Page 41 of Royal Salvation

Lucía shook her head, her fingers playing with the edge of her skirt, belying her nerves. “No, I tried to sell it to Geographic for a piece on the cost of war but decided I didn’t want it out in the world and the girl’s humiliation to be fodder for the masses. I did ask around about the soldier though but got nowhere.”

“Then that’s where we start.” Bás had taken Duchess’ lead but Reaper had no doubt that he’d hear about this again, his boss didn’t give up. “Watchdog, dig into everyone at Geographic and see if any tie back to either Reaper, Playboy, or the Princess in any way. Bishop, talk to your contacts and find out if there was any push back from Princess Lucía’s enquiries into the operation when this happened.”

Bishop groaned. “Ah, come on, boss. You know the only contact I have there is an evil shrew with the integrity of rice paper.”

“Listen, I get it, but we need something, and she’s the best bet for this.”

“Fine, but if I end up in a morgue in some God-forsaken country then it’s on you.”

Bás rolled his eyes. “She won’t kill you.”

Bishop looked affronted. “May I remind you she shot me and left me for dead?”

“I don’t blame her. If I’d been married to you, I might do the same.”

Bishop threw up his hands. “Fine, whatever, I’ll reach out to her.”

“Good, now we have another matter to discuss and that’s the hack on our system.”

Reaper saw Watchdog clench his teeth and worried his canines would crumble from the force.

“Watchdog shut it down but we know they were looking at the file we have on the Princess.”

Reaper sat up straighter, his senses firing up and suddenly the reality of it all slammed back into him. He was meant to be protecting her not having a fucking family holiday. “We need to move her.”

Bás held up his hand. “Hold your horses, we think she’s safe there for now.”

“Have we found Playboy or Chess yet?”

Bás sighed and that one action spoke a thousand words about how his boss and friend was feeling. “No, those fuckers are slipperier than an eel covered in baby oil. Last known location was three months ago in New York and yes, before you ask, I’ve already sent Rykov to speak to the people he was meeting.”

Reaper bristled at being kept out of the loop on important information. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because until this morning it was an unconfirmed sighting and I can’t be sending my team on a wild goose chase.”

Reaper didn’t like it, but he understood Bás was juggling a lot.

“Playboy met with a man called Yakiv Petrovych Fedorchuk. He’s a Romanian Diplomat in the United States and has a very murky background. He’s ex-military and served in the Romanian armed forces. Had a few years where we have nothing on him and then he pops up in this job. Watchdog is still looking into him but what we do know is that he’s not good news. Playboy meeting him can only mean bad news.”

Reaper brushed his hands through his hair. “Rykov makes sense.”

“Exactly and he can use his own men as cover for this.”

“Fine, let me know what Rykov finds out.”

“Until then, Snow is watching the Richardson family with Titan. He might go home at some point so it’s worth a punt.”

“He was a daddy’s boy so, yeah, perhaps.”

Bás nodded. “Now we can try and use the hacker, but they’re in Germany, so we’re sending Lotus, and Bein, to find him or her and question them. If that yields nothing, we may need to be more obvious.”

Reaper sat up straighter, he had a feeling he wouldn’t like this. “Meaning?”

“We bring the Princess back to the Palace.”

“No fucking way. She’s way too exposed there. Anything could happen to her, and we can’t trust the guard.”

“King Juan fired his head of security two days ago, and thanks to a report we gave him on the others, he’s cleaning house as we speak. She’ll be safe. Eidolon have also offered to help.”