Page 46 of Duchess

“High end, VIP escort service. Anybody who is anybody with power has used these girls, but it’s not easy to get to them. You have to be thoroughly vetted which means clients go through heavy background checks, financial screening, credit history. If you don’t have the money or the reputation, you don’t get access.”

I leaned back into the loveseat, smiling to myself. Completely fucking impressed. “Smart girl.”

Leon gave a slow nod. “The clients also sign an ironclad contract. It states that if something were to happen to any of the girls, the client is held accountable. Word is, if the contract breaks in any way? She handles it personally. Tracks them down and puts them in the ground.”

I raised a brow knowing why she’d done that. The girl my grandfather had killed was on the news a few days later. A brutal attack on her body, her mouth sewn shut, probably by Ozan himself. Disgusting. SHe didn’t trust anyone and I couldn’t blame her for that.

“She’s most definitely my Duchess.”

“She most certainly is and she’s made a name for herself.”

“Tell me more about these Harlots.”

“Right now, we don’t know how or when they came to be. They were ghosts until one of our guys, a contact inside the Bloody Scorpions, had a run-in with them. Let’s just say it didn’t end well. He gave us what little intel he had before he went dark. We sent another man in after that. He managed to get out, but just barely.”

“They’ve been operating out of a tucked-away building near the South Street Seaport,” Leon explained, his voice low and steady. “It’s a smart move. The area is tourist-heavy, busyday and night, and close enough to the harbor that anything questionable can be moved in and out quickly. Industrial enough to keep curious eyes out, polished enough to blend in.”

He shifted slightly. “The guy we sent followed one of the girls after she left the building on her motorcycle. But he didn’t make it far. They clocked him after two blocks. Cut him off before he even had a chance to tail her properly.”

“What happened to him?”

Leon paused. “He rider veered him off the bridge, put him in the harbor. She got away by the skin of her teeth. But not before the street cams picked her up weaving through the East River crossings.”

Leon handed me a thick manila envelope. “This is who he caught on camera coming out of the building.”

He tapped the envelope. “I pulled every bit of CCTV we could access, tracked her from the piers across lower Manhattan. Between the traffic cams and retail systems, we built her route frame by frame. That’s how we found her.”

I slid the photographs out slowly, the first image hit me square in the chest. Dark jet-black hair tumbled past her shoulders, curves in all the right places. She looked stronger. Harder. There was steel in her eyes, like she dared the world to try her. A new sharpness to her mouth, a tension in her jaw that hadn’t been there before.

I wondered if I had given that to her. A different type of mark that I found I wanted to soothe.

Her eyes… those hazel brown eyes, always made me feel this sense of protectiveness. The ones that used to flash when I pushed her too far. The ones that held fire, fury, and everything that ever brought me to my knees. They hadn’t changed in all these years and they hadn’t seen what I’d done during that time to protect her from my grandfather’s grasp.

She had been trying to disappear for years, and she’d done a pretty good job at it until now. She’d let her guard down and I finally had my hands on her. But what pissed me off the most wasn’t the ten years I’d spent tracking her down. It was the fact that she'd been under my fucking nose this entire time, hiding in plain sight, mocking me. Daring me to come to her. As if I wouldn’t tear the world open just to find her.

Silently, I vowed she would pay for putting me through all that turmoil.

“Book me a flight to New York,” I said, my voice sharp.

“Yes, Sir. Would you like me to book you a hotel, Uptown?”

“No need. I’ll be staying at the apartment. It’s close enough to the Seaport that I can move when I need to.”

“Yes, Sir. Would you like me to accompany you?”

I shook my head as I downed the last of my whiskey in one burning gulp. Standing, I adjusted my suit jacket and buttoned it with a slow, deliberate tug. The suit was armor in the form of tailored fabric, and I was getting ready for war.

“No. I want you here. Eyes open. Ears to the ground. If my family makes a move, I want to be the first to know about it.”

We were raised to love with your heart, but rule with a blade tucked behind your back. And in my world, family meant fuck all when power was on the table. Cousins, uncles, brothers… they’d all slit your throat if it meant another rung up the ladder.

“Also,” I added, pausing just before I opened the door, “get me access to one of her girls. The most expensive one. I don’t care what it costs.”

I met Leon’s eyes. “If I can’t get to her, then I'll have to make her come to me.”

“Yes, Sir.”

I took the manila envelope with the photographs with me. Entering the bedroom, I spread them across the bed to take a better look. I memorized every curve of her face. Every inch ofher body. She knew she’d always belonged to me, which is why she hid from me.

---