by Sofia Grey
His face darkened. For a moment, Juli was afraid of him and more than glad when Aiden interrupted them.
Charlie stalked away, his body rigid with anger. Someone else who was pissed off with her.
“First we’re going to piece together the sequence of events,” said Aiden. “Then we’ll plan what to do.”
It took a few minutes, but the story emerged.
Daisy and Andrei had come to the yard to talk to Irina, and they found her anxious after seeing a picture of Yanni in a magazine. Nathan and Daisy had gone to feed the horses. Meanwhile, Anita and Jon were calling at the stables, to talk business with Nathan, when they were nearly run off the road by a white panel van driving at speed. Shaz, the stable girl, arrived in tears and covered with bruises and scrapes. She’d explained how a pair of strangers were asking for information on a girl called Irina, and Shaz had told them how she was staying with Nathan, and that her hair had been cut and coloured. They’d tried to run her over when she left them, and she only just leapt to safety.
Then Charlie had arrived, after picking up a message from Daisy, only by this time, there was no sign of either Daisy or Nathan.
Daisy’s phone was found in the yard, smashed, along with a broken plastic ring. For some reason, Charlie clung to that.
Aiden was very interested in the magazine picture of Yanni, taken at a theatre in Paris. Yanni was shown alongside a high-profile Russian businessman, Pieter Amirov, and an unnamed man who made Irina shake with fear. Using Andrei as a translator, Aiden explained that she needed to tell them everything she could, if they were to stand a chance of getting Daisy back unharmed.
There was a heated exchange.
Irina kept saying no, shaking her head and crying.
Andrei kept asking, repeating his questions over and over, and Irina cracked. She shouted something, and then buried her face in her hands.
Andrei looked shocked. “She says this man raped her.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus. When she first arrived, this man raped her several times, before handing her over to the brothel manager in Dublin. From what the others told her, he likes to break in the new girls.”
That would explain why she was so upset. “He’s at the same party as Yanni,” said Juli. “Does she think they’re working together?”
Andrei shook his head. “No. She trusts Serenity, but she’s worried the rapist might try to stop him before he can get here.”
Davey had been working hard, to identify the people in the photograph. Like Aiden, he spoke with a cultured English voice and looked more like an investment banker than a government agent. “The man’s name is Viktor Silvenko. As far as we can tell, he works for Amirov, and this probably explains his presence at the party.” Davey glanced back at his laptop screen. “He handles business interests for Amirov, including overseeing the management of a number of hotels and clubs. I guess he’s the man on the ground, while Amirov stays upstairs, so to speak.”
Juli couldn’t wait for Jack to arrive. To keep herself occupied, she resurrected the Ideas Board on the kitchen wall and updated it with all the extra information they now had.
Charlie was adamant that they go looking for Daisy, drive around to find the van that took her, but Aiden convinced him to wait until they had a lead.
And then it all got more complicated. Jordan strolled up the drive, looking in surprise at all the vehicles parked in the yard. His cheery greeting faded away when he looked around the group.
He clasped hands with Aiden. “Good to see you, man. How are you? Kate tried half a dozen times to call Nathan, but he didn’t answer, so I said I’d come over. Is he here?”
Aiden shook his head. “No. He’s not.”
Jordan sharpened his gaze. “Is everything okay?”
“No. We have a difficult situation.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Irina stepped forward. “Americano,” she murmured.
Jordan held out a hand to her. “I’m Jordan Merrill. Pleased to meet you.”
Irina’s pale face lit up with a grin beaming from ear to ear. She grabbed Charlie’s hand and tugged him forward. “Americano,” she said earnestly. “Americano back-up.”
Jordan and Charlie both looked mystified, but it made sense to Juli. She looked around but couldn’t see Andrei. Damn. She turned to Charlie. “You mentioned that Irina had a back-up plan. A contact here, in case Yanni didn’t meet her. Do you think she was told to look for Jordan?”
*
Nathan had no idea how far they travelled, bumping around in back of the van, unable to see. It didn’t feel long, maybe fifteen minutes, before the van stopped moving. Daisy was coughing and crying at his side.
“Please take this off me,” she cried. “I can’t breathe.” There was a shuffling noise and a gasp.
Nathan tensed, but then Daisy spoke again, her voice croaky. “Thank you. Will you please do the same for Nathan?”
Seconds later, the sack was yanked from his head, dust and dirt scattering across his face in the process. He sucked in a deep gulp of air, his eyes adjusting to the dim light.
Daisy stared at him, wide eyed, her face filthy. Their captor glared down at them both. Tall and thin, he had a dark complexion and long, straggly, dark hair. He dropped the two sacks onto the floor by his feet, then crouched down to their level.
“I will be in the front. You keep quiet, and you’ll be okay. Any trouble, and I’ll cut you.” He lifted his right hand. It held a long, curving blade that glinted in the weak light. It looked deadly.
Nathan nodded, and Daisy did too.
The guy opened the back doors and jumped out to the ground. A wash of evening sun flooded in, before the door slammed shut again. The tiny glimpse of outside that Nathan caught suggested they’d stopped on the main road that ran through Anglesey, the A55. He couldn’t tell if they were heading toward the port at Holyhead, or in the other direction toward Wales.
Seconds later, the van lurched forward again and accelerated into its journey to God knew where.
At least they were alone in the van. He could talk to Daisy. Bracing himself against the side wall, he whispered to her, “Come over here. I need you to do something.”
The sight of her red rimmed eyes made his stomach churn. She scooted across the floor, to sit in front of him. Her chest heaved. More tears were not far away.
Nathan longed to hold her, but with their hands restrained, it was impossible. He had to focus on getting them out of here. “My phone is in my pocket. Can you reach it?”
She gave him a wobbly smile. “As chat up lines go, I’ve heard better.”
Gods. Even in a shitty situation like this, she had a dirty sense of humour. Nathan was smitten, for sure.
Daisy edged nearer. She had to press against him, in order for her hand to reach his jacket. “It’s not easy,” she said. She moved closer. Her entire upper body was touching his, her breasts painfully close. There was a delightful agony when her fingertips brushed against his breeches.
“Got it,” she whispered. “I’ll move so you can see it. It feels like it’s cracked.”
“Shit. You’re right.” The screen was a shattered cobweb. It had been switched on, but now it looked dead. “I must have fallen on it.” Of all the bad luck… “Where’s your phone?”
She turned around to face him. “I dropped it in the yard.” Her lips wobbled. “And my ring’s gone. I can’t feel it anymore.” She dropped her head. “That was my engagement ring.” She moved to rest her head against his shoulder. “I’m scared. Why is this happening?”
The sound of her quiet sobs tore his heart to pieces. Any vague plan of untying her hands was impossible. They were both bound with duct tape. They’d need a knife, to cut them free.
“Charlie’s rich. Do you suppose they want me for ransom?” Her words were muffled. “I had a row with him just before I came out. He didn’t answer his phone. He might not know we’re not there.”
“If they want you for ransom, they’ll
contact him. They won’t hurt you. They’d be mad to do that.”
Her breath was warm against the base of his throat, and there was that faint coconut perfume again. Her shampoo?
“Nathan”—she sounded hesitant—“it’s selfish of me, but I’m glad you’re here. I’d be hysterical if I was on my own.”
“Well… you know.” He tried to sound casual and probably failed. “I was planning a quiet night in, but I guess this could be fun.”
She sighed. “You’re the only thing that might keep me sane, and I know almost nothing about you. Talk to me. Please.”
“Talk? About what?”
“We might be here for hours. We might never get out.”
The rise and fall of her breasts was intoxicating.
“Why does Shaz hate you?” Daisy asked.
“Jesus. Can’t we start with something simple?” He shifted position, but no matter how he sat, everything ached. “I’ll tell you about Shaz if you tell me how you fell in love with Charlie.”
Did he want to know that? Since when did he develop such masochistic tendencies? Recently, since he was about to reveal the ugliest side of his life.
“I don’t think my story is about Shaz. She’s a casualty of my fucked-up love life.” He twisted to face Daisy. “Do I really have to tell you? This isn’t something I like to talk about.”
She nodded. “Warts and all. Spill the beans.”
“Okay.” He drew the word out. Anything to put off the moment of truth. Gods. He hated talking about himself, and yet when Daisy asked, he chattered like a trained canary. “I used to make a living on the show jumping circuit, only a few years ago. My ambition was to ride in the Olympics, and I was finally selected. I spent months, training with the rest of the team, and I guess it was natural for us all to spend a lot of time together. And I fell in love with the wife of one of my team-mates.”
Daisy made a small noise. Sympathy? Or disgust?
He sighed. “Rod Barclay was a nasty piece of work. He thought nothing of hitting his wife, Lisette, and she put up with it. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t leave him. He’d beaten her so hard once, that she had a miscarriage.” Nathan clenched his fists. Thinking about Lisette hurt on another level entirely. “She was the kindest thing—so gentle, so wrong for him on every level.”
“You fell in love with her? Did she leave him for you?”
“Eventually. But it wasn’t the happy ending I’d hoped for. I mean, how could it be? I rescued her from a particularly vicious beating, and she agreed to leave with me, but—”
“Hang on. Back up the truck. You rescued her from a vicious beating, but how? I mean that’s just the headline, not the story.”
He leaned his head back against the side of the van and closed his eyes. “Warts and all, huh?”
“The story, Nathan.” Daisy huddled closer to him.
“I gave Lisette a lift home. Rod wasn’t supposed to be there, but he met us on the doorstep. He dragged her in by her hair, yelling abuse at her—he’d been drinking again—and I couldn’t stand by and not do something.” He sighed again. His default setting. “I grabbed an umbrella from the rack by the front door, and I hit him with it. Whacked him until he let go. I yelled at her to run back to the car. She went, and I followed. But so did Rod. He gave chase in his car and rammed us, forcing me off the road.”
Bile churned in his gut at the memory. “I’m really not good with violence. It makes me sick to my stomach. I was a freaking bag of nerves, trying to drive away. Lisette was crying and crying, and telling me I was every bit as bad as Rod.”
“Bullshit.” Daisy’s tone was heated. “You only hit him to save her.” She blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. What happened next?”
“Not much. The car rolled, and I was banged up pretty badly. Lisette wasn’t hurt, thank God. She had time to fasten her seatbelt. Anyway, she went back to him, and I lost my place on the Olympic Squad. I couldn’t ride for nearly twelve months, so I drank myself into the biggest, darkest hole you can imagine. Not pretty.”
“She went back to her husband? Jesus.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, back to your original question. My yard was going down the tubes. Clients were pulling out. Suppliers were demanding payment. I couldn’t ride, so I couldn’t train. Couldn’t fucking walk at first. And Shaz held it all together for me. She was the only groom who stayed with me. She fuckin’ refused to leave, and made sure I still had something to come back to when I finally got my head together.”
“She acts like she hates you. It sounds more as though she loves you.”
Hello, humiliation. “We slept together, just the once. I was blind drunk and completely off my head. I wanted Lisette, but Shaz was available. And with that, I managed to fuck up our working relationship as effectively as I’d screwed up everything else. Shaz was in love with me, but I never felt anything for her. And she hoped that I’d fall in love with her, so she waited. And the longer she waited, the worse it got. I was so dependent on her—I owed her so much—but the one thing she wanted more than anything was the one thing I couldn’t give her.”
“I feel sorry for the pair of you,” said Daisy, her voice soft. “I understand now, when Irina turned up, all battered and bruised, you had to help her.”
“I couldn’t turn her away. I’m a sucker for a hard-luck story.”
“No, you’re a kind and generous man.” Daisy’s voice was gentle. “You’ve just been unlucky.”
Unlucky? That was kind. Nathan thought the description was closer to fucked-up asshole.
He pulled his mind back on track and nudged Daisy with his elbow. “Your turn. Warts and all.”
*
It didn’t take long for Aiden and his team to interview everyone. Juli updated the ideas board with every new piece of information, no matter how small.
Aiden was worried about calling in the police. He explained his thinking to the group. “I’m worried that we have a leak somewhere in the police. If the assassin intercepts Yanni’s location again and kills him, we’ve lost our best lead to Daisy. We need Yanni alive.” He glanced at Davey and Neil. “At the moment, we keep all information restricted to my team and my people back in London.”
“So what the fuck are you going to do?” Charlie spat the words out. “Sit and wait for him to come and get Irina? What if he thinks he’s already got her?”
“Yanni’s met her. He’ll realise that he’s got the wrong girl.” Aiden glanced at the trail of sticky notes again, a frown cutting across his forehead. “This doesn’t feel right. Let’s unpick the events again.”
He touched a bright-yellow note with his index finger. “The reason Kate was desperate to talk to Nathan was that she saw Shaz talking to a couple of guys moments before they tried to run her over. Kate was parked on the other side of the street, but before she could get to Shaz, to see if she was okay, she’d already driven off. Shaz was coming here, to warn Nathan that two heavies were looking for Irina.”
“And thanks to Kate”—Juli traced the line to another sticky note—“we have the registration plate for the van.”
“Unless they change the plates, it’ll show up on the automatic plate-number recognition system the minute they hit a major highway.”
Another note confirmed that Irina had been given Jordan’s name by Yanni. It was why she’d been headed for Rhosneigr when she left the ferry at Holyhead.
Jordan admitted he was baffled by this. “The only contact I’ve had with Yanni,” he said, “was when the bastard kidnapped us. I thought there was a mistake when you said you were helping him and that Maria went with him.”
“We’re missing something,” said Aiden, his voice reflecting his frustration. “We assume that Yanni or his men have taken Daisy, believing her to be Irina. But why would he do that, since he was supposed to be meeting her anyway in the morning?”
“What about the handler?” Andrei joined the conversation. “Irina has been scared all along that he’ll find her.”
>
“That makes far more sense.” Aiden gazed at the board and traced more lines with his finger. “But he’ll discover his mistake.”
“Fuck.” It suddenly made sense. “It’s so obvious, but we’re not seeing it,” Juli said. “We’ve got two groups here—the guys chasing Irina, and the guys after Yanni. They’re not the same group.”
“Damn, you’re right.” Aiden sharpened his gaze at the tangle of information. “And the link isn’t Yanni; it’s Irina.”
*
Yanni’s words hung in the air.
Maria didn’t understand. “How could Rico be protecting you? You’re a wanted criminal. Some would say a terrorist.”
Yanni shrugged. “Alliances can be strange things, but we both wanted the same objective—to uncover this man, a suspected double-agent. Rico had military contacts that he exploited, and I have connections across the underworld. We spent a lot of time together, the year before he died.” He paused, then seemed to pull himself together. “And that’s why you are getting out at Holyhead. I have too much respect for your late brother, to endanger his little sister.”
“No.” Maria stood her ground. “You’ll have to physically throw me out, and believe me, I’ll make such a fuss that everyone will come running.”
As he stared at her, his expression changed. Now he looked intent and curious, as though she was an interesting specimen inside a zoo cage. “Tell me, just why are you so determined to come with me? That’s the one thing I can’t figure out. I fully expected you to leave when we switched cars.”
She felt a strange sense of satisfaction. “I want to see for myself if Irina really exists, and now I wanna know who’s trying to kill you—and me.”
“You are very refreshing. I can see why Juli likes you.” He huffed a laugh. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do. We’ll sail round the headland and pull into the village where I’m due to meet Irina. I need to figure out temporary transport, to scope out the location. Then we’ll dock somewhere quiet for the night.” There was a hint of a smile on his face. “Okay so far?”