Seeds of Iniquity (In the Company of Killers, #4)(71)

I just look at him, feeling the sting of betrayal, even though I know he didn’t betray me at all.

Victor goes on:

“Also, after speaking with Dorian when he was first detained, Nora’s story seemed to hold more truth.” After a pause he says, “The mission to Mexico will be to figure out who Vonnegut is. You may be the only person among us who has ever seen the real Vonnegut.”

“What?” I can’t believe what I just heard.

He nods, and then starts to speak, but I interrupt.

“You’ve seen him,” I point out. “What are you talking about, Victor?”

“The man who I met with on rare occasion when I was part of The Order,” he begins, “who I was valued by as an operative, I have reason to believe was not the real Vonnegut. He was a decoy. The truth is that no one really knows who the real man is behind the oldest and largest assassination organization still running today. Not even the CIA or the FBI—no one. Just when they think they have an identity, they find that they’re just running in circles.”

Victor fills me in on everything Dorian told him, about Vonnegut’s suspected dealings with selling weapons to terrorists and that his business deals in so much more than contract killing. He goes on to tell me about the things Nora told him in secret, and about the tracking device that Victor cut out of me when I was on the run with him.

“Niklas and I knew,” Victor says, “the night I took that device out of you, that something that high-tech had to come from an outside source, that there was no way someone like Javier Ruiz would be able to produce it himself.”

“While I was spying on all of you,” Nora cuts in, “and delving into The Order’s information, I found out that Vonnegut was dealing in girls, too, and was selling high-tech tracking devices like the one they found in you.”

Victor adds, “I believe the device that was placed in you came from Vonnegut. I think Vonnegut was selling to Javier, and you were right there on the inside, closer to Vonnegut than just about anyone has ever been.”

“But what makes you think I know what he looks like?” I shoot back, growing overwhelmed by this surprising information.

“The wealthy men that you saw when Javier was using you as an arm trophy,” Victor says, “one of them I believe is the real Vonnegut.”

Immediately, I start to think back on all of their faces, each one moving fast through my mind like a blur.

“He can’t stay hidden forever,” Victor goes on. “Someone has seen him. He may be a ghost, but he’s still human and humans by nature need to associate with other humans, be in the presence of other people—I think he was one of those wealthy men, Izabel. And I think Nora going on this mission will be how we ultimately find him, dethrone him, and kill him.”

He pauses and adds with depth, “And then I will take over The Order once he’s dead.”

I don’t respond to his last comment, but for the first time since I came into the room, Fredrik’s eyes lock on mine.

This is the first time I’ve ever heard Victor say something like that. Take over The Order, The Order…it’s a conversation for another day. Right now my brain is overloaded with…everything.

I’m silent for a long time, letting everything else he’s told me sink in. There still seems to be a lot that has been left unanswered, but it takes me several minutes to figure out what those things are.

“But why send Nora?” I say, looking at her for only a second. “I mean…well, I guess I can’t be the one to go back in because too many already know what I look like—”

“I wouldn’t let you go back in anyway,” Victor cuts me off. “You’ll go to Mexico and be stationed in a tourist city, but Nora will be doing the inside work.”

I frown. “Why? What do you mean you won’t let me go back in?” There is acid in my voice.

Victor sighs and drops his hands back in his lap.

“You don’t think I’m capable of going back in,” I accuse. “You think I’m just like everybody else; that because I went through a traumatic experience I’d never be able to put myself through it again, that I’d never be able to handle it. Well, you’re wrong”—I slash a hand in the air—“I’m the opposite of everybody else. I’m not afraid of it. Of any of them. I’m stronger now than I ever was, and if anyone can do this job to perfection, it’s me. Not Nora, but me.”

“This isn’t about proving yourself, Izabel,” Nora says calmly and kindly.

I glare across at her. “No one asked for your opinion—”

“No, but I’m not the type to not give it,” she snaps back—Ah, there’s the real Nora Kessler: bold and mouthy and infuriating.

James scoots over on his chair a little to put some distance between him and Nora, probably expecting me to hurl myself across the table at her any second now.

I let it go, inhale a long, deep breath and look back at Victor.

“Like you said yourself,” Victor says, “you can’t be the one to go in because you can’t risk being seen.”

“Maybe there’s a way around that,” I say. “We could—”

“Izabel,” Victor interrupts with a somber and firm tone, “you’re not going back in there—you can’t fight off every man at that compound who’d try have his way with you.”