Page 108 of Brutal Reign
“Tell me you have good news,”I say, stepping over the cables snaking across the floor of Dinara’s digital lair. I’ve always teased her that this place looks like some Bond villain operation, with monitors everywhere and enough hardware to hack the Pentagon.
She sent me a cryptic text ten minutes ago, asking me to come down here ASAP. In my experience, that level of urgency from Dinara means one of two things: she’s cracked something big, or we’ve got a serious problem on our hands.
I’m really hoping it’s a breakthrough.
She spins around in her seat to face me. “Depends on how you look at it. Chen messaged Hope last night that his timeline has moved up. He needs to hand over the digital wallet in the next two weeks.”
“Why?” I ask, settling into the seat beside her and leaning forward.
“Chen says he’s being followed. Made it seem like Simon or another faction is after him for helping Hope. We know it’sbullshit, but Hope won’t. He claims he has to go into hiding but wants to hand off her money first.”
I scan Chen’s message, my jaw tightening as I note the calculated urgency, the way it’s designed to make Hope feel like if she doesn’t move now, she’ll lose it all. “Has she responded?”
“Not yet, but it only came in last night.”
When she was in my bed.
Dinara’s expression tightens. “I still can’t crack Chen’s communications with Simon, but get this. I have a contact at the Mandarin Oriental in Macau. A croupier. He told me about a recent game where a bunch of high-rollers were hitting the Macallan hard. Started talking about the new leader of a Hong Kong triad that borrowed fifty million from Jean-Michel Duret, the French-Venezuelan arms dealer. Word is, it’s time to pay back the loan, but the triad leader doesn’t have the money, and Duret’s getting real pissy.”
I straighten in my chair, every muscle going tense. “And you think it’s Simon?”
“Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” Duret’s reputation is fierce. When he wants his money back, he doesn’t negotiate; he collects in blood. “So Simon borrows money from Duret, probably to fund the offensive against us and kidnap Sofiya. If he had married Hope, he’d have the money to pay back Duret by now, but no wedding, no cash. And now Duret wants his pound of flesh, which means Simon’s running out of time.”
“Look what else I found.” Dinara swivels to another monitor displaying what looks like legal documents. “This is a memo from the Hong Kong Commercial Bank’s internal system, clearly stating their rules: to release a trust fund over 100 million, like Hope’s, they require biometric verification, like fingerprints or retinal scans. And that can only be handled at the bank’s HongKong headquarters.” She taps the screen. “Here’s your proof that Chen is a liar. There’s no way he accessed the trust.”
“Fuck,” I bite out under my breath, running a hand through my hair. The only reason they’d push for an in-person meeting so soon is to abduct Hope. They’d bring her to the bank, take her money, and then who knows what. Once she’s in Hong Kong, getting her back will be nearly impossible.
Dinara turns to face me fully, her expression serious. “Why not tell Hope the truth? With all of this, I think she’d believe you.”
My hands curl into fists at my sides. I want to believe we’re past keeping secrets, that the time we’ve spent together lately means she’s choosing me. It’s evolved into something deeper than sex. The way she melts into my touch, how she lets me hold her afterward. The conversations over breakfast and the way she watches me with Kin.
Maybe I’m kidding myself and she’s still planning to leave if she can, but screw it. If I don’t take a chance on her, why would she take a chance on me?
She deserves honesty, even if this is going to be hard for her to hear.
But today isn’t the time for that conversation. In an hour, we have lunch with my brothers and their wives, and I know Hope is nervous about it.
She needs to meet them and see they aren’t the monsters she’s built them up to be in her head. Once she understands that the past is firmly behind us and we can be her family if she’ll let us, maybe she’ll see there’s a place for her here.
“Send me all of this and keep monitoring. I need to know the second anything changes, especially if Hope responds to Chen.” I nod and rise from my seat. “And good work.”
She smiles. “Oh, I know. By the way, have you seen Hope’s new wardrobe?”
My mind immediately goes to the silk garters and lace lingerie I’ve enjoyed peeling off her every night.
She winks. “You’re welcome.”
“Look, I’m dressed fancy!”
Kin is standing in his bedroom doorway like he’s about to walk a red carpet, decked out in dark-blue pants and a white button-down that Hope somehow managed to pair with a dinosaur bowtie. He looks fucking adorable.
“Very sharp,” I say, tucking my phone into my back pocket and giving him my full attention. “You clean up well, buddy.”
My mornings with Kin have become the highlight of my day, second to my nights with his mother. Even when I’m swamped with Syndicate business, I make sure I’m available for breakfast, for his excited chatter about whatever he got up to the day before. He’s wormed his way under my skin in a way I never expected.
“Are there gonna be other kids at lunch?” he asks, trusting blue eyes staring up at me.
