Page 28 of Kidnapped Bride

A man who wouldn't protect his own child wasn't a man at all. He was a selfish bastard hiding behind a reputation he didn't deserve.

I walked into my study and sat down at my desk, filling that glass up to the brim.

Then I sipped the last few drops from the bottle and tossed it into the bin. It'd been an interesting night I hadn’t expected to happen.

My body still pulsed with endorphins but the wine helped coax me deeper into relaxation.

It was getting a bit old sleeping on the sofa in here.

For a second, I wondered how Kira would respond to my climbing into bed with her, but by the time my work was doneand I was able to retire for the night, I had no energy left for arguing, so I hadn’t tried it yet.

Soon, maybe, but first I wanted a few minutes to collect myself.

My cigars were stashed in the top drawer of my desk. I pulled one out and clipped it and I had no more than lit the thing than my door opened and Vlad walked in with a dark expression. I was beginning to get annoyed by how often they interrupted me with bad news.

"Boss, got a minute?"

"Go ahead." I didn't get up. I just leaned back and gestured him in with the cigar. It'd become a pattern I was too used to, but tonight, I figured it couldn't be anything too catastrophic. We had no more shipments for a while and I had sent reinforcements to every store we owned.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him, which meant it was something he didn't want anyone else hearing. Then he stood with his hands clasped in front of him and his shoulders squared.

"I just have an update from the port," he said. "Our guys down there have been tightening up like you asked. But we picked up some chatter tonight."

"What kind of chatter?" So far, nothing he'd said was damning, but my temper was still bracing for bad news.

"We heard Markin has something coming in soon. Maybe two days, maybe three. Nobody knows the exact window yet, but the volume of movement around his warehouse on the south end has picked up considerably. New faces, extra vehicles, the whole routine."

I drew on the cigar and tasted the smoke on my tongue. Markin was bringing something in through the port while simultaneously hitting my trucks and pushing into my territory.

The man was stretching himself thin, which meant he was either supremely confident or supremely reckless. Both were exploitable.

And I owned that port.

"Do we know what it is yet?"

Vlad shook his head. "Not yet. Could be product or weapons, could be anything. I've got a guy trying to get closer, but Markin's crew has been tight-lipped about it."

"Find out," I told him. "If it's drugs, I want to know exactly when it arrives and exactly where it goes. If it's guns and we can get our hands on them, we can recoup some of what we lost the other day." Markin's strike taking my shipment three days ago still rubs me raw.

Vlad grunted, jerking his chin up as if he understood exactly what I meant. He was damn good at his job, and I knew I could trust him to get this intel.

"If it's product," I continued, drawing slowly, "we take every gram of it and we make sure his people know exactly who did it."

"Understood." Vlad turned to leave and then stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "What about the girl? Are we using her now? Markin's gonna escalate."

"Let him escalate it, then," I said, letting the smoke curl upward out of my mouth. "He's already told me he doesn't care what happens to the girl so for now, we'll consider her my baggage. Don't worry about that."

Vlad scowled in confusion but he didn't ask me to clarify anything. He left quietly the way he'd come in, and I sat there with my cigar, staring at the bookshelves without really seeing them.

Markin's shipment was an opportunity, but seizing it would only deepen the war.

It was a move, not an endgame. And I needed an endgame.

Something that didn't just hurt Markin but humiliated him so thoroughly that his own people would start to question whether he was worth following.

The only way to truly take a man like Markin out was to discredit him with the authorities, with his sources and buyers, and with his own men. I'd done my share of this sort of work over the years, but nothing sprang to mind immediately.

What did spring to mind was the feeling of Kira's body wrapped around my dick so tight, it made my balls draw up. It wasn't like there was anything specifically special about her.