Page 85 of Sinful Lord

Clicking open the back of my phone, I pull out one of two USB sticks.

“This is all the info I’ve gathered so far,” I explain, making sure the second hard drive stays out of sight. “And this,” I continue, taking the piece of paper out of Yasha’s velvet box. “This is where I’ll gather the next bits of info. It contains the time and place of a meeting I’m supposed to crash between that woman you just scared away and a certain slum lord who might have connections to the underworld here. I have a feeling she won’t show up, but we still can. And hell, if you’re any good, maybe we can torture some useful information out of the fucker.”

“We?”

“That’s right,” I nod. “I’ve already memorized all the info. I’ll meet you there.

“Oh, you think you’re leaving without me?”

“Come on,” I smirk. “No one likes a clingy old man.”

“I’d prefer that over a young liar.”

“You think I’m lying to you?”

“I’ve been around long enough to know when someone’s not telling me the whole truth.”

Well, well, well, the old man’s sharper than I thought.

“We don’t have time to stick around and go through every little detail,” I remind him. “Take what I’m giving you and come to our meeting with some fresh info. With any luck, one of us will find our girl before we even have to see each other again.”

Maksim hesitates to quip back, and I can tell that it’s because he’s desperate to believe me. He wants Melina to be safe.

That makes two of us.

“Fine. Toss me your info,” he finally relents. “But you better fucking show up at this meeting. No funny stuff.”

“I’m deadly serious,” I say, letting a little smirk fill my lips. “Always am.”

“Now I know you’re lying.”

When Maksim motions for me to place the hard drive and piece of paper down on the road, I comply. Still, I don’t take my gun off him for a single second.

“So how is this going to work?” I ask. “One of us needs to drop their weapon first.”

“We’ll do it at the same time,” Maksim says. “Ready? Three… two…”

“One,” I finish for him.

We both hold our breath and take the plunge. I tense up, expecting the worse, but nothing comes.

Turns out Maksim Smolov is more trustworthy than I am.

Shit. Hopefully, he never finds out I lied to him. Otherwise, he’s going to have a hard time accepting me into his family.

And that is exactly what’s going to happen. I haven’t forgotten about my long-term plan, even if shit is getting messy in the middle.

“The meeting is in two days,” I tell him, slowly backing up from the valuables at my feet. “I expect to see you there.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

When I feel my heel hit the curb, I give the old Russian a final nod, then I slip behind the corner.

Immediately, I’m on my phone, checking the email from Melina.

When I see what it says, my heart drops.