Page 51 of Locked and Loaded

Dragan hesitated. "I want to know, but I don't want to bring trouble to your door." What he really meant was he didn't want to bring trouble to Kathleen's door, and now that Enzo was Kathleen's partner, that included him.

Enzo knew instantly what Dragan was doing. "I appreciate that, but it's okay. I can put out a few feelers. I'll get back to you as soon as I know something."

"Thanks," Dragan said, and meant it.

He ended the call. Under any other circumstances, Valardi would be a friend. There was no doubt they were cut from the same cloth. Dragan had spent a lot of years on the wrong side of the law. That was how he'd gotten his start. He had no beef with anybody who'd made their bones that way. It was just life when you didn't come from the right side of the tracks.

Lennox strode into the office. "What was that about?"

She was suspicious. Dragan couldn't blame her. She was in a tough spot.

"I reached out to some friends. I'm trying to get a line on the man who has your sister. I think I've got a name. I'm just waiting for a callback on the location."

Instantly, Lennox's shoulders went tight. Her gaze bored holes into him. "Tell me what you know."

Dragan hesitated. Telling her meant having Lennox find out that her sister was with a monster. Maybe he could give her the name and not the details?

"This is my goddamn sister." Lennox planted both hands on his desk and stared across at him.

"The man's name is Konstantinos Georgiou.”

Lennox's breath caught. Her knees seemed to give out, and she landed hard on the chair across from him.

Dragan's gut tightened. So much for sparing her the details. "You know him?"

She shook her head, but her cheeks had gone pale. "Not personally, but I know of him. The company I worked for, Cooper and Laith, had some dealings with him. He's a shipping magnate, but he's brutal. I mean really brutal." She crossed her arms tight over her chest. "One of his ships broke down while moving some cargo for us. It was a nightmare. I heard he was so pissed off about the delay that he took it out on the captain."

"Seriously?" Dragan asked.

"There's no way to prove it. The captain died under ‘mysterious circumstances,’ but the crew knew, and they told our people. The company hasn't dealt with him since. He's one of the biggest shipping magnates out there, and rumor has it he doesn't just move legitimate cargo." She shook her head. "My boss warned the CEO that maybe doing business with this guy wasn't the best idea. The CEO didn't care until the captain situation came up. Then he backed off fast. Getting tied to something like that could sink a company."

Dragan tapped his fingers on the desk, processing the thoughts racing through his mind.

"You’re sure he has Chloe?" she asked.

Dragan didn’t want to be the one who brought her the harsh truth, but he didn’t see a way around it. “It looks likely… But we can’t know for sure.” In the end, he had to give her some hope. He couldn’t crush her completely. Hell, maybe Valardi was wrong, but he didn’t think so. Enzo Valardi didn’t make mistakes. If he did, he would have been dead a long time ago.

The rest of the color had left Lennox's face. The dark circles under her eyes seemed to deepen. "I've been hoping she was with someone like Katya's partner or her husband, or whatever you want to call him. He's bad enough. But if he's in love with her, or at least infatuated, she might be somewhat protected." Her voice cracked on the next words. "But this guy, this is a whole different animal. He’s an evil bastard. We have to get to my sister. We have to get there fast."

"Agreed. But fast is not the way to do it. Not with a man like this."

Lennox shot out of her chair. "Fast is the only way to do it. My sister has been with this animal for months. We need to get her out of there as soon as possible."

If it wasn’t too late already. He bit back a sigh at that thought. "Agreed. But fast means mistakes, and mistakes kill. You want to get her out of there in one piece, don't you?" He'd been around Lennox long enough now to know when she was thinking she could do it better herself. He could read the thoughts plain on her face.

"No, Lennox. You can't do it better yourself."

"I didn't say anything," she responded.

"You didn't have to. You won't be able to do this on your own. I can't even do it on my own, and I have a lot more experience in this world than you do. This man means we have to call in reinforcements."

"No reinforcements." She shook her head hard. "Reinforcements mean leaks. Someone will tell him. This guy likely has people everywhere, watching, listening for anything that references him. The more people we tell, the worse off we'll be."

"You have to trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"That's what you say, but we haven't made any progress so far. I'm not seeing anything. The proof is in the actions, not the words."

“You’re being unreasonable. We’re farther along than you think. We have a name and a location, or at least a good idea of one.”