Vengeance Aside (Wanted Men 0.5)(52)

“You live with a man?” Maksim asked as he passed on some butternut squash Vasily offered him.

Lukas gave the instigator a warning look. “We’d have known that if Samuel kept better records.” He addressed his brother. “Who collected the few bits of information in that file? Damien?” Damien was Samuel’s byki’s four-year-old son.

Samuel grinned. “I didn’t think she would one day be living under our roof, so I only asked for the basics.”

Maksim’s attention was still on Dale. “Does he know where you are?”

Shifting in her seat, Dale fiddled with her cutlery. Her ring glittered beautifully beneath the chandelier. “I moved out before work yesterday, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It never did,” Lukas added.

“Not to you,” Maksim said. To Dale, he confirmed, “You’re not really gay, though, are you?” The interested note in his voice had Vasily giving Lukas an apologetic shrug as he pushed his empty plate aside and picked up his wine glass. Dmitri was at the end of the table, and like Gheorghe, he was observing in silence as he finished eating. Sergei was absent as he’d opted to have dinner sent to his room.

“No. I only said that to Garrett so he’d stop groping me.”

Groping her? Lukas pictured some desperate prick touching her without her permission. “Two killings in two days?” he murmured. “You’re going to make me set a personal best, yagodka. Now.” He looked across to Samuel. “Let’s move onto how the fuck this asshole knew her roommate was a man, and why he’s been nosing around her neighborhood.”

“One of the girls probably told him about Liam.” Dale wasn’t eating anymore but pushing her food around her plate. “And, as I said, I think he lives near me because I’ve seen him more than a dozen times in the past couple of months.”

Everyone at the table looked at her.

She looked back with those innocent emerald eyes wide with discomfort. “What.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Farah put her utensils down.

“Farah said you live—or used to live,” Samuel corrected when he saw Lukas open his mouth, “just outside of Midtown. Garrett Dawson lives in Garden Oaks with his wife and two kids.”

“Oh.” Dale’s smile was forced as she shook her head when their housekeeper touched her elbow to offer her lemonade or iced tea. “No, thank you.” As Oksana went around the table, Dale said, “Maybe Garrett works around my old apartment. Or the studio where I teach. Or he could drive through that neighborhood on his way to and from work.”

Farah shook her head, looking more and more disturbed. “He owns one of the dealerships on Shepherd Drive.” Which was on the other side of downtown Houston.

“Do you have someone on this?” Lukas asked his brother.

“When Farah came to me with it last night, I sent the boys out. The wife told our ‘detailers’ Dawson hasn’t been home in a couple of days, and he hasn’t shown at the dealership either. She said he gambles, and he’s done this before, but we don’t think he’s on a bender. I’ll let you listen to the message he left Gretchen later.”

Farah made a face that had Lukas wanting to hear the message now.

“Don’t worry,” Samuel said to her. “We’ll find him before he follows through on it.”

“On what?” Dale asked. She was rubbing her stomach like she felt sick. “What did he say to Gretchen?”

Samuel exchanged a look with his wife, and spoke only after Farah nodded. “He described how he would nail her before he killed her in front of her kid.”

Dale gasped as Lukas went cold. If the guy was planning that kind of fun with Gretchen, what was to stop him from adding Dale to his list of possible victims? Was that why he’d been hanging in her neighborhood? Had he been learning her routine? Hoping to catch her unawares so he could snatch her?

Lukas looked down the table to see Maksim tapping away on his phone. The guy must have a harem for how often he texted. “Maks?”

Without lifting his head, Vasily’s valued avtorityet started rattling off information, listing everything from personal debts to how unimpressive Garrett Dawson’s marks were in high school. “He doesn’t have a car in his name, so I’ll bet that means he drives those off his lot. Give me a second.” He tapped for a minute in the silence that now surrounded him. An awed silence. “Yeah. His dealership’s records show six vehicles are out. Four of them are customer rentals, two of them are not…” More tapping. “GPS says the wife has a Caddy in their driveway in Garden Oaks. That means…” A low chuckle sounded, and when he raised his head to look at Samuel then Lukas, there was a determined gleam in his silver eyes. “Got a laptop? The asshole scrambled the signal on the GPS. Looks like he doesn’t want to be found.” He stood as Samuel did the same, but didn’t follow when Samuel headed for the office and their computers.

Instead, Maksim continued to look at Lukas. He switched to Russian when he spoke.

“I’ll pin this prick down only if I get to come along for the ride. Oh, and I want him in pieces. Or is it pieces of him.” He waved a hand. “You know what I mean.”

Lukas had to smile. Maksim wanted a piece of Dawson. He got it. “Be my guest. But I won’t be going out personally unless there’s evidence Dale was a target.”