Page 45 of Poisoned Pawn

That is one hell of a fucking sobering thought.

Of all the women I’ve screwed, I pick the one requiring me to give a fuck the most afterward. And the kicker about that? I want to.

I pick up the iPad I removed from my room earlier and take a seat in the lounge. I stare at it for the longest time. I don’t need to look to remember what that file said, it’s etched into my mind.

I remember the shit that went down with Don Rogers and the Lawlers. What I didn’t fucking know was how Star was involved. But I guess that was intentional on Kavanagh and Roxanne’s part. And it explains her dislike of the name Anastasia.

There is nothing specific to Star in the file just details about other girls who were held there. But I don’t need words on a piece of fucking paper to tell me the story of what happened to her. My stomach turns over at the thought.

You’re a special kind of mentally deranged fuck-up to do that shit. My iPad chimes with a message. Opening it, the encrypted message portal pops up on the screen. Before I left home, where I left my phone, I enabled an app that Koda created that allows messages and calls sent to the phone to be secretly forwarded to another device, even an untraceable one.

Where the fuck are you? The board is over run, and they are moving in, Carter. Even Orlov is on the hunt. Call me. We need to fucking talk.

“No, we fucking don’t,” I mutter, opening a box to reply to Lennox.

Then you better start talking about who the fuck hired the Shadows.

I hit send, dropping my head back against the chair with a sigh. I’ve got nothing. Nothing that makes any fucking sense anyway. And I figure I’ve got forty-eight hours max before the Lawlers find us.

No one knows about this place and my name isn’t attached to it in anyway; at least not this name. And the other is dead as far as the world is concerned. But Aidan Kavanagh and the Lawlers will dig deep to find the person who kidnapped one of their own.

While I wait for Lennox to reply, I risk a scan of the web for anything linking Star to Lev or Perry apart from the obvious job connection.

I come up empty again.

“Fuck!” I curse, slamming my hand down on the chair with a thud.

Then I search for the dry cleaners. I don’t know the name, but the search alone brings up a news report. It has to be the one Star delivers Perry’s suits and money to. Scrolling the article, I look for anything out of the ordinary. I almost miss the picture because I’m so focused on the words.

It’s a photo taken on the day the police raided it and in the background is a face I recognise.

“Who is that?” comes Star’s voice behind me as I zoom in.

I turn to see her as she walks around the chair and sits on the arm. She’s only wearing the t-shirt I gave her, which rides up her thighs as she sits. The thought of her naked underneath is a distraction I don’t need right now. Another time and I’d fuck her all over this house.

“That’s the dry cleaners Perry used,” she says, snapping me out of my dirty thoughts. “But who is the guy?”

“Do you know who Pavel—”

“Orlov. I know who he is. Head of the Manchester Bratva.”

“Well, that’s one of his soldiers. And not just any soldier. Kir Gusev, brother to Akim Gusev’s, who is Pavel’s right-hand man.”

I stare at Kir for a moment lost in thought. I’m beginning to think that disappearing wasn’t such a good idea. I can’t do shit from all the way out here. If it was just me, I’d have laid low while I hunted the fucker responsible. But that is not a fucking option with Star involved. From the moment I turned down the hit on her and killed one of the Shadows, I made it clear what side I was on. Didn’t know I was stepping into a fucking war then though.

“You think he’s connected to Perry’s death?” she asks.

“Maybe,” I say carefully. “How did you get the job with Perry anyway?” My question is a good diversion from the fact it was me that killed her boss, but it’s also something I’ve been thinking about.

“Oh, err…I’d signed up to several job sites and agencies toward the end of uni and got a call about a temp position there. It was only supposed to be for a week, but the lady who I was covering for never came back. Perry offered me the job.”

“Tell me what you know about Perry’s business dealings. Anyone new he started doing business with recently?”

I watch her as she thinks about my question. “Erm…the only person I can think of is Mark Swanson. About a month after I started there. I remember the guy because he was a sleazy prick and tried to hit on me every time he came to the office. He owns a company called Medi Labs, and from what I saw, he and Perry became partners.”

“Medi Labs the 3D printing company?” I ask, the idea setting off a spark of suspicion.

“Yeah, that’s the one. They’ve been pretty tight up until a few weeks ago. Mark came storming into the office and marched straight into Perry’s office.”

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