Page 7 of The Pakhan

Meanwhile, she was clearly rattled.

“Then how were you found?”

“I just…” She laughed, looking away. “I think I got careless.”

“Who are these men?”

“Mafia.” Her face turning sheepish as she looked at me, I was now the one who shook my head.

While neither one of my daughters knew graphic details about my less legitimate aspects of business and certainly had never witnessed a crime, that didn’t mean they were clueless about who and what I was. Caroline also knew I was a very dangerous man.

“You have your entire life ahead of you. Why in God’s name would you throw it away on hacking? That’s a stupid thing to do.” I was angry with her, furious actually. I wanted to do nothing more than yank her over my lap and give her a hard spanking, which she obviously needed given her impetuous and reckless behavior.

“The money.”

“Money? Your parents are very wealthy.”

“I need to do this myself. For my self-worth. It has to be my life. Can’t you understand that?”

I could. It was something I’d tossed in my father’s face when I was much younger. “Why would you dare fuck with a mafia organization? They are dangerous, Caroline. They intended on killing you for whatever you stole from them. What did you steal?”

“Information,” she threw out. “Okay, and money. I transferred some money from one of their offshore bank accounts to my handler.”

“How much money?”

“Five hundred thousand but that’s chump change to them.”

She obviously had no understanding of the fact it could be two thousand dollars and her life would have been placed in jeopardy. Merciless men like me didn’t give a shit about the dollar figure. It was all about the theft. No matter her intelligence or experience, she was still naïve, and far too vulnerable to be in the hacking business.

That made my hand itch to initiate the spanking even more.

“You managed to get yourself into a very bad position, Caroline.”

“Which is why I’m here. You’re the only one who I knew I could come to.”

“For?”

“Protection. Only you can keep me safe. I don’t have anywhere else to go. My parents would kill me if they knew. My place is trashed. They’ll hunt me down at my shitty job. While I was waiting outside your house, I checked my bank accounts. They were frozen. How does that happen so fast? I have nothing. Nothing. I just…” She tossed back what was left of her drink.

Whatever mafia syndicate she’d pissed off from the Armenians to the Irish thugs, it wouldn’t behoove me to get in the middle of this shit. However, she was someone I would protect with my life. The girl was close to being hysterical. I placed my drink on the coffee table, pulling her empty glass from her hand.

When our fingers touched, I would never have expected my body’s reaction, the shot of electricity searing every freaking nerve ending.

When she looked up at me with her big baby blues, I wanted to crush the fuckers who’d terrified her.

I headed to the bar, refreshing her drink.

“Why should I consider helping you?” I asked casually.

“Because I have something you want. Because you need me. I can work for you. I can… Whatever you want.”

“What could you possibly have I need?” As I turned around, I could see the petrified look on her face and it killed me.

She was more distraught than before, dropping her head into her hands.

While I wasn’t a patient man by anyone’s standards, I would wait for her as long as it took.

When she finally lifted her head, her eyes were rimmed with tears. “Because I know who’s responsible for trying to kill you.”

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