Four
Roxanne
My blurry eyes lift to Rocco when he joins Smith and me in the lead SUV of Dimitri’s fleet of four. The brutal slam of his door adds to the thunderous thump of my head, but it has nothing on the worry that bombards me when Dimitri fails to follow his trek.
We’ve been waiting almost twenty minutes, ten minutes over the time Dimitri demanded for everyone to be here this morning. We’re not behind schedule because of Rocco. He only left the car in search of Dimitri.
“Where is he?” I ask, put off by the silence even with my hangover relishing it. Smith isn’t much of a talker, but when he’s paired up with Rocco, a girl can hardly get a word in. “I thought our flight left at eight?”
Rocco shrugs. “It does, but I don’t know where he is.”
I shoot my eyes to Smith. He can’t brush off my inquisitiveness as easily as Rocco. He knows the insides of a monkey’s butt.
When my glare becomes too much for Smith to bear, he gabbles out, “He told me he didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“So,” I snap back with a grimace. “This isn’t a standard day. It’s important.” From what I gathered from eavesdropping on Rocco and Smith’s conversation the past forty minutes, our arrival at Hopeton this morning will be quickly followed by a trip to my family ranch. If it’s the dumping ground Audrey was taken to, we’ll know by the end of today.
“He only requests not to be disturbed when he needs a few hours away from the hell-hole he’s been living in the past two years. If he doesn’t take a breather, Roxie, he’ll crack.” Rocco intertwines his tattooed fingers. “This is only his second timeout since Fien was taken. The first was the night you wined and dined his guests.”
“The night you took me to his office?” I’m not stupid, I can feel the nervy edge pumping out of Rocco, but I want to get my facts straight before I exert myself in a way I’ve never done before.
When Rocco lifts his chin, I lock my eyes with Smith’s. “Find him.” I hold my finger in the air when he attempts a rebuttal. “Did that sound like I was asking?”
He smiles a full-toothed grin, loving my gall. However, he doesn’t give in. “If I disturb him when he asked not to be, there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Will it be worse than the hell he’s been living in the past two years?” I don’t wait for him to answer me. I can see the truth in his eyes, smell it slicking his skin. “If he cracks it, I’ll take the blame. I’m the reason he’s AWOL, aren’t I?”
Their lack of denial stabs tiny knives into my chest. Mercifully, they don’t cause me to bleed out before I see Rocco give Smith the go-ahead in the corner of my eye.
“All right,” Smith breathes out as he grabs his laptop bag from the floor of the Range Rover. “But I’m denying any knowledge of this when the proverbial shit hits the fan.”
Not even two seconds later, his face screws up in shock. “He’s not on-site.”
He isn’t the only one surprised. This compound was designed to ensure Dimitri’s guests have everything they could possibly want. They don’t need to leave for anything, so what possible reason could Dimitri have to abscond these four walls?
Too inquisitive to listen to the warning gurgles of my stomach, I lean over to Smith and Rocco’s half of the cab, so I can peer at the monitor of Smith’s laptop. A state-of-the-art tracking software program reveals Dimitri’s phone was last pinged in an industrial estate way too sleazy looking for a man with a lot of cash to burn.
Ignoring the pang in my chest warning me that this is a bad idea, I instruct the driver to take us to the location Smith honed in on. When he places the address into the GPS’s mainframe, it advises us that Frosty Kinks is two point four miles from the airstrip we were supposed to arrive at ten minutes ago. It also highlights the services we could obtain once we arrive. They all point toward one field—the adult entertainment industry.
When the wheels on the SUV start churning over the miles, I sink back into my chair before connecting my eyes with Rocco’s. “When did you last talk to him?”
He shakes his head at the accusation in my eyes, wordlessly advising me he had no clue Dimitri was at a strip club, much less the fight we had before he went there. “Last time I saw him, he was with you.”
Smith raises his hands in the air like he’s about to be arrested when my narrowed gaze snaps to him. “Same as Rocco. I had false admission papers to a rehab clinic to lodge. I didn’t have time for snooping.”
“So he went to a strip club by himself? Sure he did…”
My teeth grit when Rocco has the audacity to laugh. I don’t know what the hell he thinks is funny. I’m anything but amused. “You’re super cute when you are jealous, Princess P.”
“Jealous?Please. I’m hungover and frustrated you dragged me out of bed for this.” I’m such a liar. I could only be more jealous if I were green. Furthermore, I didn’t sleep a wink last night. I was too busy pacing the room awaiting Dimitri’s return. The only reason I stopped wearing a hole in the rug was because Rocco advised our transport was ready. I threw on clothes in under ten seconds and bolted outside, certain I was moments away from apologizing to Dimitri in person.
Alas, the only thing hearing my regrets this morning is my grumbling stomach.
Upon spotting the lie in my eyes, Rocco’s grin doubles. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
Too tired to lie, I shake my head.
My fast switchback to honesty doubles the smug grin on Rocco’s face. “How many women do you think Dimitri slept with the week he found out Audrey was pregnant?”
