Page 42 of Cowboy

“Dimitri actually asks if he’s alright and how his wife is doing. Constantine says, ‘we both know you don’t care – state your business.’ Dimitri is nodding, then goes into a long explanation of why Constantine should give him control of the shipping business. He says he’ll stop transporting women and children, but he needs the ships in order to make money through other avenues. He tells him he has several clients lined up to do business with.

“Clearly, Constantine isn’t buying it. He says, ‘you’re a liar and a cheat, just like my dead brother. I won’t let you have anything because you haven’t earned it. Not one penny of my money or money made from my businesses. You tried to kill my wife and succeeded in killing my child. I haven’t forgotten that, and the only reason you aren’t dead is that I value family more than you do.’

“Now, Dimitri doesn’t just look nervous. He looks scared. He begs him, ‘please, uncle, don’t leave me penniless and without a way to make a living. I’m sorry that I haven’t followed your rules, but I need to be successful in my own way.’

“Constantine asks him what way that would be, and Dimitri says he’s going to transport weapons instead of women. For the next twenty minutes, all he does is talk about the deals that are on the line with major countries willing to allow him to transport illegal weapons into their country. He also says he would like to branch out and carry nuclear weapons.”

“Are you fucking with me right now?” asked Hex.

“I try to never fuck with anyone outside my own marriage,”smirked Keith.“This is where it gets interesting, and difficult. Constantine starts asking him about the last shipment of heroin and why it didn’t arrive on time.”

“No,” said Autumn, shaking her head. “No, that can’t be right. He wouldn’t transport drugs. He just wouldn’t. You must be wrong. Read his lips again.” Keith followed the woman’s lips and then looked up at the others.

“Autumn, Keith is never wrong. This is what he does. It’s how he lives his life. If he’s saying Constantine transported heroin, we have to believe him,” said Cowboy.

“But I thought you said he didn’t have anything to do with the shipping business any longer,” she asked.

“It’s possible he wanted to portray it that way,” said Eric. “If he backed up from the business, he could allow his nephew to take the fall for anything that happened from a legal perspective. He would still be making money, still be primary owner of the shipping lines. But it would be Dimitri that would take the fall if caught. That must have been quite an agreement between them.”

“I don’t understand why he would lie about all of this? Did his wife know?” she asked Keith.

“I think she knew,”he said, nodding at her.“He mentions her displeasure that the furs didn’t arrive in Belarus in time for the Countess’s ball. I asked the boys in tech to see if they could find out what he was talking about, and apparently, there is a ball held every year by one of the many European countesses and her husband. She gives fur coats to the women every year. What they don’t know is that they’re all stolen.

“At this party, the women are allowed to bid on new help or entertainment.” Keith stopped, letting that sink in for Autumn.

“New help? You mean servants? Slaves?” Keith nodded. “How could I have been so wrong about these people? How were they able to fool me completely? I mean, if you’d met Annette, she was the sweetest, kindest woman ever.” Keith looked at Cowboy, and the other man nodded to him.

“Autumn, during the conversation, Constantine says that he’ll be arranging for you to fly them to Europe in the near future. He says the Countess wants to meet you. We think they were planning on taking you. None of that happened when Annette started to get sicker, but they didn’t seem concerned about protecting you from Dimitri.

“He mentions to Dimitri that he doesn’t trust him and believes he’ll try to change his will. He tells him that he’s leaving a ‘pack’ of information and items for you and his lawyers to safeguard. At this point, Dimitri gets angry, starts yelling at him. Dimitri tells him that his brother would be disappointed in him. Constantine says he doesn’t care.

“It’s just family insults and arguments after that. When he leaves, Dimitri tells him that he’ll have everything one way or another, even if he has to kill Annette and you to get it. It seems that Constantine still held the purse strings for his nephew’s money. He was basically giving him an allowance if he liked his work. If not, he got nothing. Dimitri was getting tired of being treated like a child and wanted the shipping business and his full inheritance.

“Pigsty was able to dig into the Greek archives and find Dimitri’s father’s will. He left everything to his brother, basically asking him to take care of his son. The father even stated that he didn’t believe Dimitri was ‘mature’ enough to handle the day-to-day of the business.”

“God, what a mess,” said Autumn, standing to pace the room. “He was aware of everything that was going on, so was Annette. They didn’t care about me. They needed me for the time being, and then they were going to turn me over to some sadist!”

“Honey, I’m sorry,” said Cowboy. “We’re not going to let him get away with any of this.”

“He’s dead. Annette’s dead. The only person left is that little weasel, Dimitri. He’s transporting drugs, women, children, and apparently stolen furs.”

“Not that it matters a great deal in the grand scheme of things, but the furs were illegally caught. Many were endangered animals or protected. Polar bears, cheetahs, panthers, zebras, and more. I didn’t go into that detail because, honestly, it doesn’t matter for all of this. It’s illegal, and we’ll stop it. It’s all sick and disturbing.”

“Am I gullible?” asked Autumn, staring at the room full of people. “Was I so happy to have a new plane and full-time customers that I ignored clues?”

“Honey, you can’t think like that,” said Blade. “Sometimes, the things right in front of us seem the most normal and benign. We ignore them because they don’t fit with the picture before us. You did nothing wrong, Autumn. I’m just glad all of this came to a head before they were able to get to you.”

Autumn nodded at the older man, hugging him. He rubbed her back, giving a serious, killer look to the others above her head.

“I think I want to take a walk,” she said. “I don’t even know how to fix this other than to stop Dimitri. I’m sure he hoped to kill Constantine in that plane crash, but he obviously didn’t give a shit if I were killed as well. I’m assuming Christopher had a change of heart and decided to pull his boss from the wreckage but didn’t give a shit about me. Dimitri must have remembered what he said about ‘pack’ and assumed he would have it with him.”

They watched as she left with her shoulders slumped forward. Blade immediately texted Suze and the other women, hoping they could find her in the rain and make sure she was okay. He turned to look at his son and the other men.

“This is some fucked-up shit.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Autumn strolled down the long main drive, flanked by massive oak trees. Their branches were heavy from the rain, a new wave coming at them in the thick, dark clouds. She’d been so naïve, so excited that she had such an amazing airplane and these generous, kind customers. What a crock of bullshit!

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