Kill Me if You Can - James Patterson [22]
Natalia looked at her watch. “It’s getting late. Pretty soon he’ll be too drunk to dial.”
Prince couldn’t argue with the logic. He picked up the phone and pushed a single button. Chukov didn’t answer until the fourth ring.
“Nathaniel, I was just going to call you,” Chukov said. “I have good news. We zeroed in on the guy who has our diamonds.”
“It’s about time,” Prince said.
“I e-mailed you his picture.”
“His picture? I want his head delivered to my front door with his balls stuffed in his mouth,” Prince screamed. “Who is he?”
“He’s just some asshole kid who was at the right place at the right time. Zelvas stashed the diamonds in a locker at Grand Central. This guy found them and took off.”
“You told me the diamonds were in Zelvas’s safe,” Prince said. “Why did he move them to a locker in a train station?”
Because Natalia knew the combination, and Zelvas didn’t trust a whore who would bed down with her own father, Chukov thought.
“I don’t know, Nathaniel,” he said.
“What do we know about the guy who has the diamonds? What’s his name?”
“We don’t know his name yet,” Chukov said, “but he probably either works at Grand Central or is a regular commuter. Somebody has to know who he is. We definitely will find him.”
“Who’s we? ”
“Me, Rice, Benzetti, and the Ghost,” Chukov said.
“Not enough,” Prince said. “I want more people on it.”
“I have a dozen of my men…”
Prince cut Chukov off before he could finish. “I don’t want foot soldiers. I want a professional. A hunter. A killer.”
“The Ghost is a professional…”
“He’s one man,” Prince said. “The Syndicate is going to blame me for the missing diamonds. I don’t care how good this Ghost guy is. He can’t be everywhere. I need insurance, backup. Somebody smart. Somebody we’ve worked with before. What about the German?”
“Krall?”
“That’s the one.”
“I don’t know,” Chukov said. “These killers for hire are like prima donnas. They don’t like to be in competition with someone else. They want an exclusive contract.”
“I don’t care what they want,” Prince said. “They’re mercenaries. I pay, I make the rules. I want you to find the bastard who took my diamonds, and I want his fingers chopped off, one by one. And if Krall doesn’t want to do it, find somebody who will.”
Prince hung up the phone and went to his computer. He printed out the picture of the man who had stolen his millions. He showed it to Natalia. “You know this muzhik? ” he asked.
She studied the picture. “I’d definitely remember him if I saw him. He’s cute,” she said, toying with Prince.
“He won’t be so cute when I’m finished with him.”
“Don’t be jealous,” she said. “I think you’re cuter.” She dropped the picture to the floor and kissed him lightly on the mouth, letting her lips linger.
He kissed her in return. Not so lightly.
She unbuttoned his shirt, slowly, button by button.
He unbuttoned her black silk blouse the same way. Then he cupped her breasts.
It was a ritual they had performed many times before. Undressing one another slowly, tantalizing and teasing each other. But this time Nathaniel couldn’t wait.
He pulled down her slacks, then her panties and got behind Natalia as she leaned forward over his heavy oak desk. He dropped his trousers, planted his hands on her ass, angled her into position, and entered her.
It had been twenty years since the taxi mowed down his wife and son and left his little girl for dead. They had forged a bond since that tragedy. And as Natalia grew into a beautiful girl, the bond became a physical and emotional union, a fierce, unstoppable love that had erupted the summer she was seventeen. For the next decade their love had flourished without guilt, without regret, and without shame. If it was forbidden and wrong, then so be it. It was their lives, their choice to make.
It was a give-and-take relationship, but tonight Nathaniel Prince needed to take more than he could give. His body was racing to climax and he couldn’t wait for Natalia. He came violently, repeatedly, panting, exhaling her name