JULIAN'S VOICE

JULIAN

The recording plays twice.

I don't need it a third time. I have a very good memory for the things that matter, and Tatiana's voice matters. 

The way it sounds when she's exicted. The way it changes when she is scared. 

She wasn't scared tonight. That's the thing I can't keep out of my mind. 

She should have been more scared.

I set my phone face-down on the desk and lean back in the chair and look at the ceiling of my hotel room.

He knows who I am.

I can't shake this nagging thought that sends shivers down my spine in a bad way. 

Tatiana's stepbrother. I ran a check after she ended the call. 

Except for his basic details. Kain Morozov is a digital ghost.

Fine.

I've been known by worse men.

The people who worked adjacent to Viktor's network, the ones still breathing, they all say the same thing.

 You never know what Kain is thinking.

You never know what he's going to do next.

I find that a little frustrating actually. The man who took my girl is someone I cannot read. Or find.

I pull up the financial search on my laptop. 

Morozov estate holdings. 

There are fifteen distinct property registrations across four countries, and I've been through twelve of them. 

The remaining three are interesting. One cliffside property on the northern coast. Security registered under a shell company that hasn't filed new paperwork in three years. 

I make a note.

Tatiana didn't give me anything useful on the call tonight, but she probably couldn't. It's a miracle she could even get a call out after the letter which was also lacking information I could use to find her.

Obviously, Kain wants something. What other reason would there be for kidnapping Tatiana who knows nothing about her father's dealings.

I just need to find her.

I am her Romeo. Her words, not mine, but I'm comfortable with it. 

Romeo should find Juliet before Kain changes his mind on keeping her alive.

She said I love you at the end of the call and she meant it. 

I said it back. I always say it back within a reasonable beat. 

Too fast, and it may sound rehearsed. Too slow reads as reluctant. There's a window of about two seconds that lands as genuine and I've never missed it.

I close the laptop and stand up and go to the window. The city is grinding along with its lights on.

Sweet Tatiana. My secret girlfriend. 

She reads too much. Talks even more. 

Tatiana would have her pick of men. If she ever fell in the public eye but her father kept her close to the point that the world outside those mansion walls is essentially theoretical to her. 

It made me lucky to be noticed by her. 

All that book knowledge and nowhere to put it except at people like me. It's both her vulnerability and the thing that makes her genuinely interesting to talk to. 

I never expected to find her interesting. 

What I need now is her location. Not the general area, I have that already, but the property. 

 I need to know what I'm walking into before I make any move that puts me in the same room as Kain Morozov.

Because Kain Morozov is not to be messed with.

I know what happens when something breaks his control.

Tatiana’s parents are the perfect example. I mean, the guy didn't even hesitate to kill his own father.

He's dangerous.

The recording is still on my phone.  What I'm listening for now is the space around it, the things she didn't say, or couldn't say.

She paused before she said his name.

Briefly.

She called him he, and then she corrected it to his name, and then she said the call had been monitored. 

She sounded irritated, not afraid. 

I make another note.

Then I put my phone away and order room service and sit down with the financial records again, because Tatiana's location is somewhere in those three remaining property registrations.

I'll find her.

I'm very good at finding things.

And Kain Morozov, controlled as he is, has already made his first mistake tonight.

He let her call me.