The Hunter Read Online Free Page B

too damn much skirting around the main issue. He had done some undercover work before. A seller looking for some quick cash. A businessman paying for an informant. Fast drug deals to pinpoint drug routes. Even a robbery in bright daylight once to prevent the sale of a bomb. But those were a cakewalk compared to what he was doing now.
    His lips quirked at the term. Cakewalk. Another Americanism he could throw at Dilaver. He must buy a Macedonian book of aphorisms when he got a chance. Sometimes his American phrases didn’t translate very well. Not that any of the usual communication problems around here couldn’t be solved with a big weapon.
    “Actually, there’s a good—how you say it—‘happening’ place right here in Velesta,” Dilaver said. “The peacekeepers love to go there, especially the American ones, and they say it’s the food. I say it’s the owner. She is”—he drew the hourglass outline in the air—“stacked. Just like the Americans like their women. In fact, she’s one.”
    “An American running a restaurant in Velesta?” Hawk doubted that fact.
    “Not just a restaurant, my friend. She pays for my protection, just like anybody else.”
    “How?” Many business owners had to pay so their stores didn’t get bombed or robbed by the different gangs. It was all very old-fashioned. “Is she a friend of yours?”
    Dilaver shook his head. “No, I think she dislikes me, but she is very polite about it.” His laugh wasn’t friendly. “But she’s very intelligent. She’s got my protection so her restaurant gets business, and she’s got the head of CIVPOL’s protection so I don’t get too close.”
    “I didn’t know that you’re afraid of CIVPOL,” Hawk said casually. He had heard that the new man in charge of the drugs and sex-trafficking department of CIVPOL, the UN international police force, was looking for Dragan Dilaver. This woman’s friendship meant she had something over Dilaver that she was threatening to expose if he didn’t play nice. Interesting. He liked someone who could hold the Macedonian by his balls.
    Dilaver made a rude noise. “Afraid? I’m afraid of no one. And unlike in Asia, I’m the one who speaks the local languages around here. You and that UN puppet are the foreigners. He’s like a fly, this new man in town. Not worth my time.”
    “A bothersome one,” one of Dilaver’s men chimed in. “I suspect he’s behind our trouble, boss. He would like nothing better than to have a showdown with us so he can put us out of business.”
    Dilaver nodded, a speculative look entering his eyes. “Yes, I suppose when you’re new, you want to make some big catch, and…” He paused to take a swig from his mug. “I’m the biggest in Macedonia.”
    “So why not kill him?” Hawk asked, curious about how the other man’s mind worked. He had made it a point to study all of Dilaver’s moves and motives.
    “I would, but the UN has done so much for the Balkans,” Dilaver said, with a smile like a satisfied devil. “It’d be ungrateful to start killing their law enforcers when they are all providing such a safe haven for business.”
    His roar of laughter was joined by the rest in the room, mockery-filled and contemptuous. Hawk didn’t join in, but he understood the sentiment, and his heart filled with resigned anger. The Balkan wars had gone on for centuries. In many ways, the recent UN intervention had freed the thugs, arming many of the fighting factions. The Kosovo Liberation Army was one of them, a brutal group of mercenaries that had nothing to do with liberation. Now that they had solidified their power base, the KLA had become the crime syndicate in this part of the world in drugs, sex, and arms trafficking. Dragan Dilaver headed one of its powerful factions.
    And he, Hawk McMillan, was in this nest of human trash. He felt dirty among them because, for the first time, he couldn’t come to the defense of things he held precious. He had to stand by and watch