Inside, the place had been converted to open plan. It was now one main room with a country kitchen opening to a great room with the big stone fireplace, staircase right up the middle to the second floor. I hadn’t put her down yet when I said, “You can pick out furniture for the place. I just had them move over the bed, sofa, and table and chairs from the loft for now.”
She tightened her arms around my neck and kissed me, kissed me big.
“You’re the best husband ever, my husband.”
“Mmm, Let’s go christen the new bedroom,” I answered and carried her upstairs. Upstairs were two bedrooms and a bathroom. They’d been painted a soft blue and I’d had the pine floors refinished and new walls put in up there. I’d had the bathroom redone, too, adding a big soaker Jacuzzi tub plus a new shower, toilet, and sink.
The smaller room was empty but the larger room just had the brass four poster bed from the loft in it. It wasn’t made but there was a new bed-in-a-bag set with blankets and sheets plus four new pillows, still packaged, on the end. Clearly, my wife didn’t care to stop and make the bed before christening the new room. My text alert went off but since my shirt was getting unbuttoned by her as I put her down on the mattress I decided that the text could wait.
Dare
I called Zack.
“Hey bud, the guy who proposed to her was named Jason. I’ll try to get his last name.”
“Okay, man.”
“She thought she saw him today at the bistro on Canal Street with the big outdoor patio.”
“You get a look?”
“Naw man. She said maybe she didn’t see him after all.”
“Alright, man. I’ll call you back.”
** ** **
He called me back just a half an hour later.
“Man, where are you? Are you with your girl?”
“Yeah, I’m at home. She’s here. Why?”
“You ready for this?” Zack asked me.
“Ready? For what?”
“Gan Chen and a few of his goons are on a plane on the way here and I just got a lock on where Frost is. She did see him today. He’s here.”
“Frost?”
“Jason Frost. The guy your girl was dating before she got pulled in by Kruna.”
“Jason Frost? Connected to Donavan Frost?”
“Jason Frost is Donavan’s nephew. Donavan was another of Gan Chen’s partners before he died. The way it’s looking, Jason Frost was seriously into your girl. See, Kruna scouts spotted her at a nightclub owned by Donavan Frost, managed by Jason Frost. They wanted to bring her in and involved Frost. It’s looking like he worked on the outside with scouting and helping organize bringing people in. Guy’s good-looking, smooth with the ladies. Seems like Jason tried to date her not to lure her in but tried to put the kybosh and keep her for himself. I haven’t figured out yet what transpired between the proposal and her becoming a Kruna slave. Three days after Jason Frost bought an engagement ring your girl was supposed to fly to South Carolina but she never got on the plane and hasn’t been heard from since.”
“Donavan Frost is dead?”
“Yeah, died at 40 years old over a year ago under mysterious circumstances. After his death Jason Frost inherited his money, sold the bar to some other Kruna partner, and moved to Philly. Appears he wasn’t involved in the Kruna world any longer, really, but recently got very involved.”
“Very?”
“I’m assuming so. He’s had phone calls and face-to-face meetings with Gan Chen. He flew to Thailand just a few days after you got her home and was there less than 24 hours. He went home to Philly for a couple days and then he flew here yesterday. I know you’ve got a good security system there but I think you need to grab her and go to your safe house while I dig further. It’s looking dangerous.”
“How’d you get all this info?”
“I have reliable sources. Can’t divulge that right now, Dario.”