Page 19 of Tarnished Reign

One by one, they murmur or nod, and satisfyingly, gazes are lowered from Adriana.

“Adriana,” Alexis says. “Would you like some tea?” He indicates the pot. Alexis is massively into his tea, like every good Russian.

Her eyes light up a little at his words, and she glances directly at him. He’s treating her like a human being, not a piece of meat, and she rewards him with her gorgeous gaze and a smile.

I’ll thank Alexis later for his small but important gesture.

She’s the only woman on this deck, and she’s the most striking I’ve ever seen, so that must put her in an uncomfortable position.

There were no other girlfriends amongst Dorian’s men. Our intel on that score was wrong. When we talked to the two women who we presumed were the girlfriends of two of Dorian’s right-hand men, they told us they were paid. Nothing but hired women. No point keeping them here. That won’t give us any more of a reputation boost on the streets. So we kept the yacht, and we are taking their houses and cars one by one. Most of all, we kept Adriana because she is worth a million dollars to Dorian.

Yuri approaches and waves at me to go talk with him.

“Sit with Alexis,” I say to Adriana. “Drink some tea.”

She nods and does as I say.

I smile to myself, liking the way she seems to naturally look to me for guidance. I walk over to Yuri.

“We’re all set.” Yuri stares ahead as he talks, watching the blue waters of the bay and the tiny white sails dotting it. “The yacht is fully cleaned, and the main suite has been redecorated. You can move in there with her if you want. There’s a sofa bed, you know … so you can keep her with you but maintain your morals.” His mouth twitches, and I resist the urge to punch it.

“What’s the update in regards to finding Ari, the piece of shit. He wasn’t on this boat, but he had to be in on this. He would have helped organize it.”

He leads me farther away from the group.

“That’s the thing, boss.” He wipes his jaw with one big paw. “Ari seems to have gone to ground, and while the men are telling us where their colleagues are, no one is ratting out Ari. We’ve found something else out.”

“Oh?”

He glances at Adriana again, and I’m not going to like this; I know it in my gut.

He rubs his forehead as if he’s getting a headache. “Well, the stepmother is related to Ari and Dorian.”

I nod. Intel, I already have. “Well, we found out Dorian had a cousin, Hana, right, who owed him money. A nice, tidy million. It has since been cleared, so ya know, two and two and all that.”

This all fits with what Adriana said about who sold her.

“This Hana recently remarried, to an American citizen who lived in the United Kingdom for many years, after he married a British woman. They had one daughter, Adriana.”

I swallow and nod.

“She’s twenty-two and a recent graduate in English literature. She has quite a bit of debt herself. Student loans, overdrafts, and some credit card debt.”

I glance at her again. “Go on.”

He shrugs. “That’s about it. She moved back here a while ago and moved in with her dad and stepmom. There’s a kid, Cade; he’s Hana’s little boy. That’s it. All the news that’s fit to print.”

I smile at him quoting LA Confidential. He’s obsessed with the film.

The thing I can’t get is why Hana owed her cousins all that money? “Why do you think Hana owes them so much?”

Yuri lets loose a low growl. “I mean, it’s not hard to guess. She gambles. Or she got into debt, and they re-financed it at dreadful rates. Or…”

“Or?” I know what I’m thinking, but I want to know if he is on the same page.

“Well, what if she was involved somehow? Like in their business, and she fucked up or something?”

It’s crossed my mind too. It puts Adriana being sold into a different light.

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