Shatter by Joan Swan Page B

be why she was never a focus. Still, her history would be twisted by a talented defense attorney.”
    “I know. I am that defense attorney.”
    “Good to know you don’t suffer from any self-esteem problems.”
    “And you do?” he asked.
    Owen ignored his rhetorical question. “But she’s a smart woman. Which means she was a smart kid. And I can tell you from experience, kids know one hell of a lot more about what’s going on in a family than adults give them credit for. My kids knew my ex and I should have gotten a divorce long before we figured it out.”
    At least what Halina had told him about her parents dying and how she’d been raised by her extended family had been true. That eased a sliver of his heart. “What else?”
    “The husband bit looks like bullshit.”
    Owen’s words bounced right off Mitch’s skull. He grabbed them back. “Wait. What? ”
    “From what I can find, the Saveli Sintrovsky who worked as an ambassador seven years ago is a second cousin to the Beloi family and lives in Moscow, five hundred miles from Saratov.”
    She married her cousin? That was Mitch’s first crazy thought. He rubbed his eyes and opened his ears for the real information.
    “He’s kept himself very removed from the Beloi clan for good reason,” Owen continued. “He’d never hold on to his job in government if he associated with them. He was taking a big chance posing for Beloi in Washington. Risked his twenty-year career. Whatever the reason, it must have been important.
    “He’s also never been married. Neither has Halina Beloi. Or Halina Sintrovsky. Or Halina Dubrovsky. Or Heather Raiden.”
    Mitch’s gaze had gone distant. He was having a hard time breathing. “Are you absolutely sure about this? It’s a big deal.”
    “Let’s see . . .” Owen’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “I am nearing a pretty nice-looking pension from the United States Army. I’ve got just a little bit of pretty metal on my uniform, a title they pronounce colonel, and holy shit, look at that, they even gave me a fucking office at the Pentagon. You’re a tedious man, Foster. I don’t know how you keep employees.”
    “My charming wit,” he rasped, his mind helpless for the moment as if it had been hit by a curveball traveling a hundred miles per hour.
    “There’s something else I need to talk to you about,” Owen said. “When are you going to be in town?”
    “You say that like I’m around the damn corner. It’s a six-hour flight, Young.”
    “You’re not a morning person, are you?”
    Mitch dropped his head back. Emotion washed over him in a tidal wave. “I’ll call you when I’m coming in. Thanks for the information.”

F IVE
     
    M itch disconnected and stood staring at the ceiling for what felt like a long freaking time. The longer he stared at nothing, the harder it was to move. Fury had him sweating, shaking, rage building in his body until he thought he’d burst. And underneath, hurt. Hurt so deep it sealed his bones.
    When his mind short-circuited and stopped connecting facts, he turned on Halina. She was sitting on the edge of the other bed, the bathrobe clutched in one hand at her neck.
    “That . . . didn’t sound good,” she rasped as if her throat were too tight to get the words out. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes an odd shade of dark blue.
    “You . . .” He didn’t even know how to get the words out. He wiped a hand over his mouth. Get it together. It’s over. In the past. Way past. But the pep talk only eased the anger so the hurt bubbled up in its place. He couldn’t even look at her when he said, “You weren’t even married ?”
    Hearing the words aloud split him down the middle. God, he’d thought he was over this. So over her. But he obviously wasn’t. He’d obviously been stuffing the pain away instead of dealing with it. And, wow, did that bite hard.
    “He was your cousin, working at the Russian embassy. Exactly what you’d told me when we met.”
    He laughed at the sheer