Matteo was pacing.

It had all been right in front of him the whole time, and he blamed himself for not putting two and two together.

Grace’s lover was involved in the plot to take down her father. The whole scene this afternoon was nothing more than a distraction to keep the household occupied and the baby alone.

Alone and vulnerable.

Mason Petrovich was in custody and not talking. Hell, they probably couldn’t even hold him for very long even though he was clearly involved. He wasn’t the one who had kidnapped Nico.

Matteo stared at President Vasile, suspicion getting the better of him. “Did you know her boyfriend was part of Ten Komanda?”

“I told you she needed protection.”

“Oh, my God. You knew.”

“I wasn’t certain.”

Matteo hung his head in his hands. “You should have fucking told me.”

“I couldn’t prove it.”

“You should have fucking told me! This isn’t a court of law. You thought your daughter was sleeping with one of the most dangerous men on the planet, and you said nothing. You should have told me your suspicions so I could better protect your daughter and grandson.”

“She cut me out of her life completely and left the country with him. By the time she came back here I wasn’t willing to ask the questions that would tell me for sure, but Talia was steadfastly convinced.”

“If I’d known, I would have done better,” said Matteo.

“I didn’t want to lose her again.”

A police officer walked in the room and Matteo pounced on him. “I’d like to interrogate him.”

“Under what authority? You are the victim’s husband.”

“There’s more going on here than you understand. I need to get in that room.”

“I’ll take full responsibility, officer,” said Vasile. “Let him do it.”

Matteo walked into the interrogation room, surprised by the intense desire he had to attack this man again.

“We meet again.” Petrovich took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled, the smoke filling the small room. “We have something in common, you and me, it would seem. She is very good, yes? I taught her to fuck well.”

Matteo’s hands twitched with the need to hurt him once more.

“I am the man who broke in your wife,” Petrovich said. “Who knocked her up with my big dick, my seed growing in her belly like a parasite.” He laughed. “The bastard, come to deliver our country from Vasile.”

Matteo grabbed the back of the man’s head and banged Petrovich’s forehead on the metal table. He kept hold of his hair and spoke next to his face. “Your real name is Vladimir Petrov,” he said, repeating the information Logan had sent over an hour earlier.

Now he had his attention.

“You’re thirty-four years old,” he continued. “You received a dishonorable discharge from the Russian army after you were caught selling munitions on the black market. You were suspected of raping two female soldiers, but they wouldn’t identify you, so you walked away instead of going to prison.”

“I want a lawyer.”

Matteo banged Petrov’s head on the table again. “I want my son back.”

“Marrying the whore doesn’t make him yours. You’ve been doing a lot of pretending, but Grace was pregnant before I left Switzerland.”

“You knew.”

“Of course. Did you think I was there because I loved her? I know Grace has some delusions, but you are a grown man.”

“You were trying to get her pregnant.”

“Most fun assignment I’ve ever had. It took longer than expected, however. I can’t say I was displeased about that.”

“Your organization is responsible for the terror attacks, too.”

“We’re not that different, you and me. You work for one side, and I for another. Each of us will do what is necessary to do our jobs well.”

“You took an innocent child away from his mother. I would never do such a thing.”

“Come now, it’s really just shifting the babe from one side of the family to the other.”

“The public is going to feel bad for President Vasile. Their sympathy will affect their vote.”

“The public isn’t going to hear anything about this. If they do, they will also learn of his duplicity in this sham of a marriage you have created. We have the priest, minus half his leg, of course. He’ll admit to falsifying the date on the marriage certificate. Either way, Vasile is out of the race. Either he steps down or he is shamed into doing so.”

“And what about you?”

“Mason Petrovich is being bailed out as we speak. He has done nothing illegal, though I may need a new alias, just to be safe.”

“You’re not going anywhere. This whole interview is on tape.”

Petrov smiled. “No, it isn’t. Do you think I would be so foolish?”

A knock on the mirror brought Matteo’s head up sharply. He walked into the other room, where a two-way mirror revealed Petrov grinning like a Cheshire cat. A lone officer stood in the room. “The camera’s not on, buddy. I just walked in here.”

“What about the officers who were in here when I arrived?”

“What officers? We were all in a meeting.”