Claim Me

Chapter 5

5

Lucas

My meeting with Winters takes just under an hour. We go over the current state of my investments and discuss how to proceed given the recent froth in the market. In the time that Jared Winters has been managing my portfolio, he’s tripled it to just over twelve million, so I’m not particularly concerned when he says he’s liquidating most of my equity holdings and getting ready to short a popular tech stock.

“The CEO is about to get in some serious legal trouble,” Winters explains, and I don’t bother asking how he knows that. Trading on insider information may be a crime, but our contacts at the SEC ensure that Winters’s fund is nowhere on their radar.

“How much are you putting behind the trade?” I ask.

“Seven million,” Winters replies. “It’s going to get ugly.”

“All right,” I say. “Go for it.”

Seven million is a sizable sum, but if the tech stock is about to drop as much as Winters thinks, it could easily be another triple or more.

We go over a few more upcoming trades, and then Winters walks me out to the reception area, where Rosa is reading a magazine.

“Ready to go?” I ask, and she nods.

Getting up, she places the magazine back on the coffee table and beams at me and Winters. “Definitely ready.”

“Thanks again,” I say, turning to shake Winters’s hand, but he’s not looking at me.

He’s staring at Rosa, his green gaze oddly intent.

“Winters?” I prod, amused.

He tears his eyes away from her. “Oh, yes. It was a pleasure,” he mutters, shaking my hand, and before I can say another word, he strides back into his office and shuts the door behind him.

As I promised Rosa, after the meeting I take her shopping on the Magnificent Mile—also known as Michigan Avenue. As she tries on a bunch of dresses at a department store, I take a seat next to the fitting room and check my email again. This time, there’s a short message from Diego:

Located the stolen pick-up truck at a gas station near Granada. No other cars reported stolen for now. Blockades up at all the major roads as per your instructions.

I put the phone away, frustrated anger churning in my gut. They still haven’t found Yulia, and by now, she could be in another country. She has undoubtedly made contact with her agency, and depending on how resourceful they are, it’s entirely possible that they’ve smuggled her out.

For all I know, she’s already on a plane, flying to her lover.

“How do you like this?” Rosa asks, and I turn to see that she’s come out of the fitting room in a short, form-fitting yellow dress.

“It’s nice,” I say on autopilot. “You should get it.” Objectively, I can see that the dark-haired girl looks good in that dress, but all I can think about right now is the fact that Yulia may be on her way to Misha… to the man she truly loves.

“All right.” Rosa gives me a huge smile. “I will.”

She hurries back into the fitting room, and I pull out my phone to fire off an email to the hackers looking into UUR.

Even if Yulia managed to get away, she won’t stay free for long.

No matter what it takes, I’ll find her, and she’ll never escape again.