Page 166 of Devious Knight

My nerves scatter that like mice under a bright light. The secret squad works for the Pakhan—Aleksander Ivanov—they’re only known by a number and they don’t even know the identity of each other. If Parker was being investigated by them it means it was a prime suspect.

“They stopped investigating him years ago. The evidence wasn’t strong enough to prove his guilt.”

This…

This is why Isabelle has been behaving the way she is. This is reason she doesn’t like him. The reason she was following him and acting strange.

Fuck I remember the day at the conference hall when she nearly fainted on me.

She thinks he’s the guy that wanted her mother dead. Parker was the man the hacker told her he could get info on.

I didn’t even know Parker was working with my father at the same gallery that Isabelle worked at.

“Fuck. Does Parker know anything about Isabelle?”

“I doubt it. The Knights, and her father, did everything to keep her name out of it. Parker didn’t even know he was being investigated.”

“The fact that he’s lord chancellor now and has held several notable positions in the Knights suggests they completely excused him from suspicion.”

“Yes, especially Aleksander. The Knights investigate for several years for crimes of this nature. Aleksander would have never made Parker lord chancellor of Raventhorn if he was still under suspicion. That said, I’m sure Parker suspects something about Isabelle because it was known that an anonymous witness identified the shooter in detail.”

I bite the inside of my lip and I wonder if he demanded all that craziness from Isabelle because he wanted to get rid of her. Maybe he suspected she was the anonymous witness and saw her as a threat.

But why wait until now?

No. It wasn’t that. Now could have been the perfect opportunity. Perhaps something drew his attention to her.

Like everything else, Isabelle never talked about that meeting with Parker. I mentioned it briefly after she came out of the hospital and she never went into it. She just said he had stuff he wanted her to do for her Cambridge application.

At the time I just wanted to be with her so I didn’t push, but now that I think about it, the night I found her in the art studio crying she must have been crying over that. It was the same night we got together.

I return my gaze back to Alek and clench my jaw. “How are you able to get this information?” The question isn’t relevant but maybe my brain needed a moment of reprieve.

“I told you I know how to do stuff. But that’s not important now. I think he’s guilty, Kade. I believe Isabelle. I believe Isabelle’s mother saw evidence of him stealing art and he had her killed.”

“What makes you believe that?”

“There’s more. I found more shit. A lot more.”

My chest grows smaller, tightening into a fist. “What else did you find?”

“This wasn’t on the Knights’ database. This what what I found when I dug around. But it’s the worst thing. For you.” He holds up more paperwork. “These popped on Nikoli’s accounts going back years. It looks like he’s been working with Parker to steal art and sell it on the black market.”

“What?”

“There’s a transaction listed for ten million on the day your parents died and this,” he holds up a paper that looks like another record of text messages. “This is him arranging to ambush your father in Greece and take his paintings.”

Chapter 38

Kade

The last time I felt any form of weakness like this was just after my parents died. It was when I got the confirmation that that no one had survived the explosion. That’s what Grandfather said to me.

I remember the dreadful feeling so well. I was so strong that I didn’t think I could feel such a thing. According to my mother there was no weakness in me. Poseidon had blessed me just like the gods did for Achilles. But even Achilles had a weakness.

Mine was my heart. The one place the gods couldn’t touch.

It shattered the day my parents were taken from me.