Page 42 of Romi

“No problem. What have you got for us?” Ash asked.

Juana bit her lip and glanced at Sean. They both looked uncomfortable.

“Some information you’re really not going to like,” she said, shifting anxiously.

“Maybe we should get Miki and Marko on the phone first and tell everyone together?” Sean said.

Call it intuition, but somehow, I knew it had something to do with Krissa. There was just something about the look on their faces. My eyes met Ash’s, and I knew he had drawn the same conclusion.

“Just spit it out, no matter what it is,” he said through gritted teeth.

Sean took hold of Juana’s hand in support. I guessed something was going on between them. Suddenly, it seemed like everyone was getting some love action, and I smiled to myself. The more people around who felt like I did, the better, as they would be more likely to be on my side—well, eventually, anyway.

Juana’s words pulled me from my thoughts.

“What happened with Krissa was initially random, as we were all led to believe, but then Siri became involved.”

“What the fuck?!” I said. That fucking bastard, Siri.

“What do you know?” Ash said, his voice barely audible.

Ash had gone completely still, his thinly veiled anger permeating the air around him like a storm cloud waiting to erupt. He was definitely going to spiral, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Juana took a deep breath before speaking.

“I better start at the beginning. Yesterday, Siri had a secret meeting; I expected it to be about the attacks on your family, so I followed him. It turned out to be that big-shot criminal lawyer dude, the one who defended Lev Petrov. I heard him tell Siri that Petrov was getting released early after making a deal to rat out somebody he had been sharing a cell with.”

“That fucker!” Ash shouted.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“Anyway, he said he would be out in a few days and would be getting picked up by some undercover agents from the National Crime Agency to be taken into witness protection. The lawyer dude told Siri to make sure that didn’t happen and to get rid of him instead, as his boss didn’t need him anymore and he was a liability.”

“Why would he, and whoever his boss is, want his client dead?” Ash asked.

It did seem bloody odd.

“Wait, there’s more,” Sean cut in.

“Apparently, the lawyer dude’s boss is orchestrating the alliance between Siri and the Broxy’s, and so he wanted Siri to do the honours and frame you guys as part of the plan.”

I clenched my fists. It was way past time Siri and those other assholes got taught a lesson. I zoned out as I imagined all the ways I could do just that and ended up missing some of what Juana said next, just catching the end as Ash started pacing up and down, his fists opening and closing as he tried to control the impulse to punch something.

“He just wanted Petrov gone before either you or Glowacki got a hold of him. The boss didn’t want you learning that he was the one who had ordered Krissa to be killed.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ash asked with barely controlled rage as he spun to face Juana.

“I’m sorry, Ash, I have no idea. That is all they said about Krissa,” Juana said, her voice shaking slightly.

Ash’s mood was obviously scaring the hell out of her. Sean put his arm around her and held her against his body, his eyes narrowing in warning at us. I stepped a bit closer to Ash. Not that I thought he would hurt Juana, but if he got really out of control, he would start throwing things, and I didn’t want her to get hurt in the crossfire. I knew Sean was thinking the same thing as he eyed Ash with such intensity.

“Any idea who the lawyer’s boss is?” I asked quickly. We needed to bring this meeting to a close soon before Ash lost it. He already looked like he was barely holding on as it was.

“No,” she shook her head, “But I did find out a bit more about the plan against you guys.”

She looked as if she was about to add something but stopped, obviously not wanting to add more fuel to the fire raging behind Ash’s eyes.

“What?” he asked, picking up on the fact she had more to say despite his spiralling. He was pulling great gulps of air into his lungs in an obvious effort to calm the fuck down.