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I scoffed, taking a sip of the hot coffee the server had brought me. “Lina’s parents were abusive alcoholics who died in a house fire last year. Kind of hard to move in with their ashes. Lina and I have been friends for years. She wouldn’t just up and move without telling me.”
“So you thought the girls at the port might have seen her.” Dashkov confirmed what he already knew. “Thought maybe they could tell you where they’d seen her last.”
I nodded. “Only problem was,” I wrinkled my nose, “both the port and the stables Elias had been holding women in were blown to smithereens.” I shot a pointed look at Liam. “Thanks for that.”
“I’d do it again if it meant rescuing Ava.” He looked over at her, eyes glowing with affection. A lump grew in my throat. My father had never once looked at me with even a fraction of the affection that Liam was giving his daughter.
“None of the girls in thestableswere named Lina,” Kiernan told me. “Nearly all of them were Mexican, and the rest Ukrainian. All of them underage as well.”
Silence settled over Kiernan’s statement. All eyes were focused on me, their gazes soft as they gave me time to process what I’d learned.
Lina was gone.
Lost.
If she hadn’t been at the stables, then she’d either been sold or was dead. Either way, I wouldn’t be finding her, especially not on my own.
“There might be a chance,” Matthias spoke up, his Russian accent filling the heavy air, but his words lightened the fog that had descended around me.
“No,” Kiernan growled. “I know what you’re thinking, and absolutely not. We agreed to get information from her, not use her as a tool.”
“What?” I asked, brow furrowing. My gaze shifted between the pair.
“She’s the perfect spy and our best chance at getting the information we need.”
Kiernan’s lips twisted into an ugly snarl. “If you think I’m going to risk her like that, you’re bloody fucking crazy.”
“What?” I repeated, my voice gaining a frantic pitch. Did Matthias know something about Lina? Did he have a way to find her? Maybe he planned on having me become bait and go undercover. I turned to Kiernan. “What is he talking about?”
“Nothing.” His jaw clenched and the hand on my thigh gripped tighter.
“She’s the perfect—”
“I said no,” Kiernan roared, surging to his feet. His chair scraped across the wooden floor loudly.
“Kier.” Seamus bit his lip anxiously, his eyes darting between his brother and me. “Maybe we should see what information we can get from her about him and then let her hear the truth.”
Kiernan sneered at his brother. “And if he catches her?” he snapped. “Say she believes what we tell her. What then? Even if she does believe the evidence, who is going to protect her if she gets caught?”
Evidence?
Evidence against whom?
Kiernan’s rage continued. “I am not going to take the chance he catches her and sells her to some perverted fucking—”
“Enough,” Liam barked. His hand came down roughly on the table, shaking the wood. I startled, my body stiffening at his outburst. When my father got that way, it meant a beating. A lesson to keep me in line. He’d never raise his hand to me himself, though. Fernando would be the one to strike at me. His whip, he called him.
“Sit down, son.” Kiernan hesitated. “Now.”
Growling, he did as commanded, sliding the chair closer to mine so we were nearly on top of one another.
“I don’t understand.” My gaze darted from one person to the next. “Who are you so worried about?”
“Your father, lass.” Liam’s jaw ticked. “Richard Crowe.”
My father?What did he have to do with any of this?
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