19. Chapter 19
A fter a quick shower and a change of clothes, we headed upstairs to Sid’s office. When Luca and I walked in, we found Sid sitting with Layla and Malik. If they wanted to talk to me, perhaps they finally had a lead on Luca’s case.
I sat down, and before I could stop him, Luca curled up in my lap. Malik raised a brow, Sid smirked, and Layla looked fucking doe-eyed. I sighed but didn’t have the heart to push him away because I knew he was stressed out.
“Are we dating clients now?” Malik asked.
I scowled at him, and he was unfazed in his pressed three-piece charcoal gray suit with a navy shirt.
His wavy black hair was tucked behind his ears and fell to his shoulders, and his beard sprinkled with gray hairs was clipped short and neat.
I swear he took a youth serum. He was fifty-two but looked forty-two.
Since the cat was out of the bag, I shrugged. “There aren’t any rules.”
“Perhaps there should be. This is unprecedented. We don’t ‘date’ clients. It leaves you vulnerable and with something to lose. You, of all people, should know this. Plus, it’s unprofessional.”
Malik always was a stick in the mud. I had no idea what Sully saw in him.
Then again, maybe he needed the structure.
As much as Sully wanted his mentor sexually, Malik never gave him the time of day on a personal level.
It was just as well. I didn’t even know it was possible for Sully to understand love and affection.
“I love him,” Luca blurted.
Fuck. I wanted to facepalm, ignoring Layla’s ‘aws.’ Jesus. I was a killer, for fuck’s sake. Not exactly boyfriend material, yet here we were. Clearly, I didn’t give Luca enough boundaries, like no sitting on my lap in the boss’s office.
“It… just happened. I’m training him to protect himself, while Easton has been training him with the bow. He’s a quick learner, and he’ll soon be able to handle himself.” I wasn’t sure what my point was, since it didn’t explain what the hell I was doing with Luca sexually.
“You’re compromised,” Malik insisted, then looked at Sid. “Perhaps we should put Khai on this.”
Luca stiffened and sat up. “No! Angel will do it. I hired him. No one else.”
Malik raised a brow again. “Angel?”
I groaned and stared at the ceiling. I adored Luca, but this wasn’t the time or place. “Don’t ask.”
Before Luca could explain, I covered his mouth with my hand. I did not need him going on and on about me being his dark angel of vengeance shit right now. “Quiet.”
“Well, what’s done is done. I’m sure Dante is aware of the consequences.
Can we move on now?” Sid said. When no one said anything, Sid nodded.
“So, the first order of business deals with Geoffrey Davenport, your father, Luca. It appears his death has stirred up a hornet’s nest, despite our best efforts to hide his death. ”
“How did you do that? I… shot him several times,” Luca said.
“Yes, about that, nothing like a scorned son. I’m impressed.
Anyway, his body is at the bottom of the ocean.
While no one can prove it yet, it seems there are some who believe he was murdered since he vanished.
Especially those within the local Bratva.
Specifically, Misha Koslov. He’s not happy to lose his bank.
It will go under new ownership, but I believe Mr. Davenport was the only one who was aware of his special clientele.
We will keep an eye on the Bratva to see if they shift their money. ”
Luca rested his head on my shoulder and played with my hair. Jesus. Part of me loved the affection; the other part wanted to growl at him. It wasn’t the time to get all needy. “Luca, stop,” I whispered. He did as he was told and sat up straighter.
“Now that we know Misha Koslov sold Luca to Randall Payne, is Misha looking for the boy?” I asked.
Sid sorted through the papers on his desk and sighed.
“All is quiet on that front, and I don’t like it one bit.
I’m not sure who hired us to kill Randall and his men.
Most of our clients remain anonymous. As long as they pay us in advance, we’re good.
I’ve tried reaching the client with their encrypted email, needing to know why Luca was left off the hit list, but there’s been no response. ”
Malik coughed, bringing our attention to him.
“I highly doubt the client left Luca off by accident or from carelessness. Sid and I both believe he was considered part of the property and once the men were killed, the client went in and claimed whatever they wanted. Our suspicion is that they wanted to claim Luca as well as the diamonds, none of which are there, obviously.”
Which had been my original line of thinking. “Why haven’t they reached out, demanding where their property is, then?” I asked.
Malik and Sid both eyed each other before Sid spoke up.
“We… don’t know. It’s concerning. The client may believe we have their property and will retaliate.
There’s no way for them to know where they are, but we need to warn everyone to keep a sharp eye out for potential attacks, especially you, Dante, since you took the job. ”
“Fuck me.”
Malik raised his hand. “Before we panic, Sid and I are hoping that once this job is complete with Luca, it will take care of our little problem. We are in agreement that the client and the people Luca wants dead are one and the same.”
“Do you think it’s this… Misha?” Luca asked.
“It could be,” Layla said, nodding. “I have here a list of images of Misha Kozlov and his associates who are involved in human trafficking. It took some digging, but I only have three images. Of course, there are those who help out on the sidelines who aren’t nearly as important.
But if they were involved with Luca, they should be on the hit list. It’s a start.
Luca, I want you to look at the faces and see if you recognize any of them.
I know it’s been a while, and you were little when you were taken and sold, but try. ”
Luca climbed off my lap, stood, and walked over to the desk. He picked up the images and spent several minutes scanning each one.
“I’m… not sure. He doesn’t look familiar.” He handed Layla the image back and looked at the next one. “Mm, maybe.”
“Try to think more and look really hard. Take your time. Remember, it’s been ten or eleven years. They would look older here,” Layla explained.
He nodded and continued to scan the second image. “Just set him aside as a maybe. He looks familiar, but I’m not sure from where. And while there were many men who hurt me, I didn’t always get to see their faces.”
“We’ll only deal with the ones you recognize,” Sid said.
“Okay.”
Luca scanned the last image, and I knew instantly he recognized whoever it was. I couldn’t see the picture since his back blocked it, but his trembling hands gave it away.
“H-him.”
I stood and snatched the image of a tall and muscular man of about sixty years old, with black hair graying at the temples.
He had a Romanesque nose and a cleft in his chin.
The image was grainy, but you could see how cold his ice-blue eyes were.
He would’ve been a handsome man had he not had death in his eyes.
I handed it back to Layla, but before I sat down, I grabbed Luca from behind. He flinched but calmed down once I had him on my lap again.
Layla looked at the image again and handed it to Sid, who also scanned it before handing it over to Malik.
Malik’s dark eyes narrowed, then nodded. “That’s Misha Kozlov. Who is he to you exactly, Luca? We know your father sold you to him. What did he do?”
Luca buried his face in my neck, trembling, and shook his head. “I can’t do this.”
“You can.”
“No. I mean… I want him dead. I need him dead. But… I’m afraid. If we don’t kill him, he will kill everyone here.”
“We can take him out. Tell the others who he is to you exactly?”
“I only know him as Master. He… trained me personally for… sex. I was a special project for Father, who paid a lot of money for me. I only know this because he told me. Father wanted a small little boy as his slave. I was raped over and over and over by him. He hurt me so much, I started to forget who I was and who my parents were. Every time he did, I… felt like he ripped me in half. He didn’t care about my suffering and loved my crying and screaming.
When I did, he… told me how proud he was of me.
There were no drugs for pain relief… nothing.
I… suffered. Even Father wasn’t as bad as him. ”
I looked at Malik and Sid, asking with my eyes what we needed to do.
Sid sighed and rubbed his face. “Fuck, so we knew he took Luca. We knew he was involved in human trafficking. How much? That we don’t know.
But we can’t just go in with guns blazing.
This needs precise planning. Severing the head of the snake doesn’t get rid of all the vipers.
We have to tread carefully here. Take them out one by one, get information and a way inside.
We need to weaken Kozlov somehow. But we don’t want to move too slowly either and let him get the upper hand. ”
“And Luca has paid us to take out all of those who were involved. Maybe one of them will have a way in to get close to Kozlov and point to others.”
Malik placed the image onto Sid’s desk and nodded.
“This is going to get messy, but we knew that going in. We may have to involve the entire family in this. For now, Layla, do some research on that second man Luca was unsure of. Find out all the data on him, and then we send in Dante to extract information from him.”
“Will do,” she said, then looked at me. “I’ll send you a message through proper channels when I have some information for you.”