Page 56 of Wicked Arrangement

I yawn as I pull on fresh clothes and check my watch. 7:45 am, it’s later than I expected. I hope Kim isn’t looking for me. With a spring in my step, I head back up the staircase, whistling as I go.

To my disappointment, my room is empty, the cleaners have already been in and made the bed, so Kim must havebeen up for a while. With a final longing glance at the bed, I head out of the room in search of her. After checking her room, the kitchen, and finally her pottery room, I start to get a little concerned. It isn’t often that she strays outside of these places. Perhaps she’s with David.

David is engrossed in some sort of bizarre painting when I find him, I can only assume Kim has inspired him to do it, though whatitis supposed to be, I have no idea. He doesn’t look up when I enter, he’s so absorbed in the task at hand his expression one of deep concentration. To my disappointment, he’s alone.

“Good morning, David. Have you seen Kim?” I ask, getting right to the point.

He shakes his head, still not looking up at me. “Nope, not since yesterday. I’ve been busy working all night on my project,” he replies, that would explain the dark circles under his eyes, David has a tendency to obsess. “Why?” he asks.

“I can’t find her,” I explain.

“Well, I wouldn’t worry. She can’t leave us now, not without an apartment to go back to. This is her home now,” he states happily.

I narrow my eyes suspiciously, “David, did you have something to do with the fire?” I ask.

“She was going to leave us. I had to do something,” he replies with a shrug as though burning someone’s home down is a perfectly logical thing to do.

“David, I know our family isn’t exactly law-abiding. But you shouldn’t have done that. Kimberly was very hurt by it, we only hurt those who wrong us,” I remind him.

“I know, but it was the best thing, you’ll see. She’ll be much happier here with us. And her home was a shithole. We can buy her much nicer things.”

I sigh wearily, David can seem so normal at times and then he makes these kinds of decisions that seem perfectly logical to him but downright insane to most. Mind you, I can’t really talk. I just beat a man to death for calling my girlfriend names.

Did I just think of Kim as my girlfriend? Is that what she is?

I shake my head, pushing the thought out of my mind. I need to find her first, then I can worry about the complex nuances of our relationship status.

“We’ll talk about this later,” I warn, unable to face the conversation right now. Despite how wrong I know it was of him, part of me is a little relieved that it wasn’t an enemy who was responsible, and that it did make Kim stay. “But next time you have any bright ideas concerning Kim, come to me first, alright?”

“Okay,” he agrees, happy to be let off lightly.

Well, that’s one mystery solved. Now to find Kim.

“Good. Stay out of trouble and call me if you see Kim.”

“I will,” he replies merrily. “If you find her first, tell her I want to show her my painting.”

“Will do, Bud.”

As I’m heading away from David’s room, I bump into one of my men, a relatively new one whose name escapes me. “Good morning, Pakhan,” he stammers nervously. “Are you looking for Miss Walsh?”

“Good morning, I was actually, could you tell me where she is?”

“I drove her to visit her grandmother early this morning,” the young man states, seemingly proud to have done a task more important than sentry duty.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, wondering why she would go out so early without wondering where I was.

“Yes, she just said she couldn’t sleep and wanted to go see her. I told her you were busy working,” he says. I take it that it’s already common knowledge among my men that Ivan was being questioned then.

“And you left her there unaccompanied?” I snap.

“She insisted that she was going to be gone a while and that she would get a cab back later today. I didn’t think…” he stutters, horrified at his mistake and my murderous expression.

“If anything happens to her, I will hold you personally responsible,” I growl, stalking off toward the garage to get a car to go look for her.

I just hope that I find her before anyone else does. If word’s got back to Sharkozi about my relationship with her and that she’s a potential weakness to exploit, she could be in danger.

Chapter 28

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