Hidden Truths (Perfectly Imperfect #3)

“What do you mean?”

He rolls his eyes. “I’m not blind, and I’m not yet senile.”

I ignore his comment and walk over to stand behind him. The screen on his laptop shows a camera feed with different angles of a street. “Are those… traffic cameras?”

He nods. “Four traffic cameras and one ATM camera.”

“How did you access those?”

“That’s what I do—or did—when Sergei and I worked together. He went into the field, and I provided support from the base.”

“And the other people on the team? What were their jobs?”

Felix looks up at me. “There were never other people. It was always one operative and one handler.”

“He was sent on missions alone? What about backup? What if something happened and he needed help?”

“Sergei rarely needed help, Angelina.” He smiles and looks down at the screen. “I missed this.”

I hear the footsteps behind me and turn to find Sergei coming in. He’s wearing another suit, with a black dress shirt this time.

“Anything?” he asks, reaches for the guns on the counter, and places them in a shoulder holster hidden under his jacket. He didn’t have those earlier.

“Nothing so far.” Felix gestures at the laptop. “Little Sam will do a pass in half an hour.”

“Good.” Sergei nods, takes a big rectangular box from the chair, and puts it on the table.

When he opens the lid to check the contents, I move to the side to take a peek and falter. It’s a sniper’s rifle. “I thought you were going to a business meeting?”

“Something about this meeting doesn’t sit well with me.” He reaches for the earpiece Felix passes him, and puts it in. “I’m going to do a sweep when I get there. Let me know the moment you see the Irish coming.”

He closes the box with the rifle, picks it up, and looks over at me. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” He smirks, and he’s gone the next moment.

I wait until I hear the front door close, then sit down on the chair next to Felix. “How come Petrov lets Sergei handle business deals? Considering his mental state.”

“Because even mentally unstable Sergei does great work. And anyway, none of the people they partner with are fully sane.”

“He never zones out while he’s at a meeting?”

“Nope. Not at a meeting. And never in the field,” he says. “He happens to overdo stuff occasionally, though.”

“Yeah, I heard. He almost killed four of my father’s men when they met to talk about partnering last year.”

“I remember that. He was probably in a good mood that day.”

“Good mood?”

Felix puts down his glasses and fixes me with his stare. “There were five of them, four bodyguards and your father. All armed. Sergei was alone. They tried to disarm him. It was verydisrespectful from their side. I was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t just kill them all, your father included.”

“How did he manage to overpower all four of them if everyone was armed?”

“With frightening ease. Your father’s men were just some hired goons with no real training.”

He puts his glasses back on and turns his gaze to the screen again. “This will take a while. Go to sleep.”

I most certainly don’t plan on sleeping until Sergei comes back. I run upstairs to shower and change, then head back and take a seat next to Felix.

Chapter 13