Page 69 of Deceptive Vows

I know which restaurant he means. It’s an Italian bistro called La Roux. That’s the only restaurant we meet at when we’re in the Hamptons, and we don’t go there often.

It’s nearly eight now, so I need to get going if I want to beat traffic.

I return my gaze to the princess and a visible shudder runs through her.

“Be ready for me when I get back,” I say. “If you’re not, I’ll punish you.”

That’s all I say to her, and I don’t look back as I leave.

19

Mikhail

Iarrive at the restaurant just before nine.

When the maître’ d leads me to the tables on the top floor, I know Eric wants us there for a reason.

I find him sitting at the back in an elegant booth eating a continental breakfast.

He nods at me when he sees me.

“Get him the same as me, please,” he says to the maître’ d, who nods and saunters away to retrieve my order.

I sit in front of Eric and look him over. “I take it me eating means I’m going to be here awhile.”

“Yes, and you need to blend in,” he answers. “The place is going to be busy in a few minutes. I expect the people I need you to see will be here roughly around that time. Their reservation is for ten past, and we’re sitting up here so we can watch them.”

This sounds promising.

“What did you find?”

“I’m not really sure yet. I found a piece of information, and this is us following it through to fill in the blanks.” He clears his throat. “Do you know a guy called Tony Iglesias?”

“Never heard of him.”

“He’s one of Raul’s… what the hell do I call this guy? For the purposes of today’s discussion, let’s just call him a middleman with some above-board tech skills. I took a look at Raul’s emails from his office and found something interesting I haven’t seen in a while because it takes a special kind of person to do this shit.”

My interest piques. “What?”

“Put simply, your investigation team missed a few key things.”

Jesus, this is all I need to hear now. “What did they miss?”

“A lot of Raul’s work emails were encrypted with what my guys call ghost files. It’s a file with a secret encryption that allows it to be hidden within another. To read it, you need to either know how to spot it or use a certain code to reveal it. It looks like your people completely missed those files.”

“Fuck. Does this mean everything needs to be rechecked?”

“Yes, it does. I scanned the files for secret encryptions because I thought things on Raul’s system looked way too clean for a cartel king. That’s how I got intel about this meeting here in ten minutes.” He straightens. “Raul arranged for Tony to meet someone called the Red Fox, to sign the Dmitriyev Ltd. contract.”

The blood drains from my face. “The Dmitriyev Ltd. contract?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what that’s about yet, but I’m interested in knowing who Red Fox is code for. That’s why we’re here. We look and see, then take action.”

I don’t know what the hell to think other than that I was right.

“Eric, if they’re meeting about the Dmitriyev Ltd. contract, it must means the plan is still in motion.”

He nods. “I think so, Mikhail. Forgive me for saying this, but I’m not sure yet if the files were missed by accident or if it was done on purpose, so I think we should keep this between us. At least for the moment.”