Brielle met his gaze but didn’t answer right away. Sawyer could practically see the gears turning behind those dark eyes. No doubt, she was wondering if this was something she should offer up for free or demand some kind of compensation for as well. Yeah, she’d definitely heard the stuff Tessa had said about not making a deal. They’d be lucky to get anything useful out of Brielle thanks to her.
“Julian’s life has been an ongoing series of poor choices,” Brielle finally said. “In this case, he thought selling heroin on the streets of Ankara, Turkey, was a good idea. He got arrested and shipped off to Diyarbakir on a twenty-year sentence before word even reached me in Lyon that he was in trouble. I tried to get someone from the French embassy in Ankara to help, but they couldn’t get in to see Julian because my brother said something stupid to the wrong person within a few days of getting to Diyarbakir and ended up in the prison hospital.”
Brielle paused to take a deep breath, obviously upset by the memory. From the corner of his eye, Sawyer saw Caleb lean forward in his chair, gazing at her intently, caught up in her story.
“But that’s my brother for you,” she continued with a sigh. “Letting his mouth get him into trouble he can’t possibly handle. I knew that if I didn’t get him out of there, he’d be dead in a month, if not sooner. Unfortunately, while I have many talents, getting a person out of prison isn’t one of them. That meant I needed someone to protect my idiot brother and keep him safe until I could come up with a plan.”
“Yegor Shevchenko,” Sawyer said simply.
She nodded. “It didn’t take long to figure out Yegor was the most powerful man in the prison. I knew if I could find a way to put Julian under his protection, he’d be okay until I got him out.”
“Why would Yegor do something like that for you and your brother?” Jake asked. “He doesn’t strike me as the altruistic type.”
“Beyond the fact that I agreed to break him out along with my brother, I was also able to give him something he desperately wanted.”
“And what was that?” Sawyer asked.
“You,” Brielle said simply, meeting his gaze. “Once I identified Yegor as someone who could help me, I did some digging and learned you were one of the people responsible for putting him in prison—and that you’re a werewolf. I went to visit Yegor and offered him that information, telling him all about the supernatural world. In return for protecting my brother, I offered to break him out and put him into contact with supernaturals who could help him track down you and the rest of your MI6 team. As you can imagine, he quickly agreed.”
Sawyer bit back a growl, angry as hell at her, but also pissed at himself. While he hated Brielle for the part she’d played in his friends’ deaths, was it really any different than what Rory had done? They’d both helped Yegor to save people they loved.
“Hold up there a second,” Caleb said, regarding her with what could only be called amusement. “You expect us to believe you waltzed into a Turkish prison, dropped a supernatural bomb on Yegor—along with a promise to break him out of a place that people simply don’t break out of—and he agreed just like that?”
Brielle smiled. “Yes, just like that. When I’m properly motivated, I can be extremely persuasive.”
Caleb sat back in his seat with a chuckle. “I bet you are.”
Sawyer replayed everything Brielle had told them and, just as importantly, everything she’d left out. Because it was obvious she was purposely leaving out a shitload of details. Considering she had the ability to find supernaturals, he wasn’t shocked she’d figured out he was a werewolf. The fact that she could apparently do it all the way from Lyon, France, was a bit scary, though. And that part about knowing he’d been responsible for Yegor going to prison was disconcerting as hell, too.
“When did you break Yegor and your brother out of Diyarbakir?” Sawyer asked. “And more importantly, how?”
“Fifteen months ago,” Brielle said, looking his way again.
Sawyer cursed. And according to Weatherford, whom he’d spoken to last night, MI6 had no idea Yegor had escaped.
“As far as how I got them out of prison, I think that’s another piece of information I’ll hold on to for now,” she added with a smile. “A woman doesn’t want to reveal all her secrets at once.”
That provoked another huff of complaint from Tessa.
“Do either of you know where Yegor and the rest of the people who work for him are now?” Jake asked, throwing another warning look Tessa’s way. “We know Seamus and that big green shifter are with him, along with at least three or four others. Conservatively, we’re guessing he got away with at least twenty million euros from the auction. With that kind of money, he’s almost certainly going underground for a while, so it’d help if you could tell us where they might hide out.”
Kristoff frowned. “I don’t think going underground is something Yegor would do. It’s not his style. And he has a lot more than three or four men still working for him. The crew he had here in Greece for the auction represents only a fraction of his total operation. He has an army of people at his disposal.”
Sawyer got a sinking feeling in his gut at that announcement. He’d thought this thing with Yegor was almost over and that there’d be nothing left to do but the cleanup. Apparently, he was wrong.
“Where do you think he’s heading then?” Harley asked. “Does he have a place he normally goes when he needs to fall back and regroup?”
“Yegor falls back and regroups about as well as he goes underground,” Kristoff said with a snort. “More likely, he’s moving on with the next phase of his plan.”
Sawyer didn’t like the sound of that. “What plan?”
“The auctions were a means to an end. Yegor used them to make money and recruit people for his main objective.”
Sawyer looked at Harley and her STAT teammates. They looked as worried as he was.
“And what’s his main objective?”
Kristoff shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong person. I was one of the grunts. I guarded the prisoners. If you want to know what it is, you’ll need to ask someone from his inner circle.”
Sawyer looked at Brielle, along with everyone else in the room.
A small smile tugged up the corners of her lips. “Before you ask: Yes, I know where Yegor is. Yes, I know what his main objective is. And no, I’m not telling you anything.” Smile disappearing, she pinned Tessa with a look that could melt steel. “Not until I get assurances that my brother and I go free with no charges. Because regardless of what you seem to think, I have no intention of working for STAT.”
Yup, she’d definitely overheard their conversation.