Page 64 of Evil Beautiful

“You know this woman?” Dom bit out angrily.

“I do, she’s a friend of Kell’s. What I don’t know is why she’s here claiming to be Mitch’s cousin when we all know it’s not true.”

I glared at her when I realised she had been in Kell’s room when he mentioned Mitch and I said he was in ICU.

Turning to Dom I confessed it was my slip up. “This mess is on me. She was with Kell when he asked about Mitch and I told him he was in ICU. Sorry, Boss.”

Dom turned to the defiant woman. “Who the hell are you?”

She sighed in anger and exasperation. “I told your people, I’m his cousin and I want to take him home, where he belongs and where he’ll get the best medical care for his injuries.”

Dom smiled and it wasn’t a nice smile at all. His blue eyes were clear but totally empty, no emotions visible at all. That wasn’t a good sign.

“That’s not what I asked. I want to know who you are and who you work for. You will not be leaving Cape Town until I’m satisfied with the answers.”

Damn.

I had to pour oil on the stormy waters.

“Let’s sit down and get to the bottom of this.”

I turned to Strange, my voice reasonable and hopefully friendly. Not that I felt friendly at all. I felt like an ass. I knew better and I had forgotten the first thing we had learnt. Never discuss business in front of strangers.

And Strange was a stranger.

No matter that she was a good friend of Kellen’s. If it wasn’t for the fact she knew him before me I would have been even more suspicious.

“Let’s forget about threats for the minute. The important person here is Mitch. We brought in specialists for him and he’s being taken care of by the best medical team in the country. Why would you compromise his recovery by insisting on moving him? It makes no sense. Unless there’s and ulterior motive you’re not telling us.”

I didn’t take my eyes off her face the entire time I spoke. Her face showed no reaction to my words but her eyes did. They flashed with hurt and worry.

She sighed heavily before looking away and down then back up at the cameras.

I flicked a hand towards them. “Don’t worry about them, it’s been taken care of.”

Her silence lasted a few seconds longer before she nodded as if to herself. She spoke softly, not loud enough for the audio to pick it up and she had her head turned away from the camera as well. She was being very, very careful.

That had me worried as hell.

“I can’t say much because if I do I might just wash up on the shore one day. I don’t know what Mitch’s orders were, all I know is I’ve been ordered to bring him to London. We don’t work for a government agency but we do contract to some of them. That’s all I can say.”

We needed to know more.

Have we been compromised?

“You need to give us more. How badly have we been compromised?” Dom asked the question I was going to ask.

She wasn’t going to answer at first but then she closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. It looked like she had made a decision that was going to cost her dearly.

And when she spoke I knew I was right. She was compromising herself and her mission.

“We’re not here for you. Not directly. We were ordered to find out if you are involved in human trafficking. We were able to quickly clear you of those charges. Our primary objective was finding the missing niece of a very prominent UK business tycoon. The trail led here, to Dominick specifically. According to an anonymous informant she was last seen with him and he sold her at a sex slave auction, but, on closer investigation we found the information to be false. She wasn’t with Dominick and she wasn’t sold, in actual fact, she was part of the trafficking ring. Mitch went undercover to follow the trail. Along the way he became embroiled in your fight and his loyalty was questioned. He has since been cleared.” She waved at the wall separating the ICU from us. “You acknowledge me as his cousin, I get him out of here when he’s stable and you go back to business as usual. And everyone is happy.”

She was Kellen’s friend so I had to ask.

“What happens after you take him home?”

She dropped her head to avoid our eyes.

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