“She’s very clever. She had to learn a lot about the Russian mafia families’ customs and beliefs just to survive those years with Anton after I was born. She had to make bargains, use sex, learn trickery—anything she could do to keep us both safe. She’d always tried to keep me insulated, but after what I did, she knew that was at an end. So she told me the truth. One of the prime rules in mafia families is that bosses’ wives and their children are off limits. It’s a matter of respect and isn’t violated. But Volkov thought he was so powerful that if he was careful, he could do anything he wanted. He wanted Maria. So he tried to find a way that wouldn’t cause an intramob war. And the way to do that was to make sure it was Maria who would take the risk and do anything he wanted until he was tired of her. He can be diabolically clever, and it wasn’t long before he found the way to do it. Everyone knew that Anton had no use for me, and Maria was always trying to keep me from being punished. So the next week that Anton went out of town on one of his business trips, Volkov went to Maria and told her that he enjoyed playing with little girls, but if she could keep him entertained, he’d not bother with me.” She added bitterly, “She kept him entertained all that week. Until that day I tried to kill him.”

“And rightly so. Brava. But you haven’t told me how she managed to save you.”

“The cameras. Maria was frantically trying to think of something to do until she remembered the cameras. Anton always kept them running in the bedroom because he liked to play back all their sexual activities. He’d even taught her how to process the films and alter them whenever it amused him. She’d hated it, but it had come in handy when she’d had to erase the last week of footage with Volkov. And now she realized what she’d learned might save both of us.”

“What was that?”

“Humiliation. Maria had a few minutes of footage of a naked Volkov being attacked by me with that poker and trying desperately to escape it before finally being knocked out. It was clear I was only a child, and it would have been embarrassing for Volkov—who is very proud of his machismo—if any of his men had seen it. He would have been a laughingstock. She erased her own image out of it, and it would have looked like Volkov was being beaten up by a little girl.”

Tanner gave a low whistle. “Wicked. You’re right, very clever if she could manage to pull it off.”