The two of them took lobby chairs facing reception so they could watch who was checking in. With the conference starting tomorrow, there were a lot of people arriving today, and it was only a matter of time before one of her targets showed up.

They settled in for the long wait, and Kovit idly twirled one of the free pens on the table. A stocky young white man walked by talking on the phone in English.

Kovit watched him, his mouth turning down.

Nita frowned. “Do you know him?”

He shook his head. “No. He just looks a little like Matt.”

“Oh.” Nita looked at the young man again. He had a loud, brash voice, and he was exclaiming at someone on the phone. His muscles were too large, toned past the point of being attractive and into the point of being a bit creepy. He had that square jaw and football-player look that was popular in movie stars, but Nita had always found unattractive.

“Did I ever tell you?” Kovit asked softly. “What Matt did that made Henry so angry?”

Nita turned to him. “No.”

Kovit’s eyes were on the stranger. “Matt was supposed to kidnap a man and bring him back to the compound. The target was checking into a swanky hotel just like this one.” His smile was bitter as the Matt-looking young man hung up and walked to the elevator. “Matt was supposed to follow him up to his room and snatch him. He had a large suitcase ready to stuff the body into—a beige and purple flowered one that looked like an old lady’s curtains.”

“What happened?” Nita asked.

“The person he was supposed to kidnap resisted.” Kovit shrugged. “Matt had a violent streak. He pulverized the man’s head, murdered him. Brought the body back. Oh, man, Henry was mad. They were only planning to scare the man, give him a good rattling. They didn’t want him dead.”

Kovit sighed heavily. “It wasn’t the first time something like that happened, and well . . . Henry decided Matt was a liability.”

“And asked you to get rid of him,” Nita finished.

“Yeah.” Kovit looked around the room, his eyes dark, lost in the past. “It’s still so hard to wrap my head around. That Henry killed him, after everything. It doesn’t feel real?” He ran his hand through his hair and gave a sharp laugh. “I never saw the body. I don’t know how or when it happened. And I’m in a strange place, so there’s no memories of him here, nothing to remind me that he should be here too but isn’t.” He closed his eyes. “Sometimes, I feel like he was just a dream, a phantom I made up to be not so alone in the Family.”

Nita was quiet a long moment before she asked, “Is it easier? To pretend he was a dream?”