Page 5 of Tarnished Reign

A friend? “Who is she?”

Mila shrugs. “I don’t know. She was taken too. That’s all I know. She was here with me. She has blonde hair in a long bob, and she’s very young.”

I turn to Alexis. “Find one of the men and ask them to try to identify a Josie.”

He nods and rushes off down the corridor.

“Come on. We’ll get you off this boat, okay? Your parents are waiting for you.”

She nods and gives me one more quick hug. “Thank you for coming for me. I knew you would. I told Josie that these men would be in big trouble because of who my dad and uncle are.”

Shit. Now I really need to find Josie and make sure she doesn’t know too much. I also need to make sure Jacob talks to Virgil to ensure he has words with his daughter about not saying stuff like that, ever. Never mind the fact that Josie could be working with these guys for all Mila knows; blabbing her mouth that way could get Mila killed. Now isn’t the time to discuss it, however. She’s too shaken and scared to take anything in.

Alexis returns to the room, and I wrap a blanket around Mila, passing her over to him. “Can you take her onto the deck? I want you with her at all times until I find Jinx. Jinx can take you back, Mila, okay?”

She gives me a tiny smile.

Jinx is an asshole, but he’s a deadly one who’s close to Mila’s father and has a genuine soft spot for the girl. He works with Virgil more than he does Jacob or me, so he’s a regular fixture in their home.

She’ll feel safe with him.

Alexis nods.

“Don’t leave her side until Jinx is there,” I remind.

He leads her out of the room, his arm protectively around her shoulders.

“Boss, another one in here.” Yuri’s voice echoes down the corridor from upstairs. “Top deck. Room with the blue door.”

Maybe he has Josie.

I jog upstairs, past the opulent living space, and to a room four doors down and step inside. Yuri and Jinx are staring down at the bed in the middle of the room. Jinx is so named because he’s nothing but long alternating runs of good and bad luck in the card games he loves. He loses and wins back more than most people earn in a lifetime.

“Holy fuck, she’s gorgeous.” Jinx leers at the woman on the bed.

He’s such a cliché of a walking, talking asshole.

He’s a massive brute with a brain the size of a walnut, and a mouth too big for his pea brain to run properly. I clear my throat to make my presence known. They immediately straighten and turn to look over at me.

I approach the bed, and after giving Yuri a dirty look for indulging Jinx, I glance down at the bed and then look back in a classic double take. Okay, maybe I can’t be too angry at Jinx because … well, holy fuck indeed, he’s right.

I’ve never seen a woman with such a perfect body.

Long legs. Curvy hip bones, easily seen with the string of the underwear tied around them, bikini style, accentuating the delicate flesh. Tiny waist, flat stomach, and large breasts for her frame.

My brain stops being a perverted freak for a moment to take everything else in. Wide, terrified eyes. Gagged. She’s lying on her back, but her wrists have marks on them, and I spy the untied wrist restraints by her.

This definitely isn’t Josie.

She’s dark haired, so dark in fact it has a blue hue in the light of this room, and Mila described Josie as young, which I take to mean younger than Mila. This girl appears to be in her twenties. I look away, as if I haven't just undressed her already in my mind. Not that she’s wearing all that much to begin with.

Is this Dorian’s girlfriend? I mean, she’s in what appears to be the main suite, and perhaps she was playing a kinky game with him when we stormed the yacht, and her fear is from us being here?

“Mila is safe,” I say to Yuri, forcing myself to focus on logistics. I glance around me, trying not to stare at the angel on the bed and scare her more.

Holy shit, this room is awful. It’s so blindingly trashy that it distracts me for a moment. Every color of the rainbow is present one way or another.

Yuri breaks into my thoughts. “Good news, boss. I’m glad she’s safe. I suppose that means we’re done here?”

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