Page 47 of The Payback

Dimitri nods, clicking out of the video player and ejecting the drive the footage is stored on. He slides it into my hand and drops to his knees in front of my chair, yanking my legs apart just in time for Nik to round the corner and see the surprise on my face as he watches my husband’s head buried near my clit.

His dark eyes cloud over as I smirk at him, enjoying these brief moments of petty revenge. He huffs and takes a cigarette from behind his ear, heading towards the terrace, his shoulders tense and biceps flexing as he curls and releases his fists.

I try not to watch the flex of his body as he crosses the space and slides open the door, but with Dimitri’s hot breath against my skin and the visual eye candy, my pussy gives an insistent throb.

I’m in so much fucking trouble.

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Eleanor

“Yes,they’re safe at the address I sent through. You can go for a pickup. Dimitri says they’ve been treated for any injuries or illnesses, and there’s one more to pick up, but she’s en route.”

Agent Kim sighs. “What the fuck is he thinking, just springing this on us?”

“He said he didn’t find out until recently, and by the time he did, it would have delayed our arrival as we worked out the details.”

Agent Kim chuckles. “He’s got balls, this one, and he’s not wrong.”

“So, can we help?” I ask, daring to hope the agencies don’t drag their feet on this one. It may be happening on US soil, but if the girls came from abroad, that ropes in a lot of other jurisdictional bullshit.

Agent Kim types furiously on the other end of the phone, smothering the receiver while he shouts at someone else to get another agent on the line.

His boss clicks on, and I repeat everything I’ve already said. He assures me they’ll be in to pick up the girls before the end of the day. According to Dimitri, the girls are being sheltered, fed, and treated for injury and malnutrition, tended to only by women, so they feel no more uncomfortable than they need to. Not that their scars will stitch together any time soon after what they’ve endured.

My other phone rings while I’m on the call, and Dimitri’s name scrolls across the top. I click the side button to ignore it, and he continues calling despite sending him to voicemail.

“I have to go. Let me know how it goes,” I plead.

Agent Kim assures me he will, and he and his boss start talking logistics before I even hang up. Scooping up the buzzing phone as Dimitri continues to demon dial me, I click the green button and lift it to my ear. “What?!”

“Get downstairs. NOW!” His voice roars down the line, and I jump up from my spot in my closet and tear through the suite, picking up a gun from the vanity and stuffing it into the band of my leggings. Good way to get your ass shot off, but fuck protocol. I’m not leaving here unarmed with Dimitri’s panicked voice ringing in my ears, and these leggings don’t have goddamned pockets.

I take the stairs two at a time, still in my trainers from the gym, and press the button for the lift, even as shooting pains run up and down my arm. I grit my teeth and try to keep it still. Stupid bullet graze. Still on the call, Dimitri curses up a storm and tells his driver to go faster.

“What’s going on?” I ask Dimitri while I wait for the fucking lift to deign me with its presence. He and Nik were the last to use it, so the damn thing is down in the lobby.

“Where are you?”

“Waiting for your slow as fuck lift!”

It arrives, and I throw myself inside, smashing my thumb into the lobby button.

“The little girl slipped away. We’re picking you up to come with us. I doubt she would willingly come with us after everything she’s been through, so you’re our only shot.” My stomach bottoms out as the lift descends, adding to the swooping feeling.

“How are we going to find her?” I press the button a few more times to speed things up. Fuck knows how, but it feels like it does.

As soon as the doors slide open, I tear across the tile, ignoring the shouts of concern from the guy at the desk, and throw myself outside. A black town car comes to a skidding stop right in the middle of the street, not bothering to pull up to the pavement. The door opens, and Dimitri is waving me in as cars lean on the horn, a few colourful curses going up from the surrounding drivers.

I sprint to the car, sliding in and yanking the door shut behind me.

“GO!” Dimitri roars, looking at his phone as he barks instructions at the driver.

“She has a tracker, D. We’ll find her.” Nik’s words break through the panic lacing my brain. They don’t sound happy, though—as if he thinks Dimitri requested the girl for his own pleasure, and I’m along for the ride.

“And you think I want to find her in some pervert’s basement? I’d rather get hold of her before that happens,” Dimitri barks back.

“You put a tracker on the girl?” I ask, eyes wild.

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