Yuri pulled a face. “He’s young. That opens up a few options, especially if he’s not the entirely faithful type.”

“Ha!” Ainsley grunted. “If you were a horny nineteen-year-old and you had Gwendoline in your bed every night, would you go wolfing around the block?”

“It’s been known,” Yuri replied, as tactfully as he could.

“This whole thing: it’s unusual,” Ainsley said. “I don’t fucking like unusual, not when there’s family involved. Especially exposed family.”

“We need to bring the women in,” Poi Li said. “Give them proper security.”

“Yeah,” Ainsley agreed. “Shit, Nataskia will bust my balls. This is everything she didn’t want. And fuck knows how Neva will react.”

“Who’s Neva?” Yuri asked.

“My second-to-last ex. I was married to her when Nataskia had Evette. She doesn’t know about that.”

“Oh.” Yuri’s gaze locked on Poi Li as he tried to remain expressionless.

“So what do you think?” Ainsley asked.

“Okay,” Yuri said, and took a breath. “We have a few scenarios to consider here. Horatio has run off with another girl or boy, and he’s too guilty right now to call Gwendoline and tell her it’s over. Second: He’s had an accident, and the hospital hasn’t identified him—unlikely in this day and age, but possible. Third: He’s dead. We’ll need to check the morgues, but again he should have been identified already. Last option, and the most likely: He’s in trouble with people you really should not be in trouble with.”

“It’s not blackmail?” Ainsley asked; he sounded surprised.

“I’m going to take Gwendoline at her word when she said that she never told him she’s related to you. If this is blackmail, that would mean someone found out.”

“How?” Ainsley snapped.

“Some junior in the legal division got the wrong file by mistake; same thing but with an employee in the finance company handling the trust fund; her mother or grandmother let something slip by accident.” He paused, extrapolating the possibilities. “But if a professional gang did find out, they’d snatch her, not him. Unless…”

“What?”

Yuri glanced at the door Gwendoline had closed behind her. “She’s scamming you.”

“No fucking way!”

“Sir, she has no real bond with you, and she’s excluded from the dynasty with all the wealth, privilege, and prestige that brings.”

“Okay, I’ve only seen her a few times in her life, I admit that, but she knows there’s a place for her in Connexion anytime she wants. She chose to be independent, she worked hard at her exams—and got herself good grades, too. And she’s only seventeen, for Christ’s sake! Girls like that, brought up the way she’s been, they don’t come up with criminal master plans. If she wants money, she can have it. I’m not broke. She just has to ask.”