite clapping.
“Welcome to Las Vegas,” I announce in greeting. “I’m so grateful you’re all here tonight. It’s good to be back where we started this game almost four years ago. Some of you are regulars, and for others this may be your first time. This is a game of chance, but it’s most important that we enjoy ourselves. Gillian will lay out the rules, but we’re here to have fun. If this isn’t a good time, then you’re either not trying hard enough or you’re stuck sitting next to Landon Walsh.”
Showdown: Tech Billionaires Page 32