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…

I order another

*****

Charlotte

nursery door, wearing the jeans and boots he uses for riding, and a thick cable-knit sweater… “…I’m going to take

the air. And the sunshine is that brilliant clear white you only

I look down to my tiny daughter, blinking at the mobile rotating above her in the cot, trying, with unformed muscles, to reach for

on Cara.” My Mom smiles from

me five minutes, just

me, then reaches down with a long finger, stroking Cara’s cheek. His face might seem impassive to any that didn’t know him, but I

*****

you.” Straightening up, he runs over me with his

woollens, a cotton top and a

twitch, then he stoops by Charlie, locking his hands into a cup. “C’mon,

and snorting, eager to be off. My Master slaps him on the shoulder then runs a hand up his neck. “Shhhh… Calm down. We’re going now.” Oliver’s ears flick forward, but he settles long enough for my Master to mount. “Walk

our way through the yard, he says, “I thought we might take the path through the top field then loop

“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,

eyes Charlie, also performing, jarring under me. “They both

to the end

to the fence. No jumping. That

and she moves from trot to canter to gallop in fewer hoofbeats than

seconds do I have the lead. Oliver is larger and heavier, more powerful, 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 Oliver, mother and

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

air frigid and fresh. Oliver and Charlie

He reaches out, lifting the long arm of the gate latch to let me through, clucks Oliver along behind me, and lets the gate

take us to the trail through

there’s something I want to