Page 62 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 22

London, England

Sophia’s fingers hovered over the print command. The echo of Viktor’s filthy promises was still in her ear, a sexy memory from the night before—or more accurately, this morning—after he’d taken her in that gym.

Her heart thudded in her chest as she finally hit the command. If she was headed down the road to heartbreak, she planned to savor every second before jumping off the cliff.

The sound of the printer warned her there was no going back.

“I thought you were seeing your Russian tonight?” Forde’s cultured voice made her jerk in the office chair, and her head shot to the side. He leaned elegantly on the doorway, in gray slacks and a white dress shirt, his jacket in hand. He looked nearly ready to head out for the night, playful grin in place, as he noted her demeanor. Though he seemed his roguish self, she swore there were shadows of something in his eyes.

“I will be. I wanted to print a report,” she evaded. It was a kind of report, just not her investment documents. “Jen’s meeting me here soon. I thought you were already gone.”

“I’m not leaving for a few more minutes.”

The sheet slipped free of the printer at that moment, and he swept it up before she could stop him. She didn’t bother lunging since it was too late for that.

His curious gaze drained of emotion.

“Don’t you wish you hadn’t been nosy?”

He seemed to have gone into a bit of shock. “You said report. This is your medical record, Sophia… Have you told Irina and Riot about this?”

Sophia swiped the page away, folded it, and slid it into her tote. “I’m aware of what it is, Forde.”

The resigned look on his face was one she’d seen over the years when he felt it his duty to dole out a brotherly lecture. “This is a serious step, one that’s risky even if you’re on birth control. Are you prepared for that?”

The cocky playboy had definitely gone “concerned older brother.” Sophia wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of this particular version of Forde.

“Weren’t you the one who told me it was okay to have fun?”

His mouth gaped open. “This is definitely not what I meant. Even I don’t have this kind of fun.”

Sophia chuckled at the horrified look on his face and at the words he’d chosen. “I’m being careful, Forde. I have less than a week left with him. Nothing after that is guaranteed, so I want this.”

Forde ran a hand through his perfectly styled hair.

“Stop worrying,” she chided.

He simply grunted.

“Have you heard any more from James?” she asked, swiftly changing the subject.

“We spoke about an hour ago. We may have a connection to one of Fahd’s school chums, David. An assistant of his made a short trip to Belgium during the time the ledger page would have changed hands. We’re looking into it.” Of any of the scenarios they’d considered, having one of Fahd’s old friends looking into the Swiss boy’s death made the best sense. Who else would want to dig up the past other than someone who’d lived it? They still needed to know what David hoped to gain, maybe closure for his part in the death? She could only hope.

“James did turn up some interesting things on the other names Viktor gave you.” Forde rubbed the back of his neck. “And it seems Kate and James were able to get a lock on the video feed in the bank vault. Now we wait for Jean Luc to go in, and we’ll hopefully have some video of what he’s hiding there. Once we know that, we can set up some way to get into the vault, but it won’t be easy.”

Sophia nodded. Jen had told her what Forde had learned about the bank’s high-tech safeguards. There was a reason the uberwealthy paid a fortune to hide their precious belongings there. Not only was it secure, it had specialized twenty-four-hour concierge services.

Jen walked into the bat cave, not giving Sophia time to dwell on things out of her control. Their teams were working hard to end the intrigue with Jean Luc.

Sophia grabbed her bag and stood. She gave Forde a quick wave, noting his warning frown as he told her, “Be careful.”

Sophia and Jen seemed to arrive at the car faster every time they made the trip to Viktor’s, but the drive itself dragged with the way Jen varied the short distance. The trip was now four times longer than the direct route would have been.

“Which you complain about every time,” Jen pointed out, though Sophia hadn’t realized she’d said anything.

Sophia didn’t want to think about the exhausting evening she’d spent making polite conversation with Hellshire. Those were wasted hours she’d spent being as stoic and unentertaining as possible. But that hadn’t stopped him from inviting her to the opera. Her remaining days in London were dwindling, and she hated being forced to spend them doing things she didn’t want to do for reasons she knew she couldn’t escape forever. At this point, it was all about getting more time with Viktor before the clock ran out.

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