Claim Me Read Online Free

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.
----
    A s 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.

6
    Y ulia

    “ S orry about that ,” Contreras says, pulling the lid off my crate. “I didn’t expect you to be this tall. I’m glad you were able to fit in there.”
    I groan as he pulls me out, my muscles cramping from being stuck in the tiny crate for the last hour. My knees feel like two giant bruises, and my spine is throbbing from being squashed against the side of the crate. I am, however, alive and across the Venezuelan border—which means it was all worth it.
    “It’s okay,” I say, rotating my head in a semi-circle. My neck is painfully stiff, but it’s nothing a good massage won’t cure. “It fooled the police and border patrol. They didn’t even try looking into the crate.”
    Contreras nods. “That’s why I brought it. It looks too small to fit a person, but when one is determined…” He shrugs.
    “Yeah.” I rotate my head again and stretch, trying to get my muscles working. “So what’s the plan now?”
    “Now we get you to the plane. Obenko has already arranged everything. By tomorrow, you should be in Kiev, safe and sound.”
----
    O ur drive to the small airstrip takes less than an hour, and then we’re pulling up in front of an ancient-looking jet.
    “Here we are,” Contreras says. “Your people will take it from here.”
    “Thank you,” I say, and he nods as I open the door.
    “Good luck,” he says in his Spanish-accented Russian, and I smile at him before jumping out of the van and hurrying to the plane.
    As I walk up the ladder, a middle-aged man steps out, blocking the entrance.