Bounty Hunter

Reed

“As per my records, Roman Slovov is organising a banquet at his manor somewhere in the province,” Hermine murmured as soon as we locked gaze. My hands tucked inside my pockets; I took long strides to meet her at her desk.

It has been over four hours since we landed in China. As soon as we reached my newly acquired estate and our luggage and room partitioned, Hermine began working on tracking down Roman.

The bastard was quite mobile. Since Hermine last searched on him, the bastard has moved to three hotels. I couldn’t help but wonder the reason behind his movements. Clearly, he wasn’t worried about a certain bounty hunter on his tail and a bullet ready for him, right?

“As you will know, access is quite tight,”

A tight smile crept on my lips. “Figured. Anything seems out of the ordinary to you?” I questioned, placing my right hand on the desk, then resting my body weight on that hand to get a peek at her screen.

“Depends. Does Mad Hunt’s presence at this banquet seem out of the ordinary to you?” Hermine questioned, amusement evident in her voice while she ducked her head and took a peek at me.

“You bet your ass it does,” I answered. For some reason, that made me excited, yet, suspicious. I patted Hermine on the shoulder, urging her to her feet. I looked at the list carefully, looking for any names that I might have come across. And boy, were there a handful.

Getting on my feet, I spoke to Hermine. “Good job. Get us inside that banquet. You inclusive. Something tells me Mad Hunt is up to something and I’ll be darned if I miss it. I’ll be in my room getting ready. Get back to me if anything fishy comes up,” I gave Hermine an encouraging pat on the shoulder before walking out of the small study.

Not too long ago, I acquired this duplex in the heart of Guangzhou. Not that I liked China, no. What I didn’t like, was lodging in hotels and guesthouses whenever I go out of town for business. The reason why I had properties in almost every country.

Currently, Zinnia and Alex are taking a walk, admiring the beauty China has to offer. Now, they were at the skywalk glass bridge and the waterfall view. I would know this because I had access to Alex’s phone. Extreme, I know, maybe even a little unorthodox.

What she did with her life was the least of my concerns. But tracing her phone was a subsidiary measure for me to know where Zinnia was, especially at times when she didn’t have her phone on her.

My laptop opened before me, I minimised the page that had the tracker on Alex and Zinnia. I suddenly remembered a name whilst going through the list of invitees for Roman’s banquet.

Jeremy Automask. The search bar says he was a reputable man. Owned businesses here and there and even made a few donations for the Internally Displaced Persons who were affected by the Ambazonian crises in Cameroon.

The next article was still on Jeremy, but this time, with Roman Slovov on a skiing trip to Budapest. Something about the way they smiled and shook hands told me they did more than skiing.

And now he was attending a ball organised by Roman?

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I took it out. It was Hermine. She had sent a photo of the said Jeremey Automask, but this time, with Mad Hunt. I furrowed my brows digesting the picture from Hermine. And then, her call came in.

“Like what you see?” Hermine murmured as soon as I pressed the phone against my ear.

“What the hell are they playing at?” I asked.

“My guess? They’re double-crossing each other.” I nodded at this.

“Explain,”

“As you might have noticed by now, Jeremy and Roman seem to be buddies, and since Mad is trying to take Roman out, he’s trying to use Jeremy to get to Roman. And the same might be for Roman as well. He might have figured Jeremy has ties to Mad someone and he’s using that to his advantage.”

“And since Roman and Jeremy are friends, his men will never suspect him to be Roman’s killer. They would pin the blame on Mad, but they’ll lack evidence to tie him to it,” I finalised.

“And there you have it!” Hermine explained. “Damn, working behind a computer has never been so fulfilling,” she added.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

I let the methodology of our conversation ring in my head like the bells of Christmas. Something wasn’t adding up. What did Zinnia have to do with this? What business does Roman have targeting her? It didn’t make any sense.

“Hermine, does Jeremy have a history of dealing with thugs of Roman’s calibre?”

“You mean skin trafficking? You can say the word, Reed. For someone who gets high from killing people, you censor a lot,”

I rolled my eyes at Hermine’s words. “Does Jeremy enjoy fucking helpless women in cages and slicing their skin off with a blade?” I rephrased my statement. I could almost feel Hermine gag in disgust through the phone.

“Okay, I know I asked you not to censor your words, but I didn’t need to know all the graphic details,”

I sighed in frustration. “Bloody hell, Hermine! Pick a side and then run with it,”

“My god, I think I just came a little. Getting on your nerves is such a turn-on,” Hermine mocked and now it was my turn to gag at that image. “But to answer your questions, yes. Jeremy seems to have ties with John McClary and many others, although there’s nothing linking these people directly to skin trade,”

“There’s no smoke without fire. Thank you, Hermine. I should get ready. You should too,” I was about to end the call when Hermine spoke up.

“You must love her if you’re ready to get involved with the Russians,”

I didn’t have to ask to know what Hermine meant. Did I love Zinnia? I couldn’t say for certain and I didn’t want to think that much about it. I just know the thought of anyone touching her makes my skin crawl as though I had roaches all over it. I want to hurt her. I want to break her. I want her to cry because of me. I want to be the reason why she’s awake most of the night. I want memories of me haunting her. I want my mark on her skin.

You can’t love someone and hurt them. But what if it’s the good kind of hurt? Did that even exist? I mean, it can. Love is what you make of it. It could mean a lot of things. So, maybe I want to hurt her because I love her. Or maybe, I am just fucked up like that.

“You should get ready, Hermine,” I say, and ended the call.

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