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Chapter 7

Sinclair sat in Alex's office running his hands over his face, the inquisition from the colonel, unrelenting.

"How much does she know?" Alex asked him for the third time, looking wary.

"Nothing. I don't know. It's like I said, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Sin had already caught him up on how he'd found Charlotte. When he arrived in Edinburgh, he saw her get into the taxi outside the train station and he followed her to the apartment. He was on the phone with Dougal Murray, an agent of The Watch who worked accessing databases on the dark web, asking for information, when the lass came out with a man and got into the car. He recognized the man from the raid the other night. He was one of Sokolov's Russian thugs. She wasn't struggling and got in the car willingly. This caused him to feel unsettled and slightly alarmed as he began to wonder if the girl had worked for Sokolov all along. It would make sense. She had a degree in art history. Sokolov would have needed advice if he was going to purchase a piece of expensive art. That had been the whole premise of the set up. Sokolov was looking to purchase a painting and Sinclair was acting as the broker. It was the perfect avenue for the crime lord to launder his dirty money. With million-dollar sales conducted in secrecy and virtually no government oversight, sellers and buyers were kept anonymous, their names guarded zealously, and the transactions were listed as private collections. Illegal profits were adjusted to look legal. Plus, canvases were easily rolled up and stashed or moved between countries, their prices raised or lowered by millions in a heartbeat. It was a part of the art market's mystique and practice. Sin, of all people, would know.

He tailed the car to a rundown section of Leith to an old distillery and watched as the man and Charlotte got out and went in, again, no struggle. A part of him was shocked and angered he had been fooled by the girl and he wanted to go in right away, but he stopped himself, knowing he didn't have any idea how many people were inside or what he was up against. So, he staked it out. It wasn't until the sky darkened into night and the rain started to fall, when he was about to call for back up that the man came out carrying her and put her into the back of the car. Something was wrong. He followed them, being careful to stay out of sight, to Coalie Park. The park ran alongside the Water of Leith, the river eventually flowing into the Firth of Forth. The man got Charlotte out of the back of the car and took her into a wooded section by the bridge. She was stumbling over her own feet and wasn't wearing any clothes. The anger he felt towards her instantly fell away, replaced with concern. He took his rifle from the boot of his car and followed them into the trees along with William. The man led her to an area, then undid his pants, whipping out his cock. Charlotte stumbled backwards, her foot caught a tree root and she fell. The bastard was on top of her, spreading her legs. He was going to rape her. Sin raised his rifle into position and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger. The man landed on top of her and she screamed, the sound so intense and full of pain, it echoed through the sleeping woods before the rain swallowed it. He rushed to her side, pushing the son of a bitch off her and gasped. They had flayed the skin off her stomach. Tender red flesh stood out stark against her alabaster skin, carved into a crest he instantly recognized. He took a deep breath, staving off the bile that rose in the back of his throat. They fucking carved her like a piece of meat while he sat in his car doing nothing. William nuzzled her neck and lay down beside her, whining. She had passed out, which seemed a blessing at that point.

"Stay with her," he said to the dog. He ran to his car, coming back with a duffle bag, and covered her with a mylar emergency blanket. The man was dead. He needed to get rid of the body, at least for now. He took a weighted belt from the bag and fastened it around the man's thick waist by rolling him over several times. Then he pushed him down a set of concrete stairs into the water, watching him sink into the murky depths. The heavy rain was an advantage; it would at least wash away the footprints and blood. He picked her up as carefully as he could and put her in the passenger seat of his car, reclining it back, and started the drive to the Tower.

"You don't think she was working for Sokolov?" Alex asked. He ran his hand through his short salt and pepper hair, tapping a finger on his desk

"God, no. Not after what they did to her. You saw the savagery of it."

"Aye, you're right." The older man stood up and started to pace in front of the fireplace. "The question is what do we do with her?"

"Send her home," Sin said. "Back to her family."

"She'll go straight to the police, or her family will, and we'll have the CIA breathing down our backs," the colonel remarked, eyeing him. "We don't need that."

"Aye. That would be a problem. But I don't see what other choice we have." Then he added dryly, "She's not a British citizen, so she has to leave eventually."

"Aye," Alex said. "But that can be remedied."

Sin looked at the colonel narrowly, his pulse picking up. "Even if we convinced her to stay, would Dougie be able to alter documents?"

"We're not messing with American documents. There are other ways of becoming a citizen."

Sin swallowed the dread that crept up his stomach to his throat. "What are you proposing? She wants to go home. She's been tortured. I fucking kidnapped her. Sokolov will continue to threaten her. It's the least we can do."

"She can't go home until we can ensure her trust and silence, which will take time." He shook his head. "Time we don't have, unfortunately. You'll marry her and we'll clear the documents that way. We'll figure out something to say to her family."

"Marry her?" Sin laughed. "That seems to be your answer nowadays. First, with Wraith and Primrose, now with me. She's not going to fucking marry me. She watched me kill two men."

"She won't have a choice."

"It would take months to get a license."

"Those documents, we can hurry along. Dougie has access to all British databases."

"Fucking hypocrite. I won't do it. Phin can marry her. He's the one who fucked up the hit. She's terrified of me, anyway."

"You're walking a fine line, nephew," Alex said. "How much does your father know?"

"He's not my father." Sin was furious. The Watch had messed up his life enough, the last thing he wanted was to get stuck with a wife. "And the bastard helped her escape. Call your brother if you want to know."

Gabriel knocked on the door and stuck his head in. "The lass is stirring."

* * *

Charlie woke with a start and the feeling she had been asleep for a very long time. She opened her eyes, unaware of her surroundings. In fact, she felt unaware of everything, like a kite set adrift in the wind waiting for a place to land. The buzz and glare of fluorescent lights and the smell of antiseptic brought her crashing down as her eyes settled on the face of a small man with round glasses.

"There you are, lass. You've been out for a while," he said in a gravelly voice. "My name is Dr. Forbes." An IV was attached to the back of her hand. Something had happened to her. She knew something bad had happened to her, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was, as if it sat just out of reach.

"Where am I?" Her voice sounded strange.

"You're safe."