Chapter Eleven Dixie

I glance around the table at Delphine's children and see similar looks of horror on their faces. What I don't know is who they're directing that horror toward. Delphine, or the son-of-a-bitch who betrayed her. I let out a breath of relief when Shayna and Sasha reach across the table to grasp their mother's hands in theirs.

"I'm so sorry," Shayna says.

"You should have told us," Sasha adds. "Why didn't you?"

"Why did you let us believe he loved us?" Shayna asks. "We must have hurt you every time we mourned him."

Delphine squeezes their hands and gives them a watery smile. "You loved him, and he never gave you a reason to doubt his love for you. I never planned on telling you the truth. He didn't deserve your love, but you deserved to feel love."

"We know you love us," Sasha assures her.

Delphine smiles at her daughters before turning sad eyes at Vladimir. "The thing I regret about killing that bastard was that Maxim stopped contacting me. I never got to see you again. I think he must have figured out I killed his man and cut me off from you."

"When was this?" Vladimir asks.

"The girls were seven, so fourteen years ago. You would have been sixteen."

"It wasn't your fault Maxim stopped my visits to New Orleans. I made the mistake and confronted him about you."

"You knew about me?" Delphine asks, and I can hear the hurt in her question.

Vladimir shakes his head. "I didn't know who you were or who you were to me. I figured it out much too late. For as long as I can remember, we'd spend at least one weekend here in New Orleans. We never stayed long, even though Maxim always looked forward to the visits. He'd be in a good mood, which usually meant he was hurting someone. Every year, he'd take me to some location in New Orleans and we'd sit for an hour or more before leaving again. Those visits never made much sense to me, since being out in the open exposed us to danger. When I asked him what we were trying to accomplish, he'd say that he had debt to pay and it was one he enjoyed paying."

"He knew being able to see you, but not speak to you, was hell for me," Delphine tells him. "But I could not see you either. That would have been much worse. Even though you didn't know I was there."

"I didn't, not until much later. Each year, I searched for the person who I thought was watching us. I realized you were the person we were there for one day. I studied you and realized who you were. When I finally mentioned it to Maxim and told him I wanted to meet you, he stopped the visits to New Orleans. I came back a few times when I was older, but I never saw you again."

"You wouldn't have, unless you went to the French Quarter. That's where I spent most of my time. Maxim always chose places far away from my home base."

"So that's why I couldn't find you," Vladimir murmurs. He leans forward and grasps Delphine's hand.

"We need to talk about Maxim and what he wants," Hex cuts in. "Let's take this to my office."

"I don't know about you girls, but I could use a drink," Delphine says.

The girls each wrap an arm around their mom's waist and lead her out the door. We follow along behind them, but turn into Hex's office. Hex sits behind his desk while Vladimir and I take the chairs opposite.

"I'll answer whatever questions you have, but I'm telling you, I don't know what Maxim's up to. I just know that he has something big planned. Every time I ask him about it, he just tells me to not worry about it. That the less I know, the better, but how when he pulls it off I'm going to be awed by his brilliance."

Hex snorts, but waves his hand for Vladimir to continue.

"That's all I know. I didn't even know his big plan had anything to do with New Orleans until I learned he was here and meeting with Nero Golubrev."

"Maxim mentioned Nero was getting a ship prepped for him. He told us he kidnapped Delphine so Cleo would follow through with the plan. He's shipping something somewhere and needed modifications to the ship," Hex supplies.

"Any idea of what the cargo is?" Vladimir asks, intrigued.

"He didn't say. He didn't even tell us what ship he's using, only that the ship sails soon."

"I take it Cleo checked all the ship itineraries? What did she find?"

"She found three ships that leave port in two days and two more that leave the following day. Two have destinations in South America, two in Russia, and the last one in Italy. Each ship has had at least one modification made to accommodate a shipment."

"No idea who made the requests?"

"She has the names of five different companies, all of them check out. I even had Pirate dig into them to see if we could find a link with Maxim."

"Maxim has connections with several legitimate companies. I could review the list and see if I recognize one. Also, send me the itinerary of the ships and I'll see if a port of call sparks anything," Vladimir offers. "In the meantime, I better get going. Maxim's expecting me. He thinks I'm flying in from Boston today."

"He doesn't know you're already here?"

"No, and I don't want him to find out. Until we know what he's up to, I can't have him suspect me of working behind his back."

"I'll have Pirate send you the information we have. Are you taking the speedboat? I can walk you out."

"I want to say goodbye to Delphine before I go," Vladimir says.

We head for the common room, but we don't see Delphine or her daughters. Hex calls out to the prospect, Jack, to see if he knows where they went.

"They went outside with Cleo and Nora. They're helping Nora plan out her herb and vegetable garden."

The three of us head outside and find the women standing near a small patch of land with trees surrounding three of the sides. Nora is holding what looks to be a plan, with Delphine and Cleo on each side of her. Shayna and Sasha have twine and long sticks they're using to map out the space.

Delphine sees us and heads in our direction. Her eyes on Vladimir. "You're leaving?"

He smiles at her. "I am, but I promise to be back. Now that I've found my family, you couldn't keep me away."

Delphine gives him one of her brilliant smiles before pulling him in for a hug. While Vladimir says goodbye to Sasha, Shayna, and Cleo, Abra comes outside to find us. He glares at Vladimir before focusing his attention on Hex."There is a limo at our gates."

Vladimir grins. "You can keep the speedboat. Looks like my ride is here."

"How the hell did you find our location?"

"Golubrev's man, Mikel. After he escaped, he wandered around until he found the road. So I had a general idea of your location. Once Delphine and the girls escaped, I used the locator on the speedboat to pinpoint your location. I don't think Mikel remembers how to find you, or at least he never gave up your location to Maxim. He would have if he had it."

"Mikel works for our father?" Hex asks. "I thought you said Maxim wasn't involved in human trafficking."

"He's not, why?"

"We rescued several children from being auctioned off. Two of them were babies. We have an eyewitness who swears Mikel was the man who brought the babies."

Vladimir's face goes blank. "Maybe he was working on orders from Golubrev. Maxim better not be fucking around with children. I'll kill him myself. Leave it with me. I'll find out where those babies came from and let you know what I find out."

Hex nods. "You're certain Maxim isn't trafficking?"

Vladimir nods. "I have intimate knowledge of all his income streams and his holdings. He doesn't have the logistic means to traffic women and children. He also wouldn't be able to hide the income from me."

"But he's hiding this shipment from you?" Hex reminds him.

"He is, but this is a one-off, and he hasn't hidden the transaction, just the details."

We walk Vladimir to the road where a black limo idles. A man hops out and opens the door for his passenger. Before he climbs inside, Vladimir looks at me. "Hex is obviously okay with the relationship between you and our mother. However, I don't know you. If you hurt her, I'll happily kill you."

"If I hurt her, you and Hex will have to flip a coin to determine who kills me," I correct him. "However, I have no intention of hurting Delphine. I love her."

"Don't keep secrets from her," Vladimir warns. "Every man in her life has kept secrets from her. Don't be like them."

I hold my hands up in surrender. "I won't." Although even as I make the assurance, I know that I already am. Not only am I hiding secrets from Delphine, but from Hex and my brothers. I probably should have found Delphine and told her everything right then and there. But of course I'm male of the species and don't always make the right decision.