Page 33 of Final Installment
I squeezed my thighs together, fresh heat throbbing between them as I remembered the wild fantasies I’d conjured.Luka tied up and completely at my mercy.Luka begging me to touch him, to give him relief, to let him come.Me silencing him with my hot, wet—.
“How’s your brother?”Cheyenne’s voice interrupted my filthy thoughts.
“He’s fine.”My voice was huskier than usual, and I cleared my throat.Hoping she couldn’t tell what I had been thinking, I glanced at my phone.The screen was down so I wouldn’t be tempted to read anymore messages during our brunch.“He’s trying to get me to help him with a business deal.Something to do with a data center, I think.AI or crypto.He hasn’t said.”
“Another one?”she asked with a laugh.“Hopefully not as goofy as that crypto scheme he had a few years back?”
“This one isn’t goofy.It’s grounded in reality.And, in Skender’s defense, hedidmake a lot of money from that crypto job.”I didn’t tell her that I was ninety percent sure he had made that money illegally.I couldn’t prove it, and frankly, I didn’t want to know the facts.
“Did he invest that money?Save it?”
“Some of it.”I poured some fresh squeezed orange juice from the carafe into my empty mimosa glass.“He gave me a little to manage for him.”
“Smart move.”She broke a crispy strip of bacon into smaller pieces.“You’ve made me some serious money in the last two years.”
“The market made us money.Not me,” I demurred.“I think that ride is coming to an end, though.”
“If the amount of vape cartridges piling up in my dad’s office are any indication, I think you’re right.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.”As far as I knew, most of the money her dad managed was from sovereign wealth funds.Saudi Arabia.UAE.Qatar.Kuwait.He worked his magic investing all that oil money here and slashed a tidy profit right off the top.
“I hope so.”
There was something in her tone that made caught my attention, but I decided not to ask any further questions.Whatever her dad had going on with money from that part of the world, the less I knew the better.
“Have you met the girlfriend yet?What was her name?Lydia?”
“Lia, and no I haven’t met her yet.He’s being so weirdly secretive about her.”I didn’t share Dafina’s theory about the girl being a honeypot, but I was a little concerned that he seemed so hesitant to let us meet, even on a video chat.
“Well, to be fair, your family is a little crazy, Elona.”
“True,” I agreed with a laugh.
“He’s almost done with school, right?”Cheyenne asked in between bites of bacon.
“Next spring,” I said.“I’m planning to be there for his graduation.”
“I’ve never been to Bologna.Maybe I’ll tag along.”
“Like there’s any chance I wouldn’t invite you.”
She laughed.“Well, you didn’t invite me to Albania for the wedding.”
“I don’t even want to go to the wedding.I’m not about to drag you along to that nightmare.”
“Maybe you’ll get held up in Shanghai on your business trip,” she suggested with raised eyebrows.“Lose your passport or something like that.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I muttered.“I’ve considered it, but I can’t leave Dafina to face this alone.”
“She’s not planning to stay there, right?She’s not actually going to do the whole married wife thing?”
“As far as I know, the plan is for her to marry, do the deed and get on a plane back to Houston.”
“It’s all a bit medieval,” Cheyenne remarked with revulsion.
“It is,” I agreed.“But there’s no way around it.She does this, and it’s over.The treaty contracts are fulfilled.Everyone gets what they’ve been waiting for since the day we left Tirana.”
I just couldn’t shake the feeling that what our enemies had been waiting for was a chance to wipe us all out, once and for all.
