“Xavier Sinclair.”
Slipping my hands into my trouser pockets, I rocked back on my heels, studying the man. He didn’t look like the killer type. Then again, the same could be said for Kabir and he was as psychotic as they came. “So, you know me. You seem to know Mikaela and I stand corrected, but you might know Kabir Shah then?”
The man remained pokerfaced. Not even a blink.
As much as I didn’t want to ask the next question, I knew I had to. “Where you one of Kabir’s guests, is that how you knew Mikaela?” I was grasping at straws and to prevent me pummeling the answers out of him, I fisted my hands in my pockets. “Perhaps you fell in love with her and followed him to the restaurant?” I was sure the man looked disgusted at my insinuation. We stared at each other for a moment before I blew out a harsh exhale. “I don’t know who you are, Luke and why you visited Mikaela today. Yet some inner voice tells me you were there because you care for her. So, before I jump the gun and have my men get rid of you, are you able to help me help her find closure.”
That seemed to appeal to whatever he felt for her. “If I tell you everything, will you let me see her when she wakes?”
I shared a look with Wilkes and was surprised at his nod for me to agree. “You have my word.”
“What would you like to know?”
I started with the basics. “How do you know me?”
“I was there on that mountaintop. The night you saved her.”
“Where you there to kill her?” I didn’t beat around the bush.
He shook his head. “I was there to save her.”
I frowned. “Then why didn’t you?”
He stared at the floor and just as I thought I’d lost him, he lifted his eyes again. “Because you looked like someone who could give her what I couldn’t.”
“What’s that?”
“Liberation.”
As if anticipating what we were in for, I took the seat Wilkes brought me and placed it opposite Luke. “You have my full attention. Don’t waste it.” My tone was neither friendly nor unfavorable.
He spent the next hour telling me everything Mikaela had already shared with me, filled in all the blanks she either didn’t know or couldn’t remember, and what he’d learned from Zarina, Kabir’s missing sister, about her brother. With each divulgence, I grew more and more agitated.
By the time he finished, I was pacing the room, rage pounding in my blood. Without thinking, my fist slammed into the wall. “Fucking hell.” The sting to my knuckles didn’t bring me the deliverance I needed. Breathing hard, I stared at my bruised hand, wishing it was Kabir’s face I was crushing.
I pivoted, glaring at the man in front of me. “You told her to run then you left her, aware she knew nothing and no one,” I gritted through clenched teeth.
He reared back from the venom pouring through my words. “Hate me all you want but I did the best I could when she came back from Blackhall. I didn’t expect Kabir to send me away on an errand that made no sense until after I returned and found him bleeding and Cinder missing.”
“He knew you were going to help her after you stopped him from killing her?”
Luke nodded. “Kabir didn’t tell me what happened. He just ordered me to go look for Cinder and clean up the place if I didn’t find her while the other man with me took him away. The blood on the kitchen floor worried me and when I couldn’t find Cinder in her room, I searched the grounds then outside the gates. I arrived at the mountaintop just as your man was telling you about Cinder. Unsure why I trusted you, I hid in the trees and watched you with her. I knew she was in much safer hands than I could afford her.”
“Should I take that as a compliment?” I didn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
“Sir,” he began. Surprised, I raised a brow and waited. “Like he does to all his employees, Kabir tagged my daughter.” He sighed, leaning forward and rested his eyes on the heels of his palms.
Frowning, I looked at Wilkes and then back at Luke. “Kabir put a tracker in your daughter?” I retook my seat.
He dropped his hands. “When Kabir was younger, he developed some genius app he sold to the government, earning him millions. Without the government’s knowledge, he uses another version to search his new employee’s social and personal history.”
“Weaknesses,” I surmised out loud.
Luke nodded. “Scandals, children, spouses, affairs, theft, whatever their vice or weakness, he will discover their secrets then use it against them. Mine was my daughter. He put a tracker in her and said if I ever double-crossed him, he’d sell her virginity to the highest fucking bidder.” Bitterness seeped between his words, showcasing his hate for the man.
It was unnerving to learn Kabir’s impact ran much deeper than we’d discovered. Human trafficking was just the tip of the iceberg. His filthy fingers dipped into everything. From respected politicians, well-known charities to significant corporations, not to mention the entire fucking judicial system. It was no wonder I heard of him yet somehow, I managed to avoid the circles he influenced. Prison wasn’t a place for him. He’d be out in no time, no matter what evidence we built against him.
“He never suspected you of helping Cinder?” I asked.
