Page 62 of Reaper’s Wrath

“In July, I killed three men. Danilov and Filippova were among them. They were trafficking children. I need to know who they were working for and where they were taking the kids.”

“No,” he begins to weep, tired, weary sobs. “I tell your men. Biba not do those things.”

“Those men worked for Biba. And they were moving kids. I saw them with my own eyes. Are you telling me they were running independent of Biba right under his nose?”

“They must have been. Biba never would have allowed it.”

“Then who was running the operation? Simeon?” Biba’s son could have started his own dealings before Biba was killed.

Trustov’s lip curls. “Not Simeon. Too weak.”

I feel myself growing impatient as my frustrations build. We’re not getting anywhere, and I’ve been waiting too damn long for a lead. We need something.

My fingers ball into a tight fist as he continues. “Simeon is a puppet. Worthless.” His tone is different now. Darker and more determined. Whoever he has in mind, there is no love lost between them.

“Who?” I demand.

“He has an adviser. The man is good at blending into the background. He is anything but. There are whispers about his plotting ever since Biba passed. Rumors that he has angled himself to lead by proxy through Simeon.”

“His name?”

Knowing his time has come, Trustov turns his head to me and speaks in the even, controlled voice of a man who accepts his fate. “Ruban. If anyone dared defy Biba so brazenly, it would be this man.”

I look back at Yannis, who looks at his man and gets the nod. We are all agreed. We have gotten all we will get from him. I pull a straight blade from its holster and slide it swiftly into one of Trustov’s eye sockets, deep into his brain. He dies instantly.

“Ruban?” I ask, turning to Yannis, who is already typing on his phone.

“Only Ruban I see on our roster is Vadik Ruban. We don’t have much on him, but I’ll see what our guys can dig up.”

I nod. “You three get this cleaned up. I have a couple of stops to make, and then I’ll meet you at the boat.” They get to work while I make my exit.

It’s dark before we return to the main ship. I learn that while I was gone, Kairos flew into the city on his jet and had dinner with Isa. He found a lead that indicated Stavros might have fled to New York, so he came and brought Tessa with him. I knew he was considering a trip to the city but didn’t expect him to come so soon.

Technically, they shared a group dinner with Michael and Evie, but my mind snags on the image of Kairos with Isa. I want to scrape the picture from my mind. The thought of her with anyone makes my skin feel too tight for my body.

He and I have shared a lot through the years, but never women. I don’t think he’d disrespect me like that, but at the same time, it’s not a subject we’ve covered. Plus, he doesn’t know my full history with her. He also doesn’t know I’ve decided to make her mine.

I need to remedy that.

I need the whole goddamn world to know she’s off limits, and I think I know how. I also know she wouldn’t like it, so I’m going to have to go about the matter discreetly.

“I need hot chocolate,” I announce down below in the crew’s quarters. “Tell me we have the fixings to make some hot chocolate.”

From where I stand, I can see into one bunk room and into the kitchen. Two men sit on their bunks while three more sit around the kitchen banquet table. They all stare at me unblinking for a second.

“Yeah, Captain. I can make that happen.” One of the guys in the kitchen slides off the bench seat and gets to work.

“Where’s Cruz?” I ask the others.

“Engine room,” Pete answers.

“Tell him to get his gun ready and keep an eye out for a text from me.”

“Yes, Cap’n.”

Once I have a steaming mug of hot chocolate in hand, I make a quick stop at Yannis’s cabin, then head to my own. Isa is sitting up in bed with the TV on, and I’ll be damned if her eyes don’t light up when she sees me.

“You’re back.”