Page 42 of Savage Warrior

Casey is Ethan’s sister. Her superpower is computer wizardry, in particular, hacking. If there’s a secure IT system anywhere in the world that she can’t break into, we’ve yet to find it. She’s a useful person to know.

Jack goes on. “There are two Bratvas she can find who work across Russia and Belarus and who are known to trade in women. There could be more, but these are the ones on the radar. The Sokolovs and the Vasilievs.”

“I’ve never heard of either.”

“Me neither, but Casey did a bit more digging for us. Would you believe that The Widow’s name before she married was Olga Sokolov?”

Now my ears prick up. The Widow was a pain in our arse for a while and actually orchestrated a raid on one of our warehouses about eighteen months ago. She followed that up with an attack on our Glasgow headquarters and paid for it with her life. We wiped out The Widow, her son, and her entire army for that.

“You’re saying there’s a connection?”

“I don’t know, but it’s a huge fucking coincidence if not.”

“We don’t believe in coincidences, do we?”

“Nope.”

“We know The Widow operated in Scotland, but she’s dead, along with all her men.”

“Her brother, Olaf Sokolov, is the Pakhan of that Bratva. Olga ran her own little side hustle, apparently. Our intelligence suggests they didn’t get on, which would explain the lack of any retaliation for her death.”

I digest all of this. “What about the other lot? The Vasilievs?”

“The flesh trade is their speciality, but they’re home birds. They rarely trade outside of Russia and Belarus.”

“They might have become more adventurous,” I suggest.

“It’s possible. Anyway, Casey managed to download some police mugshots for a few of their key players. You could show them to your housemate, see if she recognises anyone.”

“I’ll do that. Send ’em over.”

“They’re on their way.” He pauses. “How are things with you and your guest?”

“Rocky. She tried to hijack my Land Rover. At gunpoint.”

“Jesus, man!”

I chuckle. “It’s okay.” I glance at Arina’s sleeping form. “She’s calmed down now, and I think we’ve arrived at an understanding.”

“For fuck’s sake, Rome. Why is she still breathing?”

A good question. I take a moment before answering. “Because I like her.”

CHAPTER 12

Arina

?tefan is outside, bringing in the firewood he never got around to fetching yesterday. I huddle in bed and cringe at the memory of what happened between us.

How could I have been so stupid?

I should have just made a run for it, not turned his own gun on him…

Then I might have been on my way home by now. And my backside wouldn’t have been whipped until it bled.

I shift against the mattress and gingerly feel to check the extent of my injuries. I expect my palm to come away smeared in blood, but it is clean. I can’t believe it, so I crawl from the bed to have a proper look. Despite twisting and turning before the small bathroom mirror, I can find no significant damage, unless you count several raised, crimson welts crisscrossing my bottom. It’s sore, but I’ll heal.

Whether the marks and throbbing will clear up before he turfs me out of here is another matter. ?tefan won’t let me stay after what I did, and I can’t blame him. He must have cleared away the pile of shattered plaster on the floor, but the jagged hole in the cabin’s ceiling is a vivid reminder of what might have happened.

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