Page 73 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 25

Paris, France

“The woman is already here,” Ivan informed him after returning from the cockpit. This was Viktor’s second undocumented trip to this particular private airstrip outside Paris in a matter of days.

“Good.” He was impatient for the information she’d been contracted to acquire. Taxiing to the secure hangar gave him plenty of time to think about his princess and what he wanted from her, especially after all she’d given him the night before.

The morning light slipped away as the plane moved into the relative dark of the mostly vacant building. When the massive doors shut him in with the lone black Ducati and its rider, the pilot came out to lower the steps.

Within moments, the infamous Gabriella Cruz sauntered in. Her leather pants and black T-shirt clung to a body made for sin. Never had the woman’s appearance appealed to him less. Their business relationship wasn’t built on trust, so he’d never had her in his bed and never planned to.

Cruz moved with confidence, unzipping a pocket on her leather jacket. So far, the woman hadn’t crossed him, but her skills made using her a risk he only took when he absolutely felt it necessary. She was the best. No one knew her by the name he used. None of her clients had ever even come face-to-face with the thief. Her skills were specialized and cost a fortune.

He’d known her for years, having some secrets of hers on hand should she ever attempt to cross him. So far, that hadn’t happened.

He tapped the arm of his chair. “What do you have for me?”

She cocked a dark brow, her eyes glittering with amusement. “No chitchat, then. Works for me.” She handed over a drive. “This was everything in the box.”

Ivan had a laptop set up on the table in front of him and quickly transferred the information from the high-powered hard drive she’d handed over.

His gaze hardened to a warning. “Tell me about the contents.”

She tilted her head and tsked. “Still don’t trust me, Viktor? I don’t look. I don’t make copies. I only see what I have to take images of. There is a picture of the box exactly as I found it. There were dozens of hard drives, several hard copy files, and a black ledger beneath it all. I had to snap pictures of the documents and book, but you know well enough that I don’t care about what’s not mine.”

“You’ll forget all of it.” He had no problem letting her see the ruthless side of him. He wasn’t sure what he’d find in the files. He didn’t like Jean Luc’s interest in his princess, not with how obsessive the man was.

“Already forgotten.” She smiled, seeming unfazed, but there was a flash of something in her gaze, gone in a split second. Whatever had been in those files, she hadn’t liked seeing it. That single tell sent a sliver of unease through him.

“One other thing. You have competition for this information.”

His fingers tensed on the arm of his seat. “Who?”

“Don’t know. They did make my job easier, though. I was able to piggyback on their hack into the security feeds to the vault.”

He considered that information and didn’t get a good feeling. “Did you try to find out who it was?”

She gave him a look. The woman was thorough. “I got nowhere.”

“Can you track them? Have they been inside the box?”

Cruz was watching him closely. “The hack was clean. Routed and rerouted so many times that there was no locating the origin. And if they got in the box, they didn’t leave any hints of it. I won’t say it didn’t happen, but I doubt it.”

He still didn’t like it. “I want you to stay close.”

She tilted her head. “The usual standby fees apply. You have two days before I have someplace else to be.”

He nodded. “Wait for my call.”

Viktor looked at Ivan, who’d been clicking away at the computer, assessing the files to ensure they were what Viktor had asked for. His man gave him a tight nod that only added to the tension in the plush confines of the plane.

Viktor turned his attention back to the woman. “The contract’s complete.” Over half a million dollars wired to her account was well worth his sanity. He didn’t care that the woman had added a fee for expedited services.

Her bowed lips curved. “Always a pleasure. I’ll see myself out.”

He barely heard the steps lifting smoothly back into the plane when Ivan spoke. “This is a problem.”

“What did you find?” Viktor waved his pilot back to the cockpit and took the laptop from Ivan.

---