Page 47 of Sinful Promise

I nod.

She pulls the ring off her finger and hands it to me.

I drop it to the deck, crush it with the heel of my shoe, and pick it up, tossing it overboard.

“While on the plane, the helicopter, and this vessel, the GPS isn’t trackable. But I’m not that trusting. Your father and Andrian will know our approximate vicinity if they got the last ping off the coast of France.”

“You know Andrian?” Her eyes grow wide, and she bites her lower lip nervously.

“I know of him. What do you know?”

“He’s very powerful and evil. He carries out hits in our country.”

“Does he freelance in Russia?”

“Probably, but I can’t be sure. He makes the deals, and my father and brother carry them out. Andrian can get to targets. He’s known worldwide. I know that much.”

I look to Irina. She nods, confirming she has heard of him, too.

“Why is this the first I’m hearing of him?” I turn to Alex.

“He’s not part of our circle. We focus on gathering intel on Russian competition, not that of other countries. It’s usually not a concern for us.”

“Except when someone is getting their hands dirty by stirring up international events.” I look back to Dasha. “Did they do a hit in Russia this year?”

“It was May, early. My older brother went there and came home with a broken leg and some minor injuries. Why?”

“I have to go,” I inform the women. I turn to Alex as we walk back to my office. “Let’s call Nikolay and Dmitry. I want to know if Ratmim and Andrian were possibly involved in the hit on Dad.”

“Damn, I didn’t think about that. We assumed it was our government.”

“What better way to camouflage a vendetta than to kill your enemy when you know someone else has them on their kill list?” I ask. “It’s fucking ingenious.”

“Fuck. I never thought of that.” We enter my office. “It is brilliant,” he concedes.

I pace, too agitated to sit. “It is a brilliant plan that would have worked had it not been for our chance encounter. Ratmim kills off my dad, and now he steals our guns. If we hadn’t made that trip, we might never have known there was more to Dad’s car accident. Andrian wants to ruin us. We are still a target. But if he knew where we were, he would have already left Belarus. And they are still there.”

“We’re safe for now, but they could be waiting for us when we return to France. We need more men and time to figure this out,” Alex murmurs. “Maybe we can do an exchange at the gala in Monte Carlo. It will be public. There will be cameras everywhere.”

“We need a plan. I could call Andrian and arrange a swap. He can give me the money he owes, and we’ll give him Dasha.” I mull it over in my head.

Alex is staring out the port window. He turns with a glare that tells me he’s not okay with that idea. “You’d give her back? You know she’s mistreated. It’s clear you finally fucked her. Don’t tell me you’ve lost your mind. She reeks of you now. Andrian will sell or kill her if she returns to him. Have you gone daft?”

“No, I haven’t. I have no intention of giving her back. I have an idea. Sit.”

Alex takes a seat. I call Nikolay and Dmitry. We need an exchange in Monaco. We formulate a plan for a risky trade. Dmitry will delve deeper into data to see if we can pinpoint Andrian’s and Ratmim’s locations when my father and his friend were killed. Knowing the person responsible doesn’t ease the pain of losing them. Hate doesn’t begin to express my emotions when it comes to Andrian and Ratmim.

Business for the day had been concluded. Dmitry is checking European license plate scanners to track the men to see if they are coming for Dasha. Alex is in touch with updates from Pavel.

“Why did Ratmim let her escape when he can track her?”

Alex shrugs. “Maybe it wasn’t working, or he wanted her to have a few days of freedom before he made her marry Andrian. Nice guy, eh?”

A shiver runs up my back. What Dasha’s family does is morally wrong. Nothing can change that fact, but there’s no way I’m giving them Dasha. Human trafficking is one way to make problems disappear, and she’s an innocent.

My feelings are torn. I care about her, but I’m pissed she didn’t tell me about her father. Alex and I join Irina and Dasha on the deck. I feel sticky from the humidity and predict rain is imminent.

Dasha’s eyes are hard to read when I sit next to her. I put my hand on her leg, and her body stiffens.

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