Headhunter (With Me in Seattle Mafia #2) - Kristen Proby Page 0,17

Cameron says with a smile. “He’ll be fine.”

So, I guess he’s not planning to stay, then.

“I didn’t know helicopters could fly that far.”

“We just had to stop in Boise to fuel up,” Cameron replies as Shane opens the back door of the house, and we file inside. “So, your phone call was mysterious this morning.”

“I’m hoping you can help us solve something.” Shane unlocks the door to the basement, and we all go down the stairs.

Cameron has clearly been here before.

“Ivie has a flash drive that she needs to be able to read, and it’s encrypted. When we tried to decode it, it wiped itself.”

Cameron’s eyebrows climb in surprise. “Interesting. Okay, let me see what I can do.”

He sits behind the computer, and as it boots up, he slips black-rimmed glasses onto his nose and gets to work.

“Someone worked really hard to make sure this didn’t get into the wrong hands,” Cameron murmurs. “You have no idea what’s on it?”

“None,” I reply and watch in fascination as his fingers fly across the keys. When he taps out a series of numbers and letters in a formula I recognize, my eyebrows climb. “Oh, I never thought to do that.”

“Why would you?” Cameron asks.

“Ivie’s something of a computer hacker,” Shane says with a proud grin. “It’s a sight to behold.”

“Really?” Cameron smiles at me. “That’s pretty cool.”

“How are things with that woman you were telling me about?” Shane asks him, making conversation. “Maggie?”

“Slow,” Cameron mutters with a frown. “If anyone in the world is more stubborn than Mary Margaret O’Callaghan, I haven’t met them. But I’m working on it. Okay, I’ve got it back.”

“That was fast. Holy crap,” I mutter.

“I’m good, sweetheart.” He looks up at the screen. “Would you like me to translate this for you?”

“Absolutely.” I drop into a chair beside him as he continues tapping the keyboard. Finally, words written in English fill the screen.

“Whoa,” Cameron breathes. “This is some deep shit.”

He clicks through some files and then turns to Shane.

“What is it?” Shane asks.

Cameron glances at me, but Shane just shakes his head. “It’s her drive, man. She should know what it says.”

Cameron blows out a breath and then starts in. “Okay, so this is all about a dude named Ivan Pavlov. I’ve heard of him. He died about a decade ago, in a really, really gnarly way. Anyway, this guy was a true piece of shit.”

He stands to pace the room, and Shane and I turn to watch him. Shane’s standing, his arms crossed over his chest. And all I can do is sit and listen to every single word.

“He was a European operative in the nineties. Ruthless. This man killed hundreds if not thousands of men, women, and children. Here.”

He moves back to the computer and taps some keys. Suddenly, a folder with photographs opens.

“All of these photos are of people he killed, supposedly under the direction of his government. Although many think he was a mercenary and not tied to the government at all. Anyway, all of these people are dead because of him.

“Then, about twenty-five years ago or so, he got in with some extra-bad people. He pissed them off. Big time. And they said the only way to get back into their good graces—i.e., not get dead—was for him to kill his own family.”

I feel Shane’s eyes shift to me, but I can’t take my eyes off of Cameron. How did I not know any of this?

He taps the keys, then stands to pace once more. Suddenly, I’m staring at a photo of my mother.

Murdered.

“He killed the wife,” Cameron continues. “And as you can see, he wasn’t nice about it. But I heard that he spared the kid because he decided he could get them—I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl—to do his bidding. No one suspects a kid getting in and out of places. After he came to the US, Pavlov was mostly into selling information. As far as I know, he didn’t kill here in the States like he did in Europe. Maybe he was getting older and wanted a new gig, who knows?”

“How do you know all of this?” Shane asks.

“I had to research him right before he died.” Cameron turns to look at Shane. “I was on a team that had been given the order to find and terminate him, but someone beat us to it. It looks to me like every single sin this guy ever committed is documented on this drive, along with