Page 75 of The Agreement

Definitely not stupid.

It was probably for the best if Marky knew as little as possible. Until Roman had all the facts, anyway. Whatever they were.

“Why did you bring up Dima?” he asked his friend. “Why did you think I would be interested in him?”

Marky gave him a look—an unspoken wasn’t it obvious? Then, he laughed under his breath and said, “Honest to God, the fucker messed with you. He is the reason you got locked up—he fucking set you up. You’re telling me you’re not going to—at some point—make him answer for that? You, Roman. Little Odessa’s Devil, never leaves a slight unanswered. Not going to happen. Besides, I didn’t get a good vibe from him. It wasn’t just the fact that he wanted to fuck around with your position and freedom, either. Some people just don't vibe right.”

Roman’s brow dipped. “Did you look into him?”

Marky lifted his shoulders quickly. “A little. Spoke to a few guys who’ve worked with the Yazovs here previously.”

Roman damn near held his breath.

“Let’s just say the motherfucker is bad news,” Marky added after a second.

And there went Roman’s good mood.

Bad news meant nothing.

The truth of the matter was they were all bad news. Marky, Roman, the Yazovs, and even his own family. The whole fucking bunch of them—it depended on which side of the fence you were on. They were branded as criminals by the majority of society. And yet, they were still family, friends, husbands, lovers, fathers, sons, and more to the people who lived their life with them.

Monsters?

They’re not so scary when you love one.

Marky could see Roman’s lack of interest clearly, because he was fast to say, “Well, you know he has a major role to play in the Yazov’s trafficking operations.”

“Yeah, that’s common knowledge.”

“But apparently it goes deeper than that. It’s not just grown women he deals with. He has connections with groups that deal with a younger demographic. Real young. Pre-pubescent.”

And then there was the scum of them all, he thought. The lowest of the low that would do the worst of the worst for greed and power. Dirty money couldn’t get dirty enough. He understood he didn’t have a lot of room to speak—being crime was crime, and sin was sin—but he didn’t mess with that kind of shit.

In any way.

Fuck.

Child trafficking was something that could make the tiny hairs rise on the back of Roman’s neck. Not a feeling he encountered very often. How far did his connections go with those groups—was he directly involved, as hands-on as he was with his working girls? Did Maxim know, or Leonid?

Likely.

Money was money, right.

They didn’t have to make it.

Roman had one hand in the pocket of his leather jacket, and it grazed against the folded up piece of paper he carried around all the time now. The sketch seemingly drawn by a child. A child that lived in the Yazov mansion?

It was apparent they were trying to keep Karine hidden from the outside world for some reason. Frankly, it didn’t seem like all that far of a jump to assume there were more secrets to uncover there.

“You understand what I’m saying?” Marky asked, bringing him back to the conversation.

Roman nodded, but absently. “I just need some intel on Karine.”

The suspicious glint in Marky’s eye said he wasn’t entirely sure he believed his friend, but he didn’t seem willing to push it. Roman drank another gulp of his beer. The more he thought about Dima, the worse his stomach churned. He needed something concrete first before he started digging anywhere near that asshole. Too many balls were now tossed up in the air, and he had to catch every single one of them.

And if Roman was really going to climb this hill, then Karine was where he would put his focus first. Like why she was being treated by the Yazovs the way she was. He had to make sense of her first, before he could look in to what was going on with Dima. If there was a connection that led Roman to the other issues he still had up in the air at the moment, well ... that’s probably where he would have to move next.

If she was being forced to marry Dima, then Karine might have some answers he needed—but he had to get to her first.