AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I return his friendly gesture with a middle-finger salute, which he pretends to not see. “Leo!” Aly hits my arm, shaking with laughter. “Leave him alone. I talked with him and made it clear I’m not interested. He’s kept his distance since.”
My jaw ticks. “Yeah, but I still don’t like the look of him. Or how he looks at you for that matter.”
“Forget him. I have. I’d much rather think about you.”
“Oh really?” I sit back and reach for my beer. “Are you thinking about my magic dick or how hot I look naked?”
“You wish.” But before she can say more, my phone dings with an incoming text. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I see Dima’s name flashing on the display.
Dima: I have the information you wanted.
And there it is. Reality comes crashing down.
* * *
I callDima as soon as I enter the office.
He picks up after the fifth ring. "Apologies, boss," he pants. "I lost track of time with the punching bag." I discovered Dima when he was just a pimple-faced teenager hacking into government databases for fun. Recognizing his raw talent, I took him under my wing before he could land himself in jail.
Now, he’s more than just a hacker. He’s become a trusted lieutenant.
With a crack of my knuckles, I ask, “What do you have for me?”
“Marko Horvat. That name ring any bells?”
I pause in thought. “The Croatian arms dealer? He was one of the shitheads Alexander Lukov was locked up with.”
“That’s right. The two other shitheads Luzkov was in prison with are out of the picture. The Russian drug dealer was killed two months ago, and the Albanian is back behind bars. Which leaves Horvat, and he’s certainly been busy,” he adds with a low whistle.
“Tell me,” I say, dragging my knuckles down my face.
“Days before Alyona’s near-abduction, Horvat received a $20 million payment from a company called Transglobal Holdings. He’s an arms dealer, sure, but this kind of money? Doesn’t make sense, and his arms business has been relatively quiet of late.”
The gears in my mind start spinning with all sorts of possibilities, none of them good. “And Transglobal?”
“That’s the thing,” Dima sighs. “Transglobal is nothing but a cover for a network of shell companies. So far, it’s been impossible to figure out who is actually behind it.”
The revelation makes me sit back, my throat tightening. Could Horvat be the middleman between whoever is after Aly and Luzkov, the man he hired to do the dirty work?
Figuring out the players behind Transglobal could take weeks, months even. “It’ll be faster to track down Horvat and interrogate him,” I say, “Find him for me.”
“I have a lead. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll confirm his location.” Just as I’m about to disconnect, Dima adds, “One more thing. You asked me to dig into that crew member, Jack Martin.”
I stiffen. I had pushed that to the back of my mind. “What about him?”
“Guy’s hiding behind a fake name. Came up empty on my initial search, but once I dug deeper, I found out his real name is Jaxon Marley. Has a criminal record, but since it was before he turned eighteen, it’s been expunged in Australia. I’m working on getting it, though.”
“Keep on digging. I’m stuck on a yacht with this fucker, I need to know what he’s hiding.”
Disconnecting, I stare at the blank screen of the phone in my hand. An uneasy knot twists itself in the pit of my stomach. This revelation about Jack is fucked-up, if not entirely surprising, but he isn’t my only concern right now. Getting to the bottom of who is after Aly is.
Only minutes later Dima texts:
Dima: Marko Horvat is at his estate in Dubrovnik.
He follows it up with the necessary details about Horvat’s location.
Well, shit.
