Page 62 of Winter’s Fire

His girl had good instincts. “We know they haven’t been taken for ransom—any kidnappers would have made their demands long before now if that were the case.”

“So what else? If they don’t want money or… Dear God.”

Her face drained of all colour. She was too clever by half. Even as he watched her, he could see she was putting pieces together.

“They’re trafficking the women.”

Logan nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Why they targeted Diana and Sasha’s friend is anyone’s guess, but I think what’s happened here is a drop in the ocean.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think there’s some sort of central operation—the hub of a wheel, if you will—and this is one of the spokes, one of the places where they source their… product.” Logan almost vomited at the thought.

“So they choose their victims and spirit them away somewhere else?”

“It’s likely. They’ll hold them there, and then sell them off, by whatever mechanism they use. Online auction, maybe, or they might even invite buyers to attend in person. There has to be one hell of an operation behind this.”

“They’ll need passports, papers, if they’re moving these women around the world. It’s crazy! It can’t be true!”

Unfortunately, Logan knew only too well how true it could be. This wasn't the first time he’d come across a trafficking operation. “It can be, and most likely is true, but we don’t have any evidence.”

“How do we get it?”

“We can’t—we don’t have time.” And even if they did have time, there was still precious little they could do on their own. “All we can do is report our suspicions.”

“A fat lot of good that’ll do. Those women need help now. There must be something we can do. What made them choose Diana and Sasha’s friend? They look completely different, so it’s not a physical type. Do you think it could be the arguments? We know Diana fought with her boyfriend in public, and if Sasha’s friend did the same thing, that might have put them on the radar.”

“I suppose it’s possible, but then again, we’ve seen a dozen spats between partners, and they haven’t gone missing.”

“Then maybe it’s a combination of the arguments and physical type, and the women were abducted to order. If a client specified a tall blonde, say, and Diana happened to be the tall blonde who put herself in the spotlight by rowing with her boyfriend? Could that be it?”

“Again, it’s possible.” Anything was possible in the mind of a perpetrator of such an abhorrent crime—Logan knew from experience of battling fuckers like that while serving with the Royals.

“Logan, if we can come up with a reason to have a very public argument, that could attract the same kind of attention that Diana did. I know there’s no guarantee they’re looking for someone like me, but we might get lucky.”

“You know what you’re saying, don’t you?”

“I think so. We use me as bait.”

“No way. Absolutely no fucking way.” Satan would be seen buying thermal underwear first.

“What choice do we have? We’re almost out of time.”

It was a hell of a dangerous strategy. Logan didn’t believe for one minute that Sir Guy would agree to it, yet, as Lucy said, what choice did they have?

“If I agree to this, you have to promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Absolute obedience. You do what I tell you, when I tell you, no questions. Understood?”

She burrowed into him, providing the sense of comfort he needed right then. “Yes, Sir. I promise. Now what can we argue about?”

Logan remembered his earlier conversation with Master Hugo. “I have an idea.”

~~*~~

Three blistering, excoriating, public arguments later, they’d breached the inner sanctum of Dr. Jaeger von Brandt. Logan had been surprised how few rows it had taken to attract the attention of Master Hugo, and earn them a strongly worded recommendation to take advantage of the resort’s counselling service.