Page 39 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 14

London, England

Viktor stared out the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows leading to his private courtyard. His eyes weren’t on the stone fountain or the furniture he used to take breakfast whenever he was in town. He was puzzling out his mysterious princess, not paying attention to the deepening gray clouds as they became shrouded by the descending night.

He’d had meetings in the city all afternoon, and all he’d been able to do was stare out at the clouds as they swelled and deepened to hide the sun. The tinted windows of the high-rise had only enhanced the growing gloom that matched his mood.

Having spent the previous night alone hadn’t improved his mood. Not to mention, he had no new answers to the growing mystery of his princess. The lists of tech clients yielded no more knowledge than he’d already had, and his men found no clues to whoever had received a signal from Sophia’s guard two nights ago. They’d detected no surveillance attempts against the house since, but he still wasn’t pleased.

After a second associate had been unable to capture Viktor’s attention, he’d dismissed the room to return home. He’d deal with business tomorrow, after a night of having her back in his bed.

Why was the situation with Sophia bothering him so much?

After being unable to reach Titian, Viktor had stalked down to his home gym. Now he stood with sweat drying on his skin. He needed to get in the shower. He flexed his fingers. The knuckles were bruised even though he’d taped them. An hour of hammering his fists into a bag hadn’t cleared his head. Though it had sent a welcome ache through his muscles, which was something.

A buzzing to his right had him reaching for the cell phone he had set to charge on the coffee table. “Titian.”

“Should I be worried about your new obsession with all things Porenza?”

“Did you look at the list of buyers I sent?” The list had been longer than he’d hoped. A couple of dozen after removing military and sanctioned agency contacts. All private buyers and mercenary groups who were on Daire’s approved list.

“I looked. I’m not familiar with all of them, but I can confidently remove a couple of names. The ones I know personally wouldn’t fuck with third-party-buyer shit. You really think the king of Porenza used a third party when he could buy direct?”

No, he didn’t, but he was checking all options.

“What’s Daire say?”

“He said there were no buyers on the list with links to Porenza. At least not that he was aware of. He offered to make some calls, but I want this to remain between us for now.” His gut said it needed to.

Viktor didn’t know where Daire’s inquiries might lead, but information was power. In the wrong hands, it could also be deadly.

Daire was the company figurehead partially because of how well connected he was within mercenary and black ops circles. The man also ensured their products weren’t sold to radical groups. In the murky circles they chose to play in, the man was ruthless enough to earn respect and deadly enough that very few wanted to fuck with him.

“I’m not sure what your princess was doing with that equipment, but I’d like to know when you find out.” There was a muffled sound of music in the background, and Titian’s tone hardened. “Gotta go, man.”

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