Page 93 of The Umarova Crime Family

“This is the part that bothers me, son. They didn’t just go after Emily’s child. They took all the children in her age bracket, damaging my business in the process. I could understand them wanting Emily’s daughter back, but why go against me in such a way?”

“You don’t know, do you?” I question my father, and he furrows his brows at me.

“I don’t know what?”

“Ruslan has denounced any sort of trafficking, especially child trafficking. You’re lucky they didn’t take every child you had in the facility.” My father deserves a fate such as that. Maybe if his business was damaged greatly enough, he’d get out of it completely, but unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.

“Yes, well, I came here to tell you what I discovered and that Ruslan reached out to me. Eset has agreed to meet with you next week in London.” He takes another sip of his tequila and looks right into my eyes.

“You still want me to meet with her?”

My father nods almost immediately. “As much as I’m torn about the situation at hand, you need to meet with Eset. An alliance with the Umarova family would do a lot of good for my claim. It would give us a world full of connections, and those connections would take me seriously. So yes, while they stole what belonged to me, I still need you to meet with Eset. Whatever you do, make sure this marriage deal goes through. Your other options aren’t nearly as witty or beautiful.” I’m sure the other options are beautiful, but I wonder if they have anything between their ears. From what I’ve heard about Eset, she’s a damn force to be reckoned with.

My father gets a call on his phone and answers it. “Yes?”

I finish the rest of my tequila while he talks away, and after only a few minutes, he’s telling me that he needs to get going, how something came up, and he needs to tend to it as soon as possible. We both say our goodbyes, and then he’s on his way out the door.

For a few moments, I debate going into my office and doing my research, but I decide to grab my laptop and take it out onto the veranda with me. With a tequila in one hand and my computer in the other, I sit on the plush white cushion of the wicker chair and open my laptop.

I’m going to be formally meeting Eset next week, which means I need to do some research on her. I know enough about her to get by, but I think if I really invest in looking into her more thoroughly, it’ll only help my cause. I’m not talking about my father’s, but my own. I want to get out of this prison, and Eset is my only way of doing that successfully.

I know she’s brilliant and has very strong opinions, and the stories I’ve heard about her have proven she’s heartless when the occasion calls for it. That’s everything I’m going to need in a partner and, more importantly, in a wife. I need to know her hobbies, what she likes to do, and what her passions are.

I type in her name online, both her old surname and her new surname.

Her old surname comes up with a website, which is an artist’s gallery, so I click on it. Up comes a beautifully crafted website. There’s an “about the artist” section on who Eset is—nothing included about her family or their dealings—and what she likes to use to create her pieces. It states she’s fond of using oil and acrylic paints but prefers to dabble in a bit of everything. On her website, she has multiple paintings, some photography, and even some pottery. Each of them is beautiful and so very different from the rest.

I’m going to be meeting her next week, so I bet if I take her to an art gallery, she will enjoy that very much. I do some digging on the internet and find a few different art galleries, but I’m looking for something that seems like it’s around her caliber. The National Gallery has an exhibition titled “Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès,” which I think she’d enjoy quite a bit.

I don’t have a doubt in my mind that this meeting with Eset won’t go well. But if I play my cards right, it should go off without a hitch. I just know I need to be careful when it comes to my father. My reaction to finding out about Emily’s daughter probably seemed like I was only frustrated at the headache Lu created for my family, but deep down, I’m furious that my father chooses to dabble in such businesses. It’s sickening, but I need to keep my wits about me.

I don’t think Eset will see me as an ally because of my father, so what I have to do is prove to her that I’m an ally all by myself. It’s more than likely I’ll have to put my neck out on the line and hope she doesn’t betray me by informing my father about what I’ve told her… but I do believe she’ll see me as an ally at some point. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Chapter Four

Eset

Well, the day has finally come that I’m in London. I had a lot of deliberation on if I was even going to give Santos Ramirez the time of day, but I decided it would be best to hear him out. I’m not simply hearing him out by meeting him today, though. I want to know where his loyalties lie and see if he’s the same sort of person that his father is. If Santos is anything like Julio, I will write him off as a threat and wipe my hands of this arrangement.

“Miss Eset, you seem a bit different today,” Goran, my security man, tells me. Goran has worked for the family for many, many years. However, he only recently came on as my security when Ruslan took the business back from my father. Goran has unblinded fealty to the Umarova family, and I couldn’t think of anyone more loyal who I could count on to protect my life.

“Not different, Goran. Just thinking a bit more than usual,” I explain as he continues driving through the packed city streets of London.

“Well, I have an open ear if the mood ever strikes you, Miss Eset.” I appreciate Goran’s willingness to be a listening ear if I need him to be, but the fact is I don’t.

“You’ve known me long enough to know I’m not as feeble as some might lead you to believe. When have I ever chatted with you about the things that plague my mind?” I ask him, looking in the rearview mirror.

His eyes lock on my own, and he swallows hard before answering me. “You never have, Miss Eset.”

“Exactly, so why would I do it now?” I raise my brows and wait, but Goran doesn’t speak at first.

I’m not trying to be a total bitch, but I’m growing very tired of people thinking I’m weak because I don’t have a piece of meat between my legs. The strength I carry with me every day is more than most of the men I know, excluding my brothers, of course.

“I was simply offering. I’ve heard chatter about why you’re meeting Santos Ramirez today, and for your sake, I hope you walk away. That entire family is a shitshow.”

“I don’t recall asking for your opinion, Goran. I’m the one who gets to decide what I do and what I walk away from. Since you’ve been chatting with the other little bitches who work for my family about the gossip surrounding my meeting today, I’ll fill you in. This way, you have something to talk about when you sit down and jack each other off again. Okay? I’m a woman who thrives on destroying those who pose a threat to my family. The only power this family has is their claim to the Mexican cartel… but I’m going to take that from them, and I’ll smile as I do it.”

“How are you going to do that?”

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