Page 10 of Captive Prize

I didn’t know this girl. She was my enemy. She had made herself my enemy the second she took my cousin.

But still, there was a kernel of pride growing in my chest.

“The girl used her dead husband’s money to buy her freedom and then bribed a few Russian officials to toss her father into a Siberian asylum.”

Mikhail was the first to laugh and then struggled to cover it with a cough.

I grinned at him, knowing exactly why he found it as funny as I did.

“Damn. That’s cold…literally. It would’ve been kinder to kill the bastard,” Mikhail chuckled.

I agreed as I drummed my fingers against the table, fighting to remind myself that she was the enemy.

“I have a feeling she knows that.”

I’d spent hours digging into this woman. Piecing together every fragment of information I could find, from hundreds of sources.

She was smart enough to avoid social media, which was rare for someone her age.

Because she was an attractive woman, most of my contacts back in Russia didn’t give a damn about anything else—just that she was attractive.

Even the fact that she’d been married didn’t matter to them. They were more than willing to overlook “used goods” for a chance to fuck her.

And the crude comments? They bothered me more than they should have.

Finally, I’d caught a break. The judge who signed the order to have Egor sent to the asylum was actually very impressed by my little kidnapper.

“What else do you know about her?” Gregor asked.

“Most people underestimate her because she’s a woman, but she has impressed the few people who have actually taken the time to notice her. One judge referred to her as the son Egor needed.”

“What does that mean?” Artem asked, picking up his coffee for a sip.

“It means that most believe she’s smarter than Egor gave her credit for and could outthink and outmaneuver her late brothers. She was never given the opportunity to prove herself under her father’s control, and yet she still came out on top. More than one person insinuated that if we had been going against her and not her brothers, the outcome would have been far different.”

“Different how?”

“Didn’t say,” I answered. “But I got the impression that those who have dealt with her realize she is a force to be reckoned with. At least now that she managed to get her father taken care of.”

“What else did you find?” Gregor asked, his eyes narrowing. The smug bastard could always tell when I was holding something back.

“She bought herself an army. I believe she’s the one bankrollingLos Infideles’ sudden surge in power.”

When I first found that out, I didn’t want to believe it. A sheltered, innocent Russian mafia princess suddenly the female boss of a ruthless Colombian gang?

It wasn’t possible. They would sooner take her money and kill her, than actually follow a woman’s orders.

Especially a woman so beautiful, with delicate features and big, innocent-looking eyes.

But I was learning very quickly that underestimating Zoya was a mistake.

“How much?” Gregor asked.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “She works in the shadows. I’ve got rumors, speculation, but I don’t have any proof. Not yet. There’s a chance she was the one behind Solovyov, but I can’t be sure.”

“What do you mean behind Solovyov?” Kostya asked, getting to his feet. “Are you saying this bitch was the one who hunted Marina from Moscow all the way to Chicago?”

“No.” I shook my head even as I gave in to the urge to lie. I shouldn’t be lying to my family, especially not for this woman. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that was exactly what I thought happened.

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