Chapter 30

The man ambled back to his table, laughing and unconcerned, looking for all the world like he’d be there awhile. Dimitri racked his memory. He’d seen this man dozens of times over the past few years, and certainly since Ari had died. He wasn’t a thug or a pirate, any more than were the rest of the men who made the most of their opportunities on the high seas without directly stealing from their fellow fishermen. He’d never once caused trouble or stood out in any way. Dimitri hadn’t noticed the man wearing a watch before, but when he came down to this port, it was to look for found goods among his network, not stolen watches brazenly displayed on a stranger’s wrist.

He couldn’t be mistaken, though. Ari could afford the finest timepieces in the world, but he’d eschewed the luxury brands for a dive watch that had been custom altered from a Sea Hawk timepiece to incorporate details that made it ideal as either a dive or flight watch, since Ari was a fan of both. For this man to be wearing it so openly could only mean he had no idea whose it had been originally.

Nevertheless, the blade in Dimitri’s hand itched to cut it off the man.

“Is that the best approach?” Lauren smiled brightly at him, so brightly that it took him by surprise. She kept talking through her teeth. “Do you want to alert this group that you’ve an issue with this man, and take the watch from him bodily? Cause a scene?”

He scowled at her. “This isn’t your business.”

“No. Making deals is my business. Which you’d know if you had read up on that dossier Stefan had provided you.” She reached out and patted his hand. “How much money do you have on you, and how much money do you think he paid for the watch? He didn’t steal it. He doesn’t look the type.”

That did get his attention, but his scowl only deepened. “The watch cost Ari close to twenty thousand euros. I don’t carry that kind of cash.”

“Well, neither does he. That’s nowhere close to the amount he paid someone for it.”

Dimitri snorted. “No. He paid probably five hundred. I have a thousand euros on me.” She blinked at him, and he shrugged. “In case we found something today.”

She nodded. “Well, it looks like we did. You sure it’s Ari’s? Lot of watches in the world, and we can only play the ignorant-tourist card once. If he knows you’re the one interested and not me, the price will go up.”

Irritation ratcheted through him, but he knew Lauren might well be right. She appeared to be a tourist on holiday, one with money to burn but not too much of it. Not anywhere close to the amount she probably normally slung around. He shrugged. “It’s worth a try. You make the play, and if you’re not successful, I’ll cut it from his hand myself.”

She leaned over and kissed him as he used his free hand to fish his wallet out of his pocket. “Then for now, hide that meat cleaver you’ve got there, ’kay?” She palmed his wallet and was gone.

Dimitri held the beer at an angle where he could watch Lauren the whole time, and he didn’t sheathe the knife. Despite what she thought, he had read Stefan’s entire file on her. Multiple times. She was good at what she did—making deals, glad handing, PR shit. He supposed she was good at business, but she never seemed to stick around on any one project long enough to tell for sure. He’d not had any occasion to witness her negotiating skills in person, and he wasn’t happy about it now.

Still, he couldn’t deny that she looked the part of a wide-eyed tourist as she hesitantly approached the table of men, appearing as out of place as she possibly could with her blonde hair and soft clothes. Thank God his sister had dressed her in local attire, or the price would have gone up a few hundred more euros on general principles.

He turned to the bartender as Lauren began talking in earnest to the laughing man with Ari’s watch. The man knew him well, and was also no idiot. “She’s safe with him,” he said in a low voice. “Put away the knife. I want no trouble here.”

“I’ve seen him before, I know he’s no trouble.” Dimitri shrugged. “It’s not him I want anyway, but his watch.”

“His watch!” The bartender’s eyes widened. “I thought you wanted wreckage.”

Dimitri scowled, causing the man to stand back sharply. “I’d no idea that personal items would be floating around. He’s worn it long? A year?”

“No, not so long as that.” The bartender scratched his beard. “Six months, maybe. I remember it was New Year’s, round about. He had it then. Assumed he’d won it or bought it, but fair and square. He wasn’t hiding it.”

Dimitri nodded. “Name and craft? Where he’s heading next?” He shifted his gaze to the bartender, then away again. “There is money in it for you.” Assuming Lauren left him with any.

The man shrugged. “It’s common information, no secret. But I’ll give it to you anyway. That outfit, they run the same routes, always.” He supplied Dimitri with the fisherman’s name, his boat’s identification number, and his crew’s next location. If Dimitri was right about the watch, members of the ONSF would intercept the fisherman at his next port. He’d be questioned then about the watch, yes, but in a way perhaps more circumspect than Dimitri would have done. Either way...it would be news. Information.

In the mirror, he studied the man as he slipped the watch off his wrist and handed it over to Lauren. The man grinned as she pushed a large pile of euros his way. She threw her arms around the man, thanking him effusively, all while keeping a death grip on her prize. Then, without looking Dimitri’s way, she turned for the front door, making a beeline out of the bar and into the open air.

Dimitri glanced back at the bartender, realizing he now had no money to pay for his drink. The man waved him on. “Go. I’m glad for you, Dimitri. Had I known this one watch would help you, I would’ve alerted you to it long ago.”

“You’ve done me a great service.” Leaving the man with the promise of payment, he turned as well. His gaze took in the laughing table of fishermen. They would be met in Samothrace by members of the ONSF and wouldn’t be so happy then. Let them enjoy their beer and good fortune while they could.

Lauren was already halfway to the beach rover when he caught up to her, and she was moving fast. “Don’t stop, don’t stop,” she said, though she didn’t look at him. He frowned but could sense the anxiety rolling off her in waves, and they didn’t speak until he’d started the rover. As they exited the parking lot, she relaxed enough to lose her death grip on the watch, though her hands shook as she handed it over to Dimitri.

He eyed her as he took the watch, then glanced back to the open beach. He quickly slid the watch on his wrist. It hung there with a reassuring weight. “I thought you were a master negotiator. You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I wasn’t negotiating for myself, I was negotiating for you, and for a man who was your best friend. It changes things.” She gestured toward the watch. “Is it the right one?”

“It is.”

“How can you tell? You’re not even really looking at it.”

“I can tell because the watch has two diving chronometers that most flight watches don’t, and a world time meter that most diving watches don’t. It’s also engineered for high-altitude antifogging. And,” he offered her a lopsided smile, “the band is cracked.”

He held the watch toward her, and she saw the thin crack in the metal next to the case. “Ari had a new one on order. It arrived three days after he was lost at sea.”

Lauren stared at him. “Do you think those men—those men saw Ari? Knew him? Maybe they helped him out of the water or saw where he, I mean—” She broke off, clearly unsure of how ready he was to deal with the concept of Ari being finally gone.

He wasn’t sure himself, and the need resurfaced to go and interrogate the men. Lauren apparently felt the same way. “We should go back! You should ask them directly now, before they leave.”

“No.” With welcome clarity, his training reasserted itself. No. He’d waited too long to do this wrong now. He would make his report and let the royal family follow up. Their need to find out what happened to Ari was every bit as great as his own. And their need to do it with ultimate secrecy was paramount. They didn’t want to look weak or foolish to either their allies or their enemies.

He shook his head. “We’ll go in town to make the full report and ensure I have a strong enough signal to send pictures. But we’ll stop first at home to radio it in with the sat phone. I don’t want to wait.”

“Well, I should say not.”

They raced across the sand, Lauren practically bouncing in her seat. She was almost out of the rover before it stopped in front of the villa, running around to tug him out as well. “I can’t believe you can’t video call. Can you even take a picture with this thing?”

“No, which is why we’re going into town. King Jasen will also want the watch secured, so our timetable has probably moved up as well.”

That stopped her, and she turned back to him. She’d made it as far as the porch, and as he mounted the stairs, her manner seemed suddenly far too tense. “Moved up as in?—”

“As in I expect I’ll be recalled back to the mainland immediately, with you as well.” He frowned at her as her expression flickered between disappointment, loss, and finally resolve. “What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”