Page 21 of Tarnished Reign

My head is hurting and the tinnitus is screaming. Fuck my life, and fuck Jacob for asking me to do this. For the first time in a long time, I feel something other than gratitude for the man. If I hadn’t seen Littleblue, then she’d be on her way to that auction in a few weeks, and I’d be none the wiser. I have seen her, though.

I’ve looked into her eyes.

If I send her there, I might as well look into them again and pull the trigger. I know she’d prefer that. Most women would.

“I’m going to think about this.” I’m not, because there’s nothing to think about. She’s not going to those fuckers, but no one needs to know that yet. “Listen, keep this between me, you, and Alexis. I will need to talk with Jacob, but I want to get all the intel first. I want to know exactly who we are dealing with here.”

He nods. “Yes, Dimitri. Of course.”

“Tell the men to make sure they keep every single tablet, phone, and iPad, and I want them all scoured for every morsel of information we can find. Let’s take the big stateroom at the back of the boat and use it as the war room. Get some of our men on it. We need to know who and what we’re dealing with. If there’s a bigger threat out there, I don’t want to be sitting like a proverbial fucking duck.”

“Of course. Right on it.”

He strides off, and I stare out at the ocean. Then I place a call, and it is answered immediately.

“Burner,” I say.

My stepdad hangs up and calls back in a moment, an unknown caller number flashing up. I take out my spare phone and return the call.

“Son, what can I do for you? Riley tells me all is going well so far.”

“Yes, so far, but there is an issue. The initial intel about these fuckers. Who did it come from?”

“A few sources, but mostly Athens. Why?”

“I need a hacker. Someone good. I have a feeling we might have inadvertently walked into a trap.”

He pauses for a beat. “Shit. How bad?”

“Bad, maybe. There’s a woman here, and she’s supposed to be passed on for an auction in a few weeks. Apparently, the people who run the auction will most definitely want their pound of flesh, or in this case, their million dollars’ worth of flesh.”

“How many women did you say?”

“One.”

He coughs. “A million dollars for one woman? Is she Helen of fucking Troy?”

I laugh at that but then sober. “She is very beautiful,” I say truthfully. “And Dorian let her stepmother off almost a million dollars of debt in exchange for her, so I’m sure he’s expecting her to fetch close to that amount.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. There’s always something. I’ll contact our woman,” he says, referencing our usual hacker.

“No,” I interject. “I need the best. Will the Greeks help? I heard they have someone who is one of the best in the world.”

“You know Stamatis Kantos?”

“Yes.”

“Call his son-in-law, Damen. I’ll be in touch with Stamatis now and will prepare them for your call. Give me five, then ring him.”

I pace as I almost count the seconds out. A number flashes on my screen sent by text, from the burner to the burner. I click on it and press the green dial button. After two rings, a deep voice answers.

“Damen speaking.”

“Yasas,” I use the polite Greek for hello. “Efharisto pous milisses masi mou.”

I’ve just thanked him for speaking with me.

He chuckles. “You mangled that a bit,” he says in English. “But, you’re welcome. So talk to me.”

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