CHAPTER 29
Halim thought of everything.
He made Sonya call the apartment manager so if she was reported missing the cops wouldn’t suspect foul play, at least not for a while.
He took her cell phone and said he would give her a new one with a new number.
He’d instructed Gilad to tell the girls at Sultan’s that Sonya was caught stealing from the company, and if he found out any of them even talked to her, they’d be fired too.
Plus Gilad told everyone at Sultan’s he’d taken back Sonya’s company cell phone, and since no one had her home number or address, it didn’t matter if they were willing to risk talking to her or not.
Halim had spoken with Sonya enough to know her parents were dead, she rarely talked to her sisters, and she had no other family and few close friends. He assumed by the time anyone realized she was missing, it would be too late.
He might have sold Sonya sooner or later, as he tried to do with Anna. But when he found out Sonya was a virgin, he realized she was more valuable than just a typical hot girl.
There are always wealthy men willing to pay huge sums of money to buy a beautiful virgin. Halim happened to know a few of those men, though he had one particular fellow in mind.
Once Dmitri disappeared, and Ivan put a contract out on his head, there wasn’t any point in using Sonya as a way to keep spying on him. After two weeks, it was clear Dmitri wouldn't slip up and call her again. This made Sonya less valuable to Halim as a Sultan's hostess.
And it made her a softer target to use for more lucrative work. Not only would Sonya be depressed and easier to manipulate now, but Dmitri wouldn’t be around to notice she was missing, and from monitoring her phone calls, Halim knew she barely talked to anyone else.
Halim had to be shrewd. Even in the world of stripping, where most girls keep their private lives separate from work, and many disappear without a word to their coworkers, he didn’t want anyone getting suspicious, especially with Anna having been recently kidnapped and sold.
Well, Anna didn’t quite make it to auction. The drugged drink hardly fazed her. Perhaps she had a high tolerance from her hard-partying lifestyle.
So when she closed her eyes, but didn’t pass out, and heard Gilad and the driver, who only spoke English, joking about her fate, how she’d soon be a sex slave for oligarchs and arms-dealers, instead of the glamorous life Halim had promised her, she flipped out.
And she put up such a fight in the backseat of that black SUV, she left a broken orange fingernail lodged right in Gilad’s arm. Another nail cracked off and landed on the floor.
Gilad didn’t know how to settle her down, and he got so mad when she scratched him, he strangled her with his greasy hands. Halim was already docking Gilad’s paychecks for similar errors he’d made in the past, and he’d pay for this one, too.
Anna hadn’t been a virgin like Sonya, far from it, but with her supermodel looks, she would have been a favorite on the billionaire party scene.
After that business opportunity fell through, Halim was eager for another. Sonya was too tempting to pass up. Little did he know, she was even more valuable than he realized.
And more dangerous.
Halim hadn’t thought to use Sonya as bait to help his buddy Ivan kill the true heir to the Veselov empire. He assumed Dmitri didn’t truly care about Sonya.
And Halim could tell from observing Sonya that she was heartbroken, so he was sure there was no secret communication happening between them, that she wasn’t expecting Dmitri to come back to her.
As we know, Dmitri was enamored with Sonya and wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice his life trying to save her. Halim could have gotten the million dollar bounty for Dmitri and still sold Sonya for another million.
Of course, that would mean he’d have to kill Dmitri first.