Hot Revenge Box Set 4

The coffee strong and fragrant, washes away my doubts and clears my thinking, although granted, it leaves me with my problem.

How to find Juliana?

And what is the significance of the invoice addresses?

I let my mind freewheel, caffeine lubricating the gears.

What's the connection?

?

?

Back to basics...

Finchby’s invoices...

Taken from his own files…

Supply addresses from legitimate businesses…

… Listing women, children… Human cargo.

???

That can't possibly be what went through the customs checks...

Duplicate documents then?

Same references. Same monetary values. Different cargo.

That would seem logical: A parallel accounting system: one for the outside world, one for private records.

Yes, that works. Any competent criminal could make that work. And doubtless, with the money involved, they’d have accountants and bookkeepers… Perhaps even customs officers and tax inspectors on the payroll.

But none of that gives me the connection to Antonio’s bar or any of the others.

Why here?

Frustrated, mind spiralling inward…

Damn the coffee…

order

*****

Charlotte

the nursery door, wearing the jeans and boots he uses for riding, and a thick

a lovely day, with a crisp snap to the air. And the sunshine

to. And Charlie could use the exercise. Um…” I look down to my tiny daughter, blinking at the mobile rotating above her in the cot, trying, with

from her rocking chair next to

me five minutes, just while

seem impassive to any that didn’t know him, but I see the hidden smile behind his eyes. Our daughter burbles a

*****

glances up from where he is checking Charlie’s girth. “All ready for you.” Straightening up, he

woollens, a cotton top and a thermal

stoops by Charlie, locking his hands into a cup.

runs a hand up his neck. “Shhhh…

we might take the path through the

“Great idea.”

*****

together as though there were no-one else in the world. The ground is firm with the cold and Oliver is trying to take the bit. Head tossing, his gait dancing between a walk and a

says my Master, then eyes Charlie, also performing, jarring

the

“Only to the fence. No jumping. That

Charlie, and she moves from trot to canter to gallop in fewer hoofbeats than I can

than Charlie and almost immediately, he thunders up, first closing behind me, then alongside, snorting steam as he pulls ahead. But as her son begins to draw away, Charlie jolts under me with another burst of speed and as we reach the end of the field, Charlie and

to a standstill and I do the same. I’m grinning like a maniac, panting, my blood racing. My Master’s eyes are soft. “It’s good to see you smiling

stretching down the mountain, the lake glittering at the bottom, the air frigid and fresh. Oliver and Charlie blow blue from their nostrils. “It’s so good to be able to move again properly. Sometimes, it’s just good to be alive, isn’t

it is.” He reaches out, lifting the long arm of the gate latch to let me through, clucks Oliver along behind

follow the bridle path that will take us to the trail

something I want to ask