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He didn’t want to fight me either.
I finally made the call.
Egor answered almost immediately. “Carter. I wasn’t expecting to speak to you until Friday. Hope this conversation brings good news.” His voice was slightly cheery, probably because he was expecting to get his main source of entertainment back. “I’m exhausted from my business meetings. I’m looking forward to becoming reacquainted with her.”
I wanted to throw my phone against the wall and destroy it, not out of jealousy, but pure hatred. “She’s the reason I’m calling. We have a problem on our hands.”
“What kind of problem?” He immediately turned serious, slightly hostile.
“When you called me the other night, she eavesdropped. She figured out I was handing her back to you.”
He chuckled. “I imagine that didn’t make her too happy.”
“No…it didn’t. I had to chain her up again because she tried to kill me with a kitchen knife.”
He laughed into the phone. “That sounds like her. I thought we could make this transition smooth, but perhaps we can’t. You’ll have to drug her first…even though I would love to see the look on her face when we make the transfer.”
Now I just wanted to kill this guy, to stab him in the neck and watch him bleed to death. “There won’t be any transfer, Egor. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the fire alarm. The fire was coming from her room, and by the time I got there, the place was in flames.”
“What?” he snapped. “What the fuck happened?”
“She had a candle on her nightstand. I think she set the drapes on fire so the flames would spread… I think it was suicide.”
Egor was silent.
“She wouldn’t talk to me after she heard the phone call. She stayed in her room the entire time, chained to the bed. I didn’t think this was even a possibility. Otherwise, I would have kept an eye on her. I’ve already wired the money back to you since this happened while she was in my possession.”
He still didn’t speak.
I leaned back in my chair and stared my bookshelf, unsure what his reaction would be. He was probably so angry, he didn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t think she was at risk for suicide. She didn’t display any of the signs.”
He finally said something. “No, she never did…”
“Maybe it was an accident, but I don’t think it was. She didn’t scream.”
“Then what happened?” he asked, his voice coarse.
“I ran in there and put out the fire. She was on the bed, burned pretty bad.”
“When did this happen?”
“Just now…” I sighed into the phone. “That whole bedroom is ruined. It’ll have to be restored. I wanted to know what you wanted me to do with the body. I have a guy who can get rid of it, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted it.”
Egor was quiet again.
It was impossible to gauge his reaction over the phone, not through his silence or carefully chosen words.
“You better not be fucking with me, Carter.”
My blood turned ice-cold. “I’m not. You think I wanted to lose a hundred and fifty million dollars?”
“We both know she’s worth more than a hundred and fifty million dollars, Carter.”
I didn’t deny it since that would make me look like a liar. “Get out here and look for yourself. I don’t appreciate being called a liar, not when I’ve always been an ethical businessman. It’s not my fault your slave hated you so much that she killed herself the second she realized she was going back to you. Not my problem, Egor.”
He returned to his palpable silence.
I wasn’t going to be a pushover because that would just make me look guilty. “She’s just a woman. You can replace her in a heartbeat. If you treat them that badly, they’re a dime a dozen. Now, what do you want me to do with the body? I left it in the bedroom, but I don’t want it sitting there longer than necessary.”
Egor growled into the phone. “My men and I will be there in a few hours.”
Click.
I called Griffin.
He picked up right away. “How’d it go?”
“I’m not sure. He’s on his way to look at the body.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” The sound of the engine was in the background since they were only halfway to Florence. “But our job is spotless. He’ll be forced to accept it. And make sure to be an asshole. The more of an asshole you are, the more believable you are.”
“That shouldn’t be difficult…since I am an asshole.”
He chuckled. “At least you’re honest about it.”
“He told me I better not be fucking with him.”
“He’d be stupid not to be suspicious.”
“But I made it seem plausible that she killed herself, since I said she did it right after our conversation.”
“It’ll be fine,” Griffin said. “There’s no evidence to the contrary. He might watch you for a while, but even then, he won’t find anything. Eventually, he’ll find someone else and forget about her. It’s the circle of life for criminals like him.”
