Page 175 of Devious Knight

I lower my gun. Isabelle and I look at each other, then back at him.

“Why did I meet you?” Isabelle grates out. “You said the Albrecht Dürer exhibition belonged to you and you thought it might be stolen when the exhibition was over. Was that a lie?”

“No. That was true. And I’m sorry, I never intended to disappear the way I did, or make it seem like I lied to you. But it was best I stayed away.”

“What happened?” I ask.

His face twists into a sneer. “Parker.”

Hearing that damn name stirs up all the shit I learned this morning about my godfather.

“What about him?” Isabelle speaks up.

“I’ll tell you everything. My family own an extensive art and antiquities collection. The Albrecht Dürer collection was part of it.” Tobias sets his mask down on the table and straightens. “I had another priceless collection I’d loaned out for exhibitions prior to meeting you. It was stolen on Parker’s watch. When my brother investigated it he was killed. I suspected Parker was behind my brother’s death and the theft, but I figured he was working with someone on the black market. I alerted your father but he didn’t believe me.”

“Because Parker was his friend,” I fill in.

Tobias nods. “They were closer than we were. Nothing could come between them. Your father didn’t believe that Parker could be responsible for killing my brother and stealing my collection. But I was determined to prove it was him. That’s when I met you Isabelle.” He focuses on her again. “I’m not the best of hackers but the code I gave you was set up to hack Parker’s computer. I wanted to see what he was up to. I also set the code up to track anyone else who accessed Kade’s father’s files on the transportation of the art collection. That way I could follow the trail and find out who Parker was working with.”

The code was a tracker. That’s why it led me to Nikoli. So I was wrong, Nikoli didn’t hack my father. He got into the house in Greece because Parker let him in.

Not Isabelle.

“Unfortunately, one of Parker’s techs found out he’d been hacked and blocked the code.” Tobias cuts into my thoughts. “But they didn’t know I’d gotten into your father’s computer.”

“Something must have gone wrong, though. Or we wouldn’t be here.”

“The accident is what happened. I got there too late and my plans failed.” He walks closer. “By the time I realized Nikoli had tracked your father and the collection to Greece, he was already ahead of me.”

“So you knew Nikoli was involved from back then?”

“I did. But you can’t take a man like that down without the right help or the resources. I had neither. I went to Aleksander Ivanov and when he investigated he couldn’t find evidence. He didn’t think I had enough to pin the accident on Nikoli or Parker. And as Parker never went to Greece I couldn’t link him. No one wanted to start a war with the Malina and risk losing more lives and allies in case I got it wrong.”

I didn’t involve the Knights for similar reasons. But I got things wrong. I was wrong about Isabelle and my entire plan blew up in my face. Hence the reason we’re here hiding out in this cabin in the woods.

“I thought your parents died in that explosion. The paintings were also destroyed in the fire. I felt the best thing to do was keep my eyes on Parker and try to find evidence that he’d been working with Nikoli. No matter how long it took.”

“You’ve been trying to do that all this time?”

“Yes. And that’s the reason I found your father’s distress code. The code let me know both your parents are alive.”

My breath hitches, but my heart warms with true hope. “When did he send it?”

“Two days ago. I head back to Boston the instant I received it.”

Oh my God.

“I guess your father couldn’t tell me where he was. Either he doesn’t know, or he didn’t have enough time.” He breathes out a ragged sigh. “When I got the code I saw it was linked to a bank transfer of five million to Nikoli. The money came from one of your father’s offshore accounts on Parker’s authorization. Your father held the account jointly with him. My guess is Parker never declared your father dead so he could keep the account going. But something must have happened to make him use up those funds.”

Maybe it’s the money I’ve been draining. “I found a way to steal a hundred million from Nikoli.”

“That must be the reason.”

“Nikoli wants the money back. He threatened to take Isabelle if I didn’t give it back to him.” I look at her and find she’s already staring at me.

“Where did you put the money?” she asks.

“An offshore account. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”