Page 16 of Cruel Crown

“She found out about the meeting because you told her.”

“I know,” he said slowly, and then his eyes widened once he realized what I was asking him to do.

“You’re a son of a bitch. I don’t have to do shit for you.”

I shrugged and then slowly got up. “You saved me for a reason. I won’t kill her, but I want to be part of the snake’s lair.”

Bas cursed some more.

“I haven’t paid my dues yet, but I know Damian wants you in. And I know he wants to test my loyalties, so it works in my favor. And as for your dues…”

“I already paid mine. I left a hard drive to him as a gesture of goodwill.”

Bas started to laugh.

“Yeah, those flight plans are all past. You want in, you and I are going on a little field trip.”

“Where?”

“Chicago,” he replied with a faint smile.

For the first time in days, my blood hummed with life, my heart beat with excitement, and the knife that was in my chest didn’t sting as much. I couldn’t kill the person I wanted right now, but Yorovich Morozov was the next best thing.

“Give me the satellite phone. I need to make a call.”

***

What should have been a one-day trek into the nearest town took two because of my weakened state, something Bastian didn’t let me forget.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you, princess?” he goaded for the twenty-thousandth time.

“Blow me,” I bit out.

“Sorry, bro, I’m Sekten, and I kneel for no one.”

I just rolled my eyes and kept walking. The natives gave us some water and directions to the nearest town. From there, we would need to get a ride to the strip we were going to get picked up from.

The jeep was left behind and burned so there wouldn’t be any evidence left of our trail.

“Fuck,”I cursed as I saw the houses from the nearest town now visible.

“Only if you bottom.”

Ignoring his comment, I kept on talking. I swear, I thought I was fucked-up, but it was nothing compared to the oil prince.

“I don’t have any of my passports. They were all left behind.”

Right now, I felt like an idiot. To get papers made was going to take a minute. I needed to find one of my contacts, and for that, I needed access to the black web. Then it would be a waiting game to get someone to make me a good set just so I could get out of this shit hole.

Bas didn’t look bothered. He started to search his backpack. “Now, what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t come prepared for you.” The asshole winked at me.

He handed me the passport I had used to come into Colombia. “How the fuck do you have this?”

“While you were in Daphne’s tent one day, I went into yours. Look, I didn’t know what was going to happen, all I knew is that you would want retaliation, and I wanted to make sure I talked to you before you fled the country.”

I shook my head angrily at this mess.

“Why did she do it?”