Two Cuts Darker

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  I edged closer on my knees, keeping my head low, and peeked through the vines woven in the wrought iron. A woman. He was meeting a woman.

  After the instantaneous wash of jealous rage flooded over me and then ebbed away, I realized she was quite a bit older than him. Her hair was bright red, but streaked with gray. She wasn’t thin, but not heavyset either. Just solid and study, like a well-built farmer. Someone who worked for a living.

  Their voices carried to me a moment, not enough to hear their words but the sudden impact of what I was doing hit me. Spying on my Master. I ducked my head, thoroughly ashamed, and started backing toward the last shop.

  Sheba sat. Wagged her tail. Oh crap.

  “Ranay.”

  He didn’t speak loudly or with censure. He didn’t have to, because his resigned heaviness was punishment enough. I tugged on the leather strap of my sandal, pretending I’d been fixing the buckle, and stood. “Charlie. There you are.”

  I risked a quick glance at his face. His arched eyebrows and the sardonic twist to his lips told me he knew exactly what I’d been doing. “Finished shopping already?”

  I smiled brightly and lifted the bag. “All done.”

  “My, my, just one bag.” The woman beside him spoke with a faint accent. Russian maybe? Or European. I didn’t have a very educated ear for such things. “You must introduce me to this efficient shopper.”

  “This is Ranay, my...” He hesitated slightly, and I suddenly realized he’d given my real name. Not the name on my passport. “Fiancée. Ranay, this is my old friend, Blake.”

  Blake. The name seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. The woman offered her hand, so I stepped closer and gave her a shake, though it felt very weird. She leaned closer and whispered, “You might want to brush your knees off, dear.”

  My cheeks burned as brightly as her hair. I frantically brushed at my knees, banging the shopping bag around like an idiot. I had dirt and leaves all over my skirt. It looked like I’d rolled around in a pile of leaves, rather than just kneeling for a moment out of sight.

  “So you’re the one who intrigued Tasker enough to get him killed.”

  My mouth fell open and I stared at her. If she knew about Tasker, then she had to be the woman Charlie had worked for years ago. She knew exactly who he was. What he was. What had Charlie said about her? Something like he hoped to God I never met her.

  No wonder he’d tried to meet her without me anywhere around.

  Charlie took a step closer and slid his arm around my waist, drawing me against his protective heat. “Tasker got himself killed. He should have left after delivering your message.”

  “He knew how much I needed to talk to you.”

  “No.” Charlie allowed a hint of menace to sharpen his tone. “He figured you could use her against me.”

  Blake nodded slightly, a smile flickering on her lips. “But we’ve moved past that, yes?”

  He blew out a sigh. “Yes. Thanks for your help.”

  “I’ll be seeing you.” Blake inclined her head to me politely. “Ranay, a pleasure to meet you. Have a nice trip.”

  She quickly disappeared into the crowd. I turned my face into his shirt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.”

  “Yes, you did, at least to see who I had to meet so urgently.” He kissed the top of my head. “She had me over a barrel anyway, so her meeting you doesn’t hurt us any. I just wish she didn’t know you.”

  “Know that I’m with you?”

  “No, not at all. It’s not even that she saw your face, because I’m sure Tasker sent a picture to her right away. Blake has a way of seeing what people really are at their core, no matter how hard they try to hide it, and let’s face it, kitten. You’re pretty much an open book. She knew me for a killer long before I ever admitted it to her. I’m sure she knows I’m a sadist, or at least dominant. But now she’s seen exactly what my taste is. She sees my perfect slave in you. The perfect slave for ensnaring me. It makes me vulnerable, and I hate feeling known. Exposed. Especially to her.”

  “How does she have you over a barrel?”

  “I had to ask for help. Now I owe her. She’ll call upon me in the future to meet that debt and it won’t be pretty, I assure you. I can only hope it’s something I can live with.”

  So the next time a guy like Tasker showed up...

  Charlie would go with him. The thought made me ill.

  We walked back through the market to the long line of docks. Now that we were here, I knew where he’d left the boat. Slot 1293. I’d even memorized how many rows down, just in case we had to run and I didn’t have time to look for it. I started to turn down that row, but he tugged me back down the main dock. “Aren’t we taking your boat?”

  “Not yet. In case Matheson’s team managed to track us here, we’re leaving the boat as a decoy for now. They’ll assume we’re still on the island. I have a friend who’s picking it up tomorrow morning and sailing up to the Keys and then Miami. Hopefully Matheson will follow.”

  “Then where are we going?”

  He paused at a much smaller boat, almost the size of the private speedboat that had taken us to Petit St. Vincent. I eyed it warily. Traveling in a big boat had made me seasick. If we had to go far in this little boat, bouncing up and down across the waves...

  “It’s not far, so you can stop turning green.” He took my hand and helped me step down into the boat. Sheba jumped in after us. To the man driving us, he simply said, “Andros Town.”

  It was just a bench seat, so I hugged Charlie and closed my eyes, concentrating on his scent and his arms around me. “What could Blake tell you that no one else could?”

  “She’s personal friends with someone’s wife,” he whispered against my ear. “I can’t say his name, just to be safe. I don’t know our driver personally. But it’s the man we’re looking for who may have hired my brother. I needed to know what the man’s weakness is, and she’s perfect at that.”

  “What’s his weakness?”

  “His wife and son. He loves them dearly. I already knew that to an extent, but here’s where personal knowledge helps us. Before his son was even born, he sent his wife to America alone. Blake said those years were very hard for Nadiya. She was forced to do things that shame her still and she’s never forgiven her husband for it.”

  “And he doesn’t know?”

  “He knows as much as any powerful, arrogant man can understand a very proud, strong woman who made her own way in a very hard world alone for many years.”

  “So he doesn’t have a clue.”

  Charlie laughed and tucked me closer. “That’s my guess.”

  “When you and Matheson were talking, you said there was a rival group causing him problems.”

  “Yes. I don’t know much about them, though. Matheson seemed concerned that they were going to get to the man we want before she could, though.”

  “So someone’s helping them. Leaking them information.”

  “Definitely.”

  “Could it be Nadiya?” He was silent for several moments, so I continued. “I mean, a woman scorned, or wronged in this case. If she’s wanting to pay him back, wouldn’t betraying him to a rival be the perfect way to ruin him?”

  “You may be on to something.” He pulled out his phone and typed a number from memory. It wasn’t saved in his contacts. “I’ll text Blake to check for any personal ties back to those rivals. It very well could be someone from Nadiya’s past calling in a favor, or maybe she’s using a previous relationship to get rid of her husband.”

  I laughed but it sounded forced. “I guess I’m not entirely worthless after all.”

  He put the phone away and then cupped my chin, turning my face up to his. “You’re far from worthless, kitten. You’re the only thing I care about in this world. If it comes down to saving m
y brother, or saving you, I’m taking you as far away from trouble as I can get. Do you understand? I’ve made my choice. I’ve given my heart to you. I can’t—won’t—take it back. Ever.”

  I leaned up and kissed him, fighting back tears. “But I don’t want to be a handicap for you. I want to help you.”

  “You help me more than you could ever know. You may not be able to shoot a bad guy, but you already saved me. I have a feeling you’ll save me again when we find Vince.”

  “I did?”

  He kissed my nose. “When three FBI agents cornered me, what do you think I would have done if I hadn’t had you to think about? That whole meeting only worked because of you. You had a relationship with Matheson. You had a relationship with me. You brought us together in a way that we both were able to walk away from, still breathing. So don’t discount yourself, Ranay. You might not be the person I throw a gun to, but you’re the one I’ll look to for human understanding, relationships and putting puzzles together. You figured out my clues for you, remember?”

  “Yeah, but that was fun. It was like playing a computer game or something.”

  “You figured out how I think. That is a huge achievement. Why do you think Tasker ended up dead? Because he had no idea how I’d react in a given situation.”

  “Does Blake know how you think?”

  He grimaced. “Yeah, unfortunately. To a point, at least.”

  “How do you know her?”

  “Blake’s done a little of everything. She’s the person who knows how to get things, or knows the right person to get what you need. She deals in information like others deal in drugs. We used her as a CI in the FBI, especially when she was in prison.”

  “She was in prison?”

  “Oh yeah. She ran the entire New Jersey correctional system’s black market and had ins with everybody from the warden to the guards, drug dealers to the hit men. After she was released, she continued using her contacts inside and eventually widened her network to include most of the Atlantic seaboard. That’s when she got her hooks into me.” He sighed and rubbed Sheba’s ruff. She leaned against his legs, melting under his powerful hands. Yeah, I knew that feeling all too well. “I went to her to find information on my father.”

  “Did she help?”

  “Ultimately, yes. She directed me to Louisiana. I found him there.”

  “So then she made you come work for her?”

  I’d been so engrossed in our conversation that I didn’t notice the shore until we pulled into the dock. Charlie paid the driver and we walked up the dock toward a small cluster of buildings. Hopefully a hotel. Food. My stomach rumbled just thinking about something to eat.

  “Not immediately. She knew I’d balk at a big job and I still had to find my father. All she did was set me on the course I needed. No, Blake has a way of reeling you in bit by bit. You need just one tiny thing, and she gives it, and all she’ll ask for later is a small thing, and it’s no big deal. So you ask her again. And eventually, she owns your soul.”

  Great. And now she had her hooks in him again.

  “Don’t worry about her.” Charlie took my hand and for a moment, I could almost pretend we were back in Belize, just the two of us, taking a nice walk on the beach. “She has a very particular code of honor and she knows what I’m capable of. Honestly, she probably would have killed Tasker herself if he’d come back to her with you in tow, because she has very strict rules about bringing innocents, especially women, into violent situations. That’s the only reason I was willing to risk meeting with her today. I honestly don’t believe she’ll fuck with you unless I leave her absolutely no other choice.”

  He paused outside a quaint hotel. “This look good?”

  “Sure. Where are we?”

  “Andros Island, though it’s actually made up of many smaller islands and some of the most gorgeous blue holes for diving hundreds of feet down into the ocean floor. Lots of people come for bonefish too, but it’s not as touristy as Nassau or Freeport. If you’re a billionaire Russian mafia boss, you can build your luxury compound on a private island pretty cheap.”

  He paid cash for a room and asked to be directed to the nearest restaurant. Seated in a cute thatch-roofed cabana, we ate street tacos that were to-die-for. The sun beat down high above us, making me yearn for a nap. But I doubted we’d have time for sleeping, let alone fucking, anytime soon.

  “So what’s the plan?” I leaned back with a fruity cocktail in hand. “We can’t just row up to his private island and ask for an audience.”

  Swirling a dark red wine in his glass, he arched a brow at me. “What’s with the we? And how did you know that’s exactly what I intend to do?”

  I pouted a little, but I’d figured he’d refuse to take me to actually meet Vlasenko. If the man was half as bad as I imagined, I didn’t want to be anywhere near him either. “I hate waiting. I think it’s worse than facing bullets and bad guys.”

  He leaned over and planted a hard, quick kiss on my shoulder. “Never say that. No bad guys are allowed anywhere near you.”

  “I just hate worrying that you might be hurt and I won’t have any way of knowing that you need help.”

  He sipped silently at his wine a moment and then gave a little nod. “I think I can get around that issue. When we get home, I’ll make some adjustments to our phones. That way you’ll see exactly where I am, and I think I can even set it up for you to listen in to conversations. Though you have to promise not to freak out if I turn it off. Sometimes the fewer people who know something, the better. Even you, kitten.”

  “Okay.” I dropped my head against his shoulder. “When will you go see him?”

  “We’re going to put out the first feelers right now. We have to act quickly before Matheson’s crew figures out where he’s holed up. They won’t break fingers to find out, but they will eventually track him here. I have to find Vince first.”

  All too quickly, Charlie would go into the lion’s den alone, and all I could do was sit and watch and pray he’d be okay.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nassau, Bahamas

  Vincent

  It went against every instinct for Vincent to stand outside the hotel room in plain sight, especially when he knew a small team of agents was filming his every move. He’d dressed in G’s clothes and wore G’s weapons, but he didn’t feel like G any longer, which made it hard to keep his face impassive as the black sedan rolled up outside. Two men got out: Bory and Oryol. At least he knew these two by name, and they didn’t shoot him on sight. Progress.

  “I have a package for the boss.”

  Bory stayed near the car, but Oryol followed him down the aisle to room 212. G opened the door and the man let out a low whistle.

  Mads lay on the floor, her ankles and wrists duct-taped together. He’d cut up a pillowcase to gag her. Her sundress was torn and stained with blood, and she was missing a shoe. They’d left the bed disheveled to reveal the bloody sheets. Unless anyone bothered with a DNA test, they’d never know the blood was his and not hers.

  “Tracked the car she hopped in to here. She put up a good fight.”

  Oryol looked around the room. “Guess you had a pretty good time, then.”

  He signaled Bory and then stepped inside to grab her feet. Vincent went around and picked up her shoulders. They waited a moment until Bory gave a low whistle, and then they hustled her outside and stashed her quickly in the trunk of the car.

  “Any loose ends?” Oryol asked, pausing at the open car door.

  Vincent met his gaze over the top of the car and let a mean grin twist his lips. “Stashed her boyfriend in the tub. As dirty and dusty as the room is, they won’t find him until he starts to reek.”

  The man paused a moment like he was going to go verify Vincent’s story, but then he ducked his head and slid into the car.
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br />   The ten-minute ride back to the Royal Reefs passed in silence. Vincent had always been a man of few words, but on a good day, Vlasenko’s men talked and laughed. Not today. So that told him things were grim indeed. Oryol wasn’t high enough in the organization to know much about the boss’s movements or plans, so Vincent didn’t even attempt to get information out of him. Bory was just a driver.

  They pulled into the underground parking garage, winding down to the lowest level where Vlasenko’s men generally parked. The extra guards were a surprise. Vincent recognized their faces but their names escaped him.

  Oryol waved one of the guards over. “G brought a surprise for the boss in the trunk. Keep an eye on her until we find out what to do with her.”

  “Sure.” The guard punched in a quick call. “Oryol brought G in. Yeah. Okay.” He hung up and jerked his head toward the elevator. “Go on up.”

  One of the guards stepped onto the elevator with them and rode in silence to the top floor. Even more men stood in the waiting area outside the boss’s penthouse suite, all heavily armed. Vincent waited, still silent, though his mind raced. Something big had happened to increase the guards. Even bigger than the Tkaczuks hitting the shipment. He hadn’t even been off the grid for twenty-four hours, but he might have completely missed the window of opportunity. If Vlasenko had been knocked off...

  Finally the door opened and he stepped inside. Feliks sat behind the desk, but that alone wasn’t surprising. As Vlasenko’s younger brother, Feliks was second-in-command, at least in the Caribbean.

  “We thought you might have taken the opportunity to split.”

  Vincent crossed his arms and took a wide stance in front of the desk, refusing the offered chair. “Why would I do that? Boss gave me a very specific job that I haven’t completed yet.”

  “Your phone was off. No one could reach you.”

  “Yeah,” he drawled the single word. “I had to do something. I didn’t want any interruptions.”

  “While you were out, we had some problems here. Three of our men were killed last night.”