“Aren’t you eating with us?” Dilaver asked.
She finally looked away. “I’m not very hungry, but I’ll have a beer. What can I do for you today, Dragan?”
Dragan pointed a spoon at Amber. “You know. Missing trailers. I’m being robbed.”
Amber took a sip from her mug. “I’ve heard about it, but I’ve also heard that there’s been a lot more highway robberies, so it’s not just you.”
“What else have you heard?” When Amber darted Hawk a look, Dilaver continued, “Don’t worry about Hawk. He’s one of us. In fact, he might give you some useful information in exchange for some…hot meals.”
Amber smiled politely as Dilaver laughed at his own joke. Hawk sensed her dislike of the big Slav, even though she masked it well. The woman was intriguing as hell. Could fight like a pro. Fine-looking, that was for sure. And man, could she cook. If he were looking, here was his dream woman.
“Has that CIVPOL man of yours mentioned anything of use to me?”
Too damn bad she had a boyfriend. Too bad she couldn’t be trusted.
7
Brad poured himself another cup of coffee.Like everything else in Velesta, the reporter was running late. He had expected it; he needed the time to lay out exactly what information to divulge anyway. He needed to be both careful and tactful. This was a dangerous place. He was well aware of the risks of his job, how anything outside red tape could jeopardize his career. The wrong move, and he’d find himself in a worse place than Velesta.
But he had to do something. Dilaver’s power was multiplying and the more girls he made money from, the more the kingpin could finance his other activities. Drugs and women were just a means to an end—weapons for the different factions in this war-torn country.
The UN knew this, of course. But their philosophy was horrifyingly simple. Better the devil they knew than some other factions that might mean a really major war on their hands. At least the KLA kept some semblance of order, they argued.
Order? Brad gulped down the bitterness along with the coffee. Order in chaos. How perfect for Velesta. And meanwhile, thousands of young girls suffered because of behind-the-scenes political wrangling between men with higher ambitions than he.
From day one, he had taken one look at these girls and knew he had to do something. How could anyone not? They were locked up and used like…animals. He shook off the images of the things he had seen in thosekafenashe and his men had raided. The world needed to know.
But he wouldn’t tell them about some brave people who took it on themselves to do something about this crime. People like Amber Hutchens and Llallana Noretski. That would remain a secret because their lives would be put in danger if Dilaver or any other crime lord knew about them.
He had no doubt that Dilaver was looking for the culprits robbing his men of their trailers. The man was losing money out his ass, and especially while he was gone for that short period, Llallana and Amber had taken the opportunity to double the raids. Brad had given them all the information he could get his hands on to help them.
He heard Dilaver was injured while he was away, that he walked with a limp now. His sources told him that an American had saved his life and was maybe helping him now. A wave of disgust rose up from the pit of his stomach. If he ever saw that man in thekafenatouching any of those girls, he would personally take care of the sicko, American or not.Thenhe would arrest him.
His cell started buzzing, interrupting his thoughts. “This is Bradford Sun,” he answered.
“This is Llallana.”
Brad settled back against the leather chair. “This is an unexpected pleasure,” he said. It must be something important. Lily wouldn’t be calling him just to say hi. “Is anything wrong?”
“No, but Dumbo is here.”
That was their code word for Dilaver. “At the restaurant?”
“Yes, he’s lunching with Amber and she wants you to know. Just in case you have time on your hands to go on a raid.”
Ah, they were back on familiar territory. “Sarcasm this early already? And how do you suppose I should go about telling my department to conduct a raid in the morning?”
“Morning, noon, night, what’s the difference?”
“The department isn’t put together that way, Lily,” Brad said. He understood her frustration, though. He shared it, too. “I’m in the process of changing it, so in time we’ll be able to do lightning raids any time of the day.”
He had discovered that his predecessor hadn’t been very vigilant in keeping the department clean. There were men on the take, and they called ahead of time so thekafenaswere empty by the time they arrived.
There were also quite a few officials and peacekeeping units from different nations who resented the new head of the unit. They were the ones who refused to stop going to these sites on their off-hours when he demanded that they order their men not to do so. It was offensive to him to know that people under him were some of the abusers.
But things would change. He promised himself that. It would just take time, something the woman on the other end of the phone didn’t want to understand.
“So you’re telling me there’s nothing you can do except sit in your office drinking coffee?”
