Free The Prince's Gamble by Caridad Piñeiro Page A

breakfast was gone, replaced by princely formality. He had closed himself off. For protection from what was in that file? Or from her…? She sighed, and allowed him his distance.
    At least for now.
    He walked from the room with long, determined strides.
    …
    When the door had closed behind the prince, Kathleen turned toward Jim, who was gathering his materials. “Is there something I should know about Alexander? About that file? Something neither of you is sharing? His negative reaction to the sight of those tattoos was painfully obvious.”
    Jim tapped the edges of his papers on the table to even them out. “The prince’s life is a complicated one. There are things best left private.”
    Unfortunately, as long as she had not definitively ruled out Alexander as a suspect, nothing about his life could remain a closed book. But she could make one promise to the security chief, since he seemed genuinely concerned about his employer.
    “Whatever I learn about Alexander remains with me and my team. I’m not some tabloid reporter eager to sell his scandals to the highest bidder.”
    It seemed she would not have the last word on the subject. “The Ivanov family has not survived this long without safeguarding its secrets.”
    “Then how is it that you seem to know why that photo upset Alexander?” she persisted, needing to understand the dynamics between the two men almost as much as she needed to understand Alexander. There was more history there than she had suspected.
    “I know because I’m his friend. And because I’m his friend, I’ll warn you now. Don’t hurt him.” To signal that their discussion was done, Jim tucked the file under his arm and marched toward the door.
    “Why do you think I can hurt him, Jim?” she called after him, nonplussed.
    Jim paused with his hand on the knob and faced her. “You’re too smart not to see it, even though you’re trying to deny it.”
    He didn’t give her a chance to respond, leaving her alone to ponder his words, as well as Alexander’s uncharacteristic reaction. The photo had struck him hard. She needed to find out why…and how it might impact her investigation.
    That was the bottom line here. Her investigation.
    Nothing else mattered.
    She gathered the materials Jim had provided and hurried to her room. She had a lot to put into action by later tonight.
    Her team had photos of the various escorts who were apparently involved in the laundering. With more people on the ground, they might be able to track some of them down and discover who was giving them the small bills which became chips, and then were once again exchanged for larger bills or transferred to the secret Cayman Island bank accounts.
    If they could catch even one such money exchange, it might lead to some clues as to why Vanessa was missing, or if her disappearance was just a coincidence. Although Kathleen didn’t think so.
    Vanessa had been spooked the night she disappeared. Probably by the man with the Russian mob tattoos, Kathleen figured now. The money laundering fit right in with the kinds of illegal activities in which the mob engaged. White slavery was another, and she hoped for Vanessa’s sake they had decided to make some money by selling her rather than just killing her outright because she had recognized one of them. Kathleen didn’t know what would be the worse fate, but she knew which she’d rather face herself…
    But time was against them. The longer they took to make the connections between the escorts and whoever was providing the dirty money, the lower the odds of finding the missing hostess.
    Aware of that, Kathleen rushed off to get things moving along. By that night she wanted her team on active surveillance of the casino and restaurant. She also planned on having agents back at the office review the man’s tattoos to see if they could provide any information about their possible suspect.
    Finally, she had one last thing to do. She had to reach out to Detective Roman. Maybe he