Page 41 of Heart's Temptation
“I agree with Gio.” Romeo tapped his fingers on the desk surface. “We’ll muster our forces here. Simo, you go with Gio to the theater and see if you can get Hetty to talk. She won’t know we know, so let’s use that to our advantage.”
Simo nodded his head and we left for I-Rock with our personal bodyguards. It was weird being in the back seat with Massimo. First off, he was a huge guy, and secondly, I couldn’t remember a time when we were alone together. He was born Di Mauro, the eldest of his three brothers, but he’d been a Vitale since he was a kid. Even before that, he’d been Romeo’s shadow.
It was probably a bad time to realize I’d been detached from life since Niki had left. An emotionally distant jerk who’d pretty much ignored my family, but all that touchy-feely crap I’d pushed away could wait. If God, or whoever watched over our familia, got me back my Niki, I vowed to be a better brother, a better everything.
“Don’t worry bro, we’ll get her back.”
It was a simple sentence, but held enough power to swing me in the direction of believing him. Simo didn’t say much, but when he did, he always meant it, and he was usually right. I really hoped this was one of those times.
We arrived at the theater and saw the dancers and staff sprawled in various positions on the stage. My eyes scanned for Hetty Knyazev. Our gazes locked for the briefest of moments before I donned a disinterested look and allowed my gaze to roam the rest of the group.
Sergei was scrubbing his scalp, which I’d seen him do at least a dozen times but never thought for a moment it was because he was nervous. Apparently, I’d missed a key to the mystery, because when he saw me coming his eyes rounded with fear for the briefest of moments before shifting back to his modus operandi— arrogance. This time the old man didn’t fool me. He used his arrogance like I used my feigned disinterest.
Simo took the stage, his long legs covering it in several intimidating strides.
“We are here to discuss the disappearance of Niki Swan. I want answers. Who was the last person she spoke with?”
Marko joined me in the second row of seats.
I leaned sideways toward him, and spoke in a low whisper. “I need you to not react as I explain what is going on. There are traitors here that need to believe we are clueless. Smile and nod.” I caught Marko up on everything I’d learned.
“Is it wrong to want to kill that bitch?” I thought he meant Hetty or perhaps Natalia. Either way, I felt the same about both of them. Hetty had been groomed since the beginning and probably didn’t know the truth about what her eldest brother was up to. He’d sent her to New York to be fostered by a boring, ordinary, middle-upper-class couple of his choosing, with specific instruction made sure to put her in ballet classes from the time she was five years old and ensured she joined Empire Ballet when he was ready to execute his plan.
She would have known of the tunnels at Empire and either left the offending notes for Niki or let in the person who did. She was a participant, there was no doubt of that, but did she even know what she was doing?
Natalia, on the other hand, was undoubtedly a cold bitch. She was the elder of the two and I had no doubt she’d orchestrated what Sergei became, even if it was all a lie. He was no more related to the Russian creator Diaghilev than I was.
A young corp member raised her hand. Her eyes should have been hearts the way she took in Simo. The scary enforcer turned on his charm for the young ballerina who couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old.
He stalked over to her and took her hand, drawing her to her feet and caging her in his presence. It was hard to remain passively stoic when a Vitale turned on the charm. Her jaw dropped, her mouth forming a perfect ‘O’ before she drew in a shuddering breath.
“Jesus, talk about a performance,” Marko muttered beside me.
I chuckled quietly. “Maybe there should be a ballet about the Vitales.”
Marko, despite the harshness of our current circumstances, couldn’t hold back his smile.
“Niki was talking with Hetty, and I overheard her say they should trick the big guy and grab a coffee,” the terrified ballerina confessed.
All eyes turned to Hetty. At that moment, she seemed to make up her mind. She stood and ran toward the backstage, darting under the curtain and out of sight.
Marko texted the guards. We have a runner.
Less than a minute later, Hetty was dragged back in and placed back on her chair. When I looked to see how Sergei took the news of his partner in crime being caught red- handed, he was gone.
“Let’s go and find him. This charade is over.”
We moved to the stage, yet searching brought no answers as to how he had disappeared. Then the curtain to the right of the stage just behind where he’d been sitting, moved. “There.” I pointed.
Marko felt along the wall until a panel in the wood depressed and a door swung open to a dark hallway.
“How the hell did we not know this was here?”
“A problem for later.” Marko took off running down the dank tunnel, his gun already out in front of him. I pulled mine as I trailed behind him, and my bodyguard, Sandro brought up the rear. We heard a door slam ahead of us and Marko sped up, flinging it open and letting in light from outside.
“Gotcha!” He snagged Sergei by his collar.
I was about to join him when a beam of light from our left caught my attention. The sun glinted off the metal of a gun protruding through a window of a car speeding toward Marko and Sergei. I grabbed him by the collar and yanked as hard as I could, pulling Marko into the tunnel. He lost his grip on Sergei as he stumbled backward and seconds later, gunfire rang out and then the squealing of tires followed.