P E A C H    M C C O Y — T H E     H A C K E R

I was freaking out.

Sitting at the stairwell of Viktor's grand mansion— well his sister's mansion — I held a piece of key evidence in my hand.

A receipt.

Why would a receipt be so important? I found it in the main drawing room, folded carelessly under a bunch of other books and papers. To everyone else it would be nothing but this was key evidence. God I wished I still had my crime board.

The receipt was for one black coffee and a croissant from Surf Lounge.

Now, I'd been thinking. Kira was no mastermind. She didn't seem like the person to even know how to change a lightbulb for fuck's sake but she was involved. Maybe she was being threatened. If they had got to Viktor, what's not to say they hadn't got to his sister. Was this meeting a trap? I couldn't be sure.

Facts were not adding up here, nothing made sense but what I did notice about Kira is that she always seemed to be walking on eggshells. Her eyes darted this place and that, she seemed overly peppy and her moods changed so fast. I guessed she was bipolar, I'd met suckers like her before but she could be involved with this plot, forced to do the bidding of someone with the promise that her brother would be kept safe.

It made so much sense. They could be using her to get money from Summit Holdings. But then again, why didn't they hide their information better. Why did they leave key evidence lying around... unless they didn't mean to.

Something about this case was just being a little too convenient, even for me. How it is clues present themselves at the peak of the investigation. I knew without a doubt that things had switched up and I needed more help with this. I think it was time I had a real conversation with my dad. That involved asking Viktor for his help to reach the old man.

I sighed and kept my eyes on the receipt like it would give me answers. The words were faded, the paper probably being days old. I hadn't seen any other receipts of papers that linked to this one. Kira didn't strike me as someone who would enjoy her coffee black. So this receipt definitely wasn't for her. I needed to talk to Viktor but I knew he'd push away the fact that his sister was involuntarily involved. Right now, I needed facts not feelings so I decided I was keeping him out of the loop on this one.

I was startled by the sound of footsteps coming my way and fast. I dropped the receipt and kicked it somewhere, trying to descend the stairs and crashed right into Kira. I stumbled a few steps back, catching myself on the rail before I tripped over the stair behind me.

Righting myself, I was going to apologize when I caught sight of Kira. Her breathing was heavy, her eyes were narrowed and an angry blush rested on her round cheeks. Jesus, this girl was livid.

"Sorry?" I stated confused.

"God Peach why are you sucking a fucking pain?!" Kira yelled, her tone sparking anger in me.

"Woah princess, pull the reigns in a bit," I stated narrowing my own eyes.

"You know my brother's only tagging you around as a charity case," she snapped. "I see the way you look at him and I'll tell you this, he will never love you. He can't feel love, or joy. He's just using you, taking what he wants and then he'll get bored and ignore you or toss you away."

What exactly do you say to that? Well that's easy. You defend your pride with every fibre of your being.

"You're talking like I don't want to be used," I coolly stated, giving myself a mental high five. That was a good enough comeback and the angry that continued to blow over Kira's head was just the proof I needed.

"He's going to break you," she threatened. "It's what he does. He makes you feel important. He tell you all these little things and makes promises but he's just toying with you. He never follows through. I'm not sure he told you up up here," she gestured to her head. "Us Makarovich are not properly wired. My brother loves pain. He loves to see people beg and squirm under his hand. He loves to kill, he gets high from it but... you already know that don't you?"

I didn't answer her. I just glared, not willing to play this game with a fifteen year old girl.

"He's just getting an asset with you. My father used to tell us to make friends with the smartest people in the room but be clever enough to stay one step ahead of them. Always."

"And you?" I asked crossing my arms. "What's your tick huh? You love to control people, their situation and environment? You want power? You want to feel above everyone you meet because you've always been the little guy?" I scoffed. "I have a sibling. I know what it's like to seemingly fall under their shadow but you've been drowning in two shadows haven't you? A brother who could do no wrong and another who did everything wrong but wasn't called out on it?"

"You don't know me—"

"I don't," I interrupted her. "And quite frankly, I don't want to. But if you dare threaten Viktor's life. I will forget that you're his blood. Understand?"

Kira laughed. "He'd hate you if you killed me."

"You won't be alive to test that theory," I pointed out. "You may look all sweet and innocent to him but you and I are more alike than you think."

"Except for the part where I'm not a stupid black bitch who probably loves being degraded to the shit under someone's shoe."

I stared at her blankly. "Princess, you're going to come up with something better to hurt me. I've heard it all before."

"I guess the words hurt more when Viktor says them to you. Don't worry. You don't have to wait long," she snapped and moved up the stairs, knocking into my shoulder as she went. Angry, grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"I'm serious about what I said. You blood is mine if you are threaten Viktor's life," I said in a low cold tone that Viktor normally used in these kinds of situations.

"He's my brother. I don't want him dead," Kira sneered and yanked her arms from me.

"In this line of work, that doesn't mean anything," I answered even though her tone seemed genuine. As she glared at me, I saw a shadow of doubt cross her face before she sighed and climbed the stairs quickly. I stared after her and shook my head.

I did not like her.

Looking around, I found the receipt on the ground and pocketed it. I needed to gather more information.

"Hey."

I looked behind me where Viktor slowly approached. He seemed stressed and tired of this whole situation.

Don't worry. I'm going to figure this out Viktor.

"Hey," I greeted casually. "Just run into your sister. It's official. She doesn't like me."

"She doesn't have to," he assured me, repeating the words I told him yesterday. I smiled a little.

"Do you want to get out of here?" he asked and I nodded.

"I have someone I want to talk to though. I think it might help us with the case," I said slowly, trying to find a way to pick out what information I was going to share with Viktor.

I was taking it upon myself to fix this because Viktor was too emotionally attached to this case. I have to admit, I was as well but this was different. He was the main target. I was just the doormat standing between his doppelgänger and what they wanted to achieve. I did not like being stepped on but to solve this case, I was going to suck it up.

"Oh yeah... who?" Viktor inquired, his face so open, blue eyes seeming so innocent. Jesus.

"I figured that whoever is pulling cards knows you personally," I begun. "However, you hadn't put in the possibility that they might know me. Think about it. This all started with me getting a message to hack you. Someone must know me or know of me enough to find out how to contact me and the right words to say to get me into your network. Then they knew you would come after me and try to kill me."

"But they didn't expect us to work together?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "I think they were going to kidnap me and give you a few hints here and there so that you could find me and get captured."

"The thing is, I don't just chase anyone," he stated. "If I felt like going after you was boring, I'd just send one of my men."

"Someone knows you well enough to keep things interesting," I pointed out. "Ever worked with a partner of sorts?"

"Sometimes but only when my father demanded I did," Viktor revealed which wasn't much help. I sighed.

"This case has seriously had us running in circles," I mumbled to myself. But I'd figure it out. For Viktor.

"Yeah but we'll manage. You said you wanted to talk to someone?"

"Yeah. My dad," I confessed. "I think that someone from your Bratva talked with him. He used to work for the Vipers when it was coming up."

"Those guys are dangerous and unreliable," Viktor stated.

"I know. rebuilding a mafia from ash is not an easy task but they gave him good money. He just went for the wrong mission on the wrong day and got involved with the Bratva."

"Huh," Viktor hummed and crossed his arms over his chest. "What's your father's name?"

"Dwane McCoy."

"Never heard of him," Viktor stated after a second of thought.

"Of course you haven't. Before your father and brother died, you didn't know you'd ever take over so you didn't focus on affairs that didn't mean you had to kill people."

"My dad, brother, Seymon and Markov always handled those things, along with a few men in their inner circle."

"The first four of the people you mentioned are dead so that leaves us with the inner circle. Do you think you can have their images sent to me on my phone in the next three hours," I asked and walked towards the front door of the mansion, getting ready to leave.

"Yeah. Where are we going?"

"I just want to see how far your influence can stretch because you're going to help me get a private audience with my dad."

I felt happy going to see my old man again, even if it was for the case. I swore to myself I'd continue visiting him after this. It had been hard going without Peirce. He was the one always in the driver's seat as we made the long and traitorous journey to see my dad. Going alone felt wrong and the only time I had done it was to tell my dad the Peirce was gone and I was looking high and low for him. That of course was before Mrs. C decided to claim the body that I was still trying to convince myself was his.

My dad would help connect all the dots I needed to really figure everything out.

"Where is your father Peach?" Viktor asked as we walked down the front steps of Kira's mansion. "I can't help if you're beating around the bush."

I sighed and turned to Viktor, wrapping my arms around myself. I hoped he wouldn't look at me any more different than he had nor would he think less of my father.

"He goes by Darren King," I corrected. I remember when my father changed his name. It was more for Peirce and I's benefit than his own. That way, our names couldn't be connected to his and they never had for a long time.

"He's in Stoneward Max Security Prison for second degree murder."