Page 56 of Hell to Pay

It sounded like a fun day. I would have been sorry to miss it except for the idea I’d gotten at work after the call from Jean-Luc Laurent’s annoyed assistant.

“I’m glad you had a good first day at work,” Jude said from across the room.

For once, I wasn’t sprawled out on the sofa with him and Nolan. I’d been scared our friendship facade would drop and I’d end up with Jude rubbing my feet and Nolan holding my hand in front of Matt, so I’d taken a chair, the one opposite Rafe, just to be safe.

“Thanks,” I said. “Actually something interesting happened that got me thinking.”

I hadn’t wanted to mention it in front of Matt. The less he knew about what had landed me on the Bastards’ doorstep the better.

Jude lifted his eyebrows. “Oh no.”

I rolled my eyes. “Very funny.”

I told them about the assistant from France who’d called, about how Jean-Luc Laurent — and probably all the other VIP investors at Cantwell — were trying to get their money back now that the Cantwell resort was defunct.

“That’s interesting, but what does it have to do with us?” Jude asked.

“I mean, if Piers Cantwell was planning to use the hotel as part of a trafficking operation, isn’t it at least possible the VIPs, the ones who bought private villas, were involved somehow?”

“And if Piers Cantwell was involved with Imperium Fratrum and the VIPs were involved in Piers Cantwell’s enterprise, then the VIPs might also be connected to Imperium Fratrum,” Nolan said.

“Exactly.”

Rafe was holding the fireplace poker again, something I realized he did when he was thinking. He held it with the point on the ground and turned it in his hand. “Daisy did say they were rich fucks.”

“Right.” I felt validated, like maybe I wasn’t crazy for seeing a possible connection. “I called her today actually, to see if she remembered the names of the VIPs.”

“And?” Jude prompted.

“She did. There were only ten of them. I have them on my phone.”

“What are you thinking, sweetheart?” Nolan sounded both curious and a little suspicious, like whatever it was couldn’t be good.

“I’m thinking… is there some way to connect the VIPs to Folegandros? Or…” I was still turning everything over, still trying to make it all work. “… to each other?”

“If they’re using yachts, Folegandros probably isn’t the only place they’ve gone,” Nolan said.

“But if they all went to Folegandros at the same time?— ”

“They might have gone somewhere else at the same time too,” Rafe said, finishing my sentence.

I nodded.

Rafe stood and paced the floor, another thing he did when he was thinking.

Why did I know these things?

“If we could get flight plans for their private jets and compare them,” he said, “we could see if they’d all converged on certain cities at the same time.”

“It’s a good idea,” Nolan said. “But that tells us about the past. We need to find out where they’re going next if we want to catch them in the act, find the girls.”

“Shit,” I said.

Rafe nodded. “No, this is good… This is something we can work with.”

“It is?” I wasn’t used to Rafe giving me credit for anything.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s smart. Let’s find out if they’ve all been to Greece at the same time in the last couple of years. If they have, we’ll know we’re on to something.”

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