Page 78 of The Pakhan

“It’s risky. Do you want me to go?”

“Yeah, and have Sergei as well. However, I do not plan on bringing an army and scaring off anyone. That wouldn’t do me any good. It wouldn’t do my business any good.”

“Okay, call me when it’s been set up.”

“I will. Go get some sleep. My instinct tells me the next two days are going to be rough.”

“From your mouth to God’s ears. I’ll prepare the cleanup crew for a heavy body count.”

I chuckled but he could be right. “We need to get this done.”

“By the way, so far there’s nothing of use on the van we confiscated. Nothing. No registration, no indication it was a rental. It was just a getaway van.”

“Fuck. I figured as much.” And I had. That didn’t mean I liked what I was hearing. “Burn it.”

“Yes, boss.”

I could feel his hard stare for a few seconds before he finally walked out, but I was certain it was in a huff. I couldn’t blame him. I was pushing all my men to the breaking point and for what? I planted my hands on the surface and lowered my head. I was usually good at thinking these kinds of difficult situations through. However, this seemed like I was tiptoeing in quicksand, or worse, a puppet in a show. I didn’t like that one bit. I wasn’t the kind of man who could tolerate being manipulated.

When someone tried, bodies began to pile up in the morgues.

Exhaustion was something I should be used to, long hours a part of the job, but I was bone tired. Maybe that’s why I didn’t even have any sense of my space being interrupted, a vital trait in my industry if I wanted to continue staying alive.

When I felt hands on my back, I bristled and reached for the weapon on the desk, shocked when a hand was placed on mine, preventing me from lifting it off the surface.

“Relax.” Her voice was like sweet bedtime music, the softness of her hands as she caressed my tense muscles something I was completely unused to.

“Caroline.” I couldn’t mutter more than a single word, which was nothing like me.

“I woke up and you weren’t in bed.”

For all the possessiveness, all the talk about owning her, my gut told me her life would remain in danger. If I was a decent man, I’d send her to one of my safehouses until the finish of this twisted game. But the man inside of me didn’t want her even feet away from me.

I’d never felt such an intense draw, a need that bordered on toxic. “I still have business to take care of.”

“At three-thirty in the morning?” She started massaging my back, her gentle caresses shifting into kneading the knots.

“Vile men never sleep.” That was the moment I realized I’d left the bookshelf open. Jesus. Was the exhaustion making me ridiculously careless, or was it the way I felt about her? Either way, I wasn’t used to doing anything this reckless, even if I was inside my own house. However, making a big deal of it would only draw the woman’s curiosity out more.

She was certainly like a dog with a bone, refusing to let go and easily capable of gnawing on your hand until it was bloody.

“Mmm… I guess I’ll keep that in mind.” She was damn good at doing this, the strength in her hands phenomenal. “You’re very tense.”

“Yeah, well, this is a perplexing situation that I can’t get a handle on.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

A part of me wanted to laugh but I didn’t want to insult her. To think I’d be sharing a single aspect of my business, whether legitimate or otherwise with a girl almost half my age, someone I’d watched playing in the pool with my daughter was ridiculous. But she was perhaps the most caring, trustworthy person I had in my life other than my family. It was odd, so much so she kept me off guard.

“I’m worried that there is a master manipulator out there, someone hoping to pit two powerful entities against each other so we’ll kill each other and they can enjoy the fireworks. What I do know is that your life is in danger. And I also know I need to find Joshua.”

I sensed her tensing from behind me, her fingers becoming claws if only for a few seconds. “So you can kill him?”

“I don’t plan on killing him, my cherished one, unless he refuses to cooperate with me. That man holds a key. I’m certain of it, and I need to get my hands on it. In this scenario, answers are vital and he might be the only one who can provide them. In exchange, I’ll set him up with a new life. He’s in danger. Of that I have no doubt. Whoever is doing this wasn’t expecting either one of you to delve into their private security. It’s quite possible they have no real way of knowing what either one of you found on their systems. That makes the scenario that much more dangerous. Sadly, he is damn good at what he does, like a ghost floating in the air. He hasn’t contacted you at all. Right?”

“How could he? I have a burner phone.” She was shivering, her mind elsewhere.

What are you doing, my bad little girl?

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