They took the elevator to the second floor, where they entered what looked like a typical office suite. The reception desk was empty. They walked past that to a large room with open desks in the middle and glass-walled offices around the perimeter. They headed toward one glass-walled room that held a long conference table and a wall of monitors.
There were three people in the room. All appeared to be somewhere in their thirties. Two were men, one with longish dark hair and eyes, and a ruggedly handsome look, wearing black slacks and a button-down shirt rolled up to his forearms. The other was blond and blue eyed with a surfer vibe, or maybe that was the faded jeans and T-shirt that gave him that appearance.
The woman was very pretty with long brown hair that had a touch of red to it. She had curious, assessing brown eyes and wore a sleeveless coral-colored top over dark jeans. Maya wouldn't have picked any of them to be FBI agents, but maybe that was the point.
"This is Maya," Jax said, waving his hand toward the group, who had all gotten to their feet. Starting with the dark-haired man, he added, "Beck Maxwell, Flynn MacKenzie, Caitlyn Carlson."
"Nice to meet you all," she said, feeling very much like she was under the microscope.
"Have a seat," Flynn said, waving her toward a chair as they sat down around the table. "Brandon says he should have good news soon."
She was relieved to hear that.
Flynn turned to Jax. "You brought your dad's notes?"
"Yes," he said, pulling out the papers. "I need to make copies."
"I'll do that," Beck said, taking the pages from Jax.
"Flynn filled us in," Caitlyn said. "I did a quick search on Ivan Novikoff, since that was a new name for us. He passed away twenty-six years ago. He was shot to death in a hotel room in New York City, two bullets—one to the head, one to the chest. His murder has gone unsolved."
"Twenty-six years ago," Jax murmured. "That's when my parents disappeared. The last day I saw them was June tenth."
"Novikoff died June fourteenth."
"Four days later," Jax said tersely. "What else do you know about him?"
"Novikoff was KGB, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him," Caitlyn replied.
"Any ties between him and Constantine Dimitrov?"
"They both attended the same school in Moscow. Novikoff ran an import/export firm that was based in Los Angeles in the eighties. I can't tie him to the Russia House, but I'm betting he was there."
"That would be a good bet, although he's not mentioned in Natasha's journals, at least not in her diaries."
As Jax drew in a breath and let it out, Maya felt a wave of sympathy for him. They could be talking about the man who murdered his parents. This wasn't just a case to him anymore; it was very, very personal.
"I don't want us to waste time on Novikoff," Jax said. "He's dead. We need to focus on Constantine. He's linked to everything: my parents' disappearance, Natasha's murder, the intelligence operation being run first through the Russia House and now through the Firebird Club. We need to tie him to the best pieces of evidence we can find."
"I might be able to help you with that," Brandon interrupted as he came through the door, with a gleam of excitement in his dark eyes. He set his laptop on the table as Beck re-entered the room with copies of Jax's father's notes. Those went untouched as everyone's attention turned to Brandon.
"What did you find?" Jax asked.
"A lot," Brandon replied, his gaze moving to Maya. "Your grandmother was extremely detailed."
Something else she hadn't known about her grandmother. She wondered if she'd finally get the real picture of Natasha.
"Natasha was recruited by Constantine Dimitrov while she was married to her first husband, Maya's grandfather, Phillip Ashton," Brandon said.
"I thought she got involved with Constantine after her second marriage," Maya put in.
"No," Brandon replied. "Constantine promised her the film career she wanted. All she had to do was help him, and she would get her dream of stardom. Her first mission was to get Wallace Jagger to represent her and to infiltrate his media company. She was successful at both."
"Wallace was a target?" she asked in surprise.
Brandon met her gaze. "He was the first of many to get caught in her honey trap."
“Honey trap?" she echoed.
"Someone who lures people in with sex or with promises of sex, possibly even love," Jax explained.