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Goddamn. The woman has no clue. Absolutely no idea her old man couldn’t give a shit about her.
We walk into the villa and I watch for Abby’s reaction. Unsurprisingly, her eyes widen and she stops talking.
Yeah, it’s that incredible.
And it feels damn good to be off the yacht. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just that I was getting a little stir crazy, and am psyched to be in a place now where I can spread out, have some privacy, and enjoy new scenery.
And the scenery is breathtaking. Like more incredible than I even remembered.
The house is massive, all white stucco, with an infinity pool out back overlooking the hills and the ocean beyond. It is decorated in a cool Mediterranean-slash-Moroccan vibe that the last owners must have spent a shitload of money on.
But the house is ours now. Its former owner, a fool of epic proportions, lost it in some sort of business deal. I don’t remember the details. It’s just one of those ‘another day in the office’ sort of things. I can’t keep track of all our conquests.
But I did hear that shortly after losing the villa, his wife ditched his ass. Poor bastard.
I wander out back on the pretense of checking the water temperature in the pool. I bend to drag my fingers through it and take a deep breath. I’ve never felt this sort of foreboding about my job before, but we are about to have a conversation with Abby that will most likely leave her devastated.
I don’t usually care about shit like this. I mean, business is business. But it’s become kind of personal with Abby, given her fucked-up family and, well, the attraction I have to her. Actually, that all of us have to her.
I know she probably hates my fucking guts. I mean, why wouldn’t she? Sure, she fucks us, and is pleasant enough, but who wants to be held captive? To have their most important freedoms taken away?
I wouldn’t, that’s for damn sure.
We never thought we’d be keeping her for so long. We never thought her father would be such a fucker, although in hindsight, his business dealings should have tipped us off. And now, rather than keeping her to use as leverage, we’re keeping her to simply save her life.
I’m a vengeful fucker, and I will not let Abby’s father get away with what he’s doing.
“Fedor, come on in. Let’s have a scotch,” Bogdan calls.
I know this is hard on him too. He carries his own impossible grief, and I know our current situation dredges all that up again.
In the villa’s living room, Abby has crammed herself into a corner of the sofa as the puppy runs around, sniffing her new surroundings. When she loses interest, she scrambles back up on the sofa with Abby’s help and curls up next to her.
“Abby,” Bogdan starts, “we have some information to share with you.”
Hope flashes over her face, as I knew it would. She’s wanting good news.
But we’re about to douse her optimism.
“I’m going to get right to the point, Abby. The man following us after dinner was not looking to save you.”
Her eyes flash with anger. “How do you know?”
We look away from her, knowing our next words are going to change her life.
I wish I could put the moment on hold. Postpone the inevitable. Let this sweet woman believe for a little bit longer that the world is good and kind.
But I can’t.
Bogdan gets straight to the point. “Abby, hewassent by your father. You’re right about that. But he wasn’t here to save you. He was here to kill you.”
The color drains from her face and her hand covers her mouth.
Yeah, it’s like that.
I look away. I have to. The woman deserves some privacy in her moment of agony.
“Wh… what?” she asks, her voice trembling. She continues like she hasn’t heard Bogdan. “My father is saving me. He’s coming for me. I know he is. You don’t know him. You don’t know anything. And stop talking about my father that way.”
