Page 102 of Exacting Vengeance

Yuri’s admission to Victoria had tipped the evidentiary scale.

Victoria. Even while organizing the biggest federal search warrant ever served in this county, she was all he could think about. When he’d left her at the airfield, the look of confusion on her face about killed him, but he hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up before confirming his plan would work. As ordered, his brothers had kept an eye on her for him.

The hospital doctor had said Victoria and the baby were fine. To his relief, she’d taken the week off from work, and either Jack or Deke had stopped in every day to check on her. To make sure she was okay and to verify she hadn’t taken off. No matter what happened next, he planned on being a father to their baby. On that point, he wouldn’t negotiate. The rest would be up to her.

Police radio chatter interrupted his thoughts. Nearly twenty people were on site, including local field agents and supervisors, forensic teams, the divers, and the Vermilion County Sheriff himself.

Kyle waited while divers brought up the final victim, then aimed his phone at the row of seven black body bags, snapping multiple shots he would forward to AUSA Greg Washington. Washington had already assured him that if the victims were indeed discovered at the bottom of the lake, he’d give Victoria full immunity.

He still couldn’t believe how close he’d come to losing her. Seeing her pale, shaking, with a trickle of blood and the beginnings of a bruise on her cheek, had rocked him more than an earthquake.

One way or the other, Yuri had known it was over. The moment he’d started to raise the muzzle of his gun at Kyle, he’d unloaded most of his magazine into Yuri’s chest. Behind him, his brothers and the state troopers had done the same. As he’d raced past the man’s unmoving body, he noted that, even in death, the bastard still gripped his gun—the same one he’d used to shoot Ivan Asimov, whose body had been discovered in the nearby woods.

Kyle took individual shots of the bodies. Positive IDs would take some time, but there was no real question as to who they were. He cued up Washington’s and Mike’s phone numbers in the text box and forwarded the photos. Now, the waiting began.

Two hours later, Kyle was still on site, cataloguing what the forensic teams could tell him about the bodies, when the call came in.

“I have good news,” Mike said. “The Southern District’s U.S. Attorney herself called me, and it’s official. There will be no charges filed against Victoria for her inadvertent role with the ledger, or for taking Yuri’s money and donating it.”

Kyle exhaled a long breath. “Thanks, Mike.” Unbeknownst to his boss, since the moment he’d stepped off the plane at O’Hare, he’d been working behind the scenes to make that happen.

“Finding those bodies convinced her to charge Lebedev with conspiracy,” Mike continued, “but it was you who convinced her Victoria was a victim.”

She had been a victim. He should have viewed her that way from the moment she’d admitted to being Yuri’s mysterious accountant.

“And the money?” Kyle asked. “Did they agree to my proposal?” The final part of the package he’d presented to AUSA Washington had included a restitution recommendation.

“They did.” Mike chuckled. “The charities she donated to will keep those funds, and the remainder will be added to the assets we’ll seize from Lebedev after his arrest. When his case is adjudicated, all that money will be shared with the families of the victims.”

“And Victoria’s statement about Yuri and Lebedev killing them?” Mike wasn’t aware that Kyle had threatened to quit the Bureau and refuse to testify himself if the U.S. Attorney’s Office used that information.

“They won’t use it. Reluctantly,” he added. “I’m not sure what you said, but they agreed. Your suggestion that he be charged with conspiracy, along with obstruction of justice for concealing the bodies on his property, seems to be enough for them. That, and what Deke dug up showing Lebedev’s ownership of the property, exposes him to a minimum twenty-year sentence.”

“Good.” He nodded to one of the forensic agents who waved him over.

AUSA Washington had been pissed when Kyle had threatened him, but he hadn’t cared because he’d meant every word. To keep Victoria out of prison, he’d bail on the investigation, the Bureau, everything.

The morning Lebedev had called to give him Yuri’s location, he’d implied Victoria would get a pass for keeping the ledger. Then, he hadn’t known Yuri had confessed to her and implicated him in the murders. If he’d known that, Kyle didn’t doubt Lebedev would have put a price on her head.

Kyle noted the time on his phone. “Mike, I gotta go.”

There was a Friday night red-eye out of O’Hare to Newark he could still make.

After landing, he’d have the most important question of the rest of his life to ask.

Victoria stared at her pale reflection in the mirror. Finally, she’d managed to keep down some of the soup Tracee had stocked her refrigerator with. The baby—he or she—wasn’t due for nearly eight months.

She rinsed out her mouth and wiped her face with a towel. Was this what it would be like for the entire first trimester? According to all the pregnancy articles she’d read in the last week, possibly.

When the intercom buzzed, she hung her head and groaned. It was fifty-fifty, whether it was Tracee with more soup or one of Kyle’s brothers. They’d all been annoyingly attentive over the last four days. Probably to make sure she didn’t leave town. Kyle hadn’t called once.

The intercom buzzed again, louder, if that were possible.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

She pressed the button and said in an unreceptive tone, “Yes.”

“It’s Kyle.”