Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Gorya nodded and remained silent. She hadn’t gotten to the part she was withholding from him. The important part.
She drummed her fingers on her thigh. “I knew he wasn’t the mastermind, so when I was stuck in the torture room, I decided I would try to find out who was actually doing the stealing. They’d been at it for some time, long before Theo came on the scene. He doesn’t belong here. He isn’t Russian. He came along about a year ago and was hired. That stealing has been systematically taking place for at least two years and by three different men. Clearly, they’re in on it together. But I don’t think the three of them are the masterminds. I think someone else is orchestrating the thefts.”
“You got all that in the short time you investigated?”
She nodded, her fingers drumming faster. “Yes. I traced the money on three accounts, but the names didn’t come back to anyone here. They were false identities. I took the money from the accounts, so they are going to be royally pissed.” She flashed him a grin. “That’s my specialty. Give me enough time and I can find those three for you.”
“I’ve had a couple of computer experts working on it for three weeks and they haven’t found out anything.”
She shrugged. “I hunt this way.”
She sounded so casual, as if the criminals she chased couldn’t possibly turn the tables on her. He knew better. Gedeon and Meiling had explained how easy it was for anyone with good skills to trace someone if they become aware they are being stalked through a computer. He had nearly zero skills in hunting with a computer. Maya sounded very confident.
“Babe, I’ve been told someone with excellent skills can turn the tables on you unexpectedly.”
Her smile was a little smug. “So true. I’m not easy to catch, Gorya. In fact, it’s never happened, but I don’t take chances. I started hunting for the men who originally raped me and killed my family. Then I branched out to find the ones who killed the women I traveled with when we came here.”
Gorya sat down and leaned toward her. “The women you traveled with were killed? When you were a little girl? Just getting off the freighter?” The monster in him roared. Why hadn’t he expected that the women would run into trouble? The freighter had been captained by an Amurov crew. He cursed under his breath. “Were there men waiting to take you to houses to sell you?”
Why hadn’t it occurred to him that the women would be passed on to a land crew? He’d been so focused on getting back to the house where the dead bodies of Patva’s crew were so he could create a believable scene of raiders coming in and taking the women, saving his own hide. Damn him to hell. In his arrogance he had wanted to best Patva once again. He had wanted to save his own skin.
He leapt up and paced across the room, stopping near the wall, adrenaline rushing through him like wildfire.
“Don’t.” The command was soft. “I won’t tell you another thing about my life if you keep taking responsibility for something you had no control over. You weren’t there. There was nothing you could have done. You saved us. Got us out of that place. What happened after that wasn’t your fault or your failing. No one blamed you, least of all me.”
Gorya realized she meant it. Maya had a will of steel. She wasn’t going to bend. If he wanted to hear about her life, he had to use discipline to get through this, because he needed to know everything that had happened to her in the years since he’d seen her. He was used to giving orders. Commanding her to tell him what he wanted to know wasn’t going to work.
Forcing control, he made his way to the small bar and dragged a cold bottle of water from the refrigerator. “Would you like one?”
She nodded. “Yes, please.”
He didn’t like the soothing quality to her voice. He didn’t need soothing. He needed to go to the workout room and beat the shit out of someone. He needed to run for miles in the swamp as both a man and a leopard. He didn’t need her to soothe him when he’d let all those women down.
“Gorya, you do remember you were a teenager when you killed all those men, right? I don’t even know how many there were, but there were quite a few of them. You weren’t prepared and you only had about an hour to get us out of there. Then you had to go back and face the leader of the bratva. The women were sure he would kill you.”
“I remember putting you on a freighter and forgetting all about you. I thought you were safe because I wanted to believe you were. Had I given it any thought at all, I would have known better. Please tell me what happened to you.”