The King - S.R. Jones Page 0,56

at least.

I right her and sit her on the desk, then I bend forward, my hands on my thighs, so my face is close to hers. I don’t touch her.

“Talk to me. Right now. No more games. Tell me what the fuck is going on. Do you owe money?”

I checked her out, clear credit score, but maybe she owes it to loan sharks or the type of people who don’t show up on any radar?

“No,” she says and cries some more. “I needed the money for my grandpa. He’s got a rare form of cancer, and there’s a treatment that while not a cure, buys time, sometimes years. It’s not available on the National Health Service as it’s new, and not guaranteed to work, but it’s his only chance. I was going to fund raise, but now… I don’t have time. I relied on this money.”

Shit, that’s why she did this. That’s why she lied. I hate lying. I’ve killed people for breaking my trust, maimed people for way less than this, but she did it for family—the only family she has left. I can’t judge her for that because I’d do the same. Or maybe, I won’t judge her because it’s Cassie. If she was a man, I’d break something to teach a hard lesson.

“How much?” I bite out.

“Around a hundred thousand, close enough, including the stay in a private hospital while it is administered.”

Her face falls again, and she presses her fists into her eyes. “Oh, I’m so stupid. So stupid. I can’t come with you, Konstantin. If Popov is as bad as you say, he’ll go after my family if he can’t get to me, and my only family are Grandma and Grandpa.”

“Names,” I snap.

When she doesn’t answer me, I take her chin in my fingers again and give her face a shake. “Cassie, focus. What are their full names and their address?”

She begins to reel their names, address, and dates of birth off to me. She’s shaking, and her eyes are wide, pupils huge. Girl’s shocked to shit. This is my fault really, for bringing her into a world where she simply doesn’t fit. She wanted a walk on the wild side, and now she’s on the damn safari, and she can’t deal. Maybe this will be a good lesson for her? She needs to know her boundaries.

My mind wonders to the ways I could teach her boundaries, the ways I could help her learn her place in this world. Cassie needs someone because it is as clear as day that she doesn’t truly know what the hell she’s doing.

“Write down the name of the cancer, the drug, and anything else pertinent, and leave this to me. Pack up everything you’ve been using in here, all of it. Don’t leave a damn thing.”

“But … I can’t go with you, Konstantin. I have to be with them.”

“No, you don’t. You can’t. You won’t be safe, and you’ll place them in more danger.”

I take out my phone and decide to tentatively trust a person I wasn’t sure I should. I call Damen.

“Malaka, twice in one day.”

I huff out a dry laugh. “Listen, I need to ask a huge favor.”

“What?”

“Has Popov discovered he’s been hacked yet?”

“Don’t know, friend. I’m out of there. Too hot when someone goes leaving great big footprints all over the place.”

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Can you erase those footprints?”

“No can do, or at least, I can’t, and I’m pretty shit hot at this stuff. It is doable, but it’s above my grade.”

“Fuck. Okay, can you do something else then? Can you erase any connection between Cassie? She’s the one with the big feet and an employee of mine, and her immediate family? I’m taking Bigfoot with me, but her family will be in danger. There’s only two of them, her grandparents.”

“Yes, I can do it. It’s not that difficult. I can create fake family ties too, to make it more realistic.”

“Okay, do that. And you can’t cover up Cassie’s tracks completely, but you can muddy the waters of who she is, right? Mess up her identification, make her hard to find?”

“Yes, that I can do. He’ll find she’s been in there, if he’s got anyone remotely decent on his staff looking at this shit, which, with him being Popov, he might not have. If he’s already found out someone has been in his shit, then he’s either traced it back to them, which means he might already have her info,