12. DANYA

My father dropped the bombshell on all of us. This wasn't family money that had been taken. It was the Sokolov's money. They'd been funneling it through our family for years. Since people were rising against the oligarchs and shutting their operations, having American dollars washed and ready for use when they came over was what my family was being paid for.

I'd heard stories about rows of houses being blown to bits because of money. I always thought my father was ruthless, but the people still in Russia were worse.

I had to stress Sutton to get more information faster. And by the way he'd taken my load in his throat. I knew I wasn't going to have any problems getting him to do what I wanted.

We took a cab and sat in silence as we went for breakfast. After that rude awakening and even ruder interaction with my family, I needed to line my stomach. Nobody in my family minced their words, they said it how they meant it, and if you couldn't handle it, then that was on you. I handled a lot of what was thrown my way, but I didn't know if Sutton could do the same.

He had his laptop open in the fancy restaurant. The type with place settings, shiny cutlery, and someone playing on a harp. I was making full use of him being dressed all nice. And then his laptop ruined it. It was dirty, with stickers all over the back of it.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. "You found anything yet?"

He briefly looked at me from over the screen. "I'm combing through data," he said. "When are the waffles arriving?"

I scoffed. "We're not in a fucking diner. You've got eggs benedict. You mentioned eggs, so that's what you get."

He looked away. "Are you gonna tell me why we had to leave so fast?"

"No."

"Fine."

"What do you mean, fine?"

"I mean, that's fine, I'm not pushing you. I know what boundaries are," he said, smirking at me. "So, when are my eggs benedict coming? And I also need a coffee. A large one."

Maybe it was a mistake bringing him to a fancy place. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Waiting for food and doing the job you asked of me. I'm trying to find the money that was stolen from your family. And I'd like a large coffee to make sure my eyes stay open long enough to comb through all the data."

I raised a finger, gesturing to a server. I needed a coffee too. My family hadn't let up on the fact that my name was on the withdrawal. But I didn't have a couple million dollars. And I wasn't ready for my head to be put on the chopping block by the Russians.

We got our coffees and breakfast plates. I watched Sutton with a keen eye. He didn't look at me once from his laptop screen. There was something going on behind his eyes, and I wanted to know what. Sutton seemingly multitasked, eating the eggs, drinking the coffee, and tapping away at the keys.

"Any lead?" I asked, wiping my mouth with a napkin.

"Nope," he grumbled, not breaking eye contract with his laptop. "You know, I'll tell you if I get a lead. It's not like I'm gonna not tell you."

"So, you wanna tell me what you're doing?"

I caught him roll his eyes. "Not in particular. Our methods are different. Your method is to take someone and drill holes in them until they speak. My method is to set tiny traps all over the web and wait for them to creep around the edge." His brows raised on his forehead, and he sucked on his teeth. "Once they creep, I can scrape their information, but depending on how long they were there will depend on how much information I can get."

It was all far too complicated for me. "Whatever."

"Are we going back to the apartment?" he asked. "I'd prefer to do this somewhere other than public Wi-Fi, and while this place seems nice. You should have protection put on your phone. In fact, everyone connecting to the network here is at risk of having someone rifle through all their data."

"You too."

He scoffed. "My shit is encrypted. My laptop would sooner burn from the inside than have anyone hack it. Self-destruct buttons on everything." He smiled all cocky. He straightened his back and looked over his laptop screen. "Oo. Are you gonna finish your toast?"

"No, have it," I grumbled. "So, big brains. If you're all so brainy and shit, why aren't you working for a tech company doing security for them, or like the FBI."

He laughed. "Oh. Wait. You were being serious?"

"Yeah. It's a serious question. Why aren't you working for a company instead of doing what you're doing?"

It seemed like this wasn't the first time he'd asked this question, or the first time he was even being asked to explain himself about it. "I've never had a formal education," he said. "Everything I do is slapped together haphazardly. I exploit weaknesses. I rarely do any of the big programming hack legwork that—" he chewed his lips together.

"Go on," I encouraged, pushing my plate across to him. "Like what?"

"I'm not having this emotional breakthrough with you over breakfast," he said, taking my plate and putting it over his fork scraped clean plate. "But there are others out there, people better than me. Most of them are better than me."

That wasn't what I'd been led to believe about him. I thought he was some big-time hacker. "Oh."

"Don't oh, me. I can hear the sympathy. I'm probably on a watchlist, that's another reason I'm not allowed to work for the FBI," he added, digging into my breakfast leftovers. "Question for you, why do you still go back to your family when they don't respect you?"

"They do respect me," I snapped.

Heads turns in our direction.

"They do respect me," I repeated softer.

"I'll rephrase the question, why don't you leave your family?" he asked. "Don't you want to go out into the world and do your own thing?"

I stared at him across the table, wondering what other thing I could do out in the world. I knew the family business, I relied on those connections. Putting on a resume that your father is the leader of a crime family isn't exactly something people do. "What job do you think I'd do?"

"I barely even know you," he grumbled. "I'm just saying. There's gotta be more to life than doing what your father tells you."

I understood his jaded feelings toward family. He didn't have one. Of course, he was jaded. "It's ok," I said. "I get to live where I want. I get to come to nice places like this. You're only putting that thought in my mind because you want me to stop pushing you and leave."

"That would be one benefit," he said.

My phone buzzed on the table, rattling against the ceramic cup.

Sutton reached over and grabbed it. "It's from them. Look. Blocked number. I need to know." He reached into his bag, rummaging around all hectic, pulling out wires. He was causing a scene. This wasn't how to behave in such a nice place.

I snapped my fingers. "It's important," I announced a little louder. "I'm sorry."

He seemed to derive pleasure in this, a little smile on his face as he sat upright in his chair again, wire in one hand, phone in the other.

"You did that on purpose," I said.

"And what if I did?"

"You're testing me, aren't you?"

He continued to smirk at me as he plugged my phone into the computer and tapped away.

"Well?" I asked, growing impatient.

Sutton cleared his throat, looking at the phone screen. "Tick tock, tick tock. That's the sound of your clock running out."

I reached out and grabbed the phone to see for myself. I didn't know what any of it meant. There hadn't been a clock on anything.

"What does it mean?" we both asked each other at the same time.

Sutton pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I don't have anything. So, it's clearly aimed at you."

"Someone is fucking with us," I said. "That is the only explanation. Correct?" It had to be.

"Duh," he said, rolling his eyes. "Of course, someone is fucking with us." He chewed his lips together, opening them a little, there was blood.

"Stop it," I said, pressing my foot against his under the table. "Fucking stop."

"What?"

"Biting your lips. Put some Vaseline on them too."

Screwing his lips together once more and frowning at me. He didn't like being told what to do. "Why?" he mumbled. "So when I go down on you again, you don't feel my dry lips? News flash, I don't have a fucking apartment anymore. I don't have my face moisturizer, my hand moisturizer, or a lip balm."

"Or your toys," I added. "Maybe if I can get you your toys, then will you relax?" Those large dildos I'd been surprised to see in his closet had been playing on my mind. And now that I knew he could for sure take me without crying, I was growing fond of him. And it was rare I ever thought about fucking someone twice. Once was enough for most guys; they'd become all teary-eyed and apologetic for what they'd asked.

He stood on my foot this time. "Are you being serious?"

"Yes. Of course. And since you look like that, I can potentially swing that you're looking at the place. The police are for sure gone. And most of it they didn't take. Only your toothbrush for DNA."

He snickered. "Good luck scraping that for DNA. I always keep my toothbrush in my bag. The decoy goes in the holder by the sink."

"Smart."

"When you do what I do, it's important that you don't leave your shit behind," he said. "Except for like the things I couldn't carry, but those are silicone, and they do not store DNA on them well. At least, I don't think they do. Anyway, are you being serious, can we go back and get my things?"

Seeing how bright this potential news made his face. I used it to my advantage. "Sure," I said. "But if I'm going on a limb for you here, then you're gonna have to make sure that you are putting in one hundred percent of yourself in finding the person behind those texts."

"What you're saying sounds like we're a team," he snickered. "You're the muscle and I'm the brains."

"I have brains too."

Sutton squinted, looking at me. "Sure, you have one, just like I have muscles, except, neither of those are our top attributes. Like, you couldn't do this, and I couldn't kick a door in."

"Ok, ok, I get it. But it would look funny to see what impact your body would do to a door."

Sutton's phone buzzed. He glanced at it for a moment before switching out the wire into it.

"C'mon," I grumbled. "If we're a team, you've got to tell me what it says."

"It says, this is a game of cat and mouse, except we're both looking for the cheese, and cats eat mice."

"Cat and mouse," I snickered. "We're clearly the cat. Right?"

He shook his head. "They're the cat. Unless you're the cat and I'm the mouse."

"Maybe if we make ourselves more like cats."

"What are you smoking right now?" he chuckled. "It's a riddle, or bullshit. Whatever it is, they're saying that we're both looking for the same thing. Only one of us can find it, and if we find it first, they'll kill us and take it."

I had the intense urge to pop the buttons on my shirt with a nice arm and chest flex. "Ask them to speak normally, please. It's too early for these shenanigans."

"Shenanigans," he giggled. "Well, it's still a dead end. They're pinging from cell towers all over the city. I think we should go and get my toys now. It would motivate me to work harder."

Looking from his cute little smile to his hands in a prayer. I couldn't say no to his little request.