The King - S.R. Jones Page 0,44

preparing to go home and face the bitch in question. There’s a part of me, the dark part, that wants Liza to have this baby and then pay her off and threaten her so she leaves the kid with me, and then I can raise him or her on my own … with Cassie on the side to fuck when I like. It keeps coming back round to a way to get to have my sunshine.

CHAPTER NINE

Cassie

By the time the end of the week comes around, I’m terrified. I’ve managed to get into a lot of this Popov character’s information, and he’s scary as fuck!

He’s a criminal. Not a pickpocket or someone who shoplifts. No, this man runs weapons. I know how bad you have to be to deal arms. The worst of the worst. Arms dealers are truly bad people. He shakes down businesses too, and demands a cut. He has people tortured if he wants them to talk, and he has people killed for nothing. Nothing.

I’m so damn scared I don’t know what to do.

The thing is, if this is what Popov is like, and if Konstantin has asked me to investigate this man and hack into his life, then it stands to reason that this is also what Konstantin is like.

I knew Konstantin wasn’t a good man. I wasn’t naïve enough to think he was an angel, or even that he was the sort of businessman whose work was purely legal, but I didn’t think he was a bona fide mobster, which I’m now convinced he is.

I want to hide, to run away, but where to go? All I can do is finish this job, take the money, and get out of this place. I never want to see Konstantin again when this is done and dusted. He’s got to be a deeply dangerous man. Popov is a sociopath, more than anyone I’ve ever come across. He’s evil, and Konstantin is after him, so what does that make Konstantin?

I pray every minute of every day that I have covered my tracks well enough that Popov won’t find me because if he does, he’ll surely kill me. If he doesn’t kill me, Konstantin will for getting caught. Damn, I want this done, over, and me out of here.

The latest thing I’ve found out about Popov is the most disturbing of all. He bought himself a woman. Like other people buy a car. He bought her, and now she lives with him in his house. I presume she wanted to be bought because she was a high-end escort before, but now, she’s his. A possession, for him to play with when he wants, and judging by the photos in his phone, he wants to often.

He’s given her two hundred thousand pounds to live with him for three months. Jesus, so much money for sex.

Why not simply get a girlfriend. Then again, looking at his face, he’s never going to get a woman who looks half as good as the one he’s purchased.

Men.

I determine there and then that I’m going to be celibate going forward. They’re all untrustworthy weirdos.

Tired and aching, I decide to take a break and go grab a coffee.

I head out of the room, taking care to lock the door, and then I walk quickly to the on-site café. There’s a restaurant too, but right now I want a peach tea and a cake. When I get there, I pause in the doorway as I see the man I’m starting to hate sitting at a table with a striking dark haired woman.

Why does he still make my heart flip when I know he’s a gangster? A liar. A mercurial, sullen bastard!

He does make my heart race, though, no denying it. His broad shoulders fill out the deep blue suit he’s wearing to perfection. His hair is dark, darker than normal. I think he’s put some product in it, or maybe, I peer closer, had it cut shorter. Yes, that’s it, it is shorter, and it makes it seem darker.

The woman sitting opposite him is talking animatedly, and he’s listening, rapt, or so I imagine. I can’t see his face, but she looks like the sort of woman to keep a man rapt. Dark hair, light blue eyes, slim figure, and kick ass style.

“She’s allegedly the new hire,” Suzy whispers in my ear, making me jump. “And where the fuck have you been hiding?”

“I’m not hiding. I’m working.”

“Have you seen the new guys who arrived today?”

“No, what do