20. Libby #2
“Fucking pissed,” Johnny grunted. “But at least the house didn’t go up in flames this time.”
“Being hunted isn’t too much better. How the fuck did they even escape an attack like that?”
Johnny glanced at Jack and Jason, then his eyes landed on me for a moment before he turned back to Lock. “We’re not sure. He said he killed one of them and the rest fled.”
Murmurs of unease filled the room at his words. It didn’t make sense, and none of us understood why they would walk away when they’d been there to kill the family.
“They just fled,” Lock repeated. “Trained killers walked away from a hit. To what end?”
Johnny shrugged. “Not sure, but we got away clean.”
“As clean as you can when they’re tracking your every move,” I added, drawing more attention to myself than intended.
“Why would they track all of us for years? What’s the fucking purpose?” Lock spat.
“It all goes back to Michael,” Jack said. “All of it. It has to.”
“You think Michael put the hit out on Johnny’s family?”
“Does anyone ever really know what side Michael’s on?” I asked, my bitterness seeping through at the memory of Cash explaining what happened on the island. “He told Cash to shoot his son.”
“Because he was burning,” Jack cut in. “You wouldn’t have wanted him to suffer.”
After all that bastard put me through? I wasn’t so sure about that. I was on a pendulum, swinging back and forth between missing my husband desperately and wanting him to suffer for what he put me through. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“We can’t trust Michael. The senator’s last words were Shadow,” Dash cut in. “We all know he’s involved. Hell, Kavanaugh was shot at his old man’s funeral.”
“And then Cash ran off to work with his father,” IKE said from the background. “Tell me again why we’re helping him?”
“Because—” a deep voice said from the back of the room, instantly silencing us all. We turned and gave way to Knight, who made his way to the front of the room. “What the senator was trying to tell Kavanaugh was not Shadow, as in Michael.”
His eyes met all of ours for just a moment before he continued.
“The office you broke into…that man works for an entity that’s bigger than anything you could ever imagine. They’ve been watching us for so long because Michael is part of their organization.”
Knight’s eyes landed on me, and the intensity I saw burning there nearly had me turning away.
“When Rafe took down The Syndicate, he pissed off some very powerful people. He just didn’t realize they were working to keep The Syndicate in power.
If he didn’t die on that island, they would have come after him here.
And they would have killed you along with him. ”
I knew he thought that was supposed to be comforting, but instead, all I heard was that Rafe would have lived if he had never stepped foot on that island. His attempt at making me feel better landed like a dead weight in the pit of my stomach.
“Michael works for a group called the Shadow Government, which is what the senator was trying to tell Kavanaugh. They were watching him, and the moment they saw the senator talking to his son in that bar, they knew exactly what was going to happen, and that’s why they took him out. Because he knew too much.”
“Who are they?” Lock asked.
All eyes were on Knight, waiting for details on the elusive and mysterious group that supposedly had all this information on us.
“They’re a group of men who supposedly work for the greater good. They manipulate markets, swing elections, assassinate popes… Anyone who gets in the way of their agenda is eliminated.”
“And Michael works with them?” I scoffed. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Michael doesn’t matter,” Knight snapped. “Cash made his way inside.”
“By shooting you,” Lock surmised. “Please fucking tell me he didn’t turn on you.”
Knight gave a slight shake of his head. “We all knew what they would ask of him. Well, we suspected. Shadow informed us they were keeping an eye on me because I was with Cash. Everyone pays a price when they enter the Shadow Government. We were pretty damn sure what that price would be.”
“So, you allowed him to shoot you?” Brock asked incredulously. “That’s fucking insane.”
“The alternative was worse,” Knight bit out.
“You have no idea the reach these men have. You know they’ve been watching all of you, but what you don’t fucking realize is that with one wrong move, you would all be wiped out.
Rafe put something in motion, something that ruined their business.
Cash was always going to be a target if he didn’t comply.
His family, anyone who associated with him, was on their radar. ”
He looked around the room, sending chills down my spine with that one cold look.
“How long before you took another fucking job that interfered with their plans? You guys are attracted to the dangerous jobs. You thrive on helping the little guy. Eventually, you would have landed on their radar again, and they wouldn’t let you walk away a second time.
Every single one of you would have a target on your backs.
The only way to stop it from spiraling out of control was to end it. Cash knew it, and so did I.”
“So, you let him shoot you,” I scoffed. “You nearly died.”
“For my family, I would fucking die a thousand times to make sure they survive.”
So fucking noble, just like Rafe. I wasn’t sure if I was impressed or disgusted by it. Frankly, I was tired of the whole group of them. All of them, willing to sacrifice anything for a noble cause. It was fucking disgusting.
I used to be that way. How foolish I had been. And then I realized the odds were twisted, always stacked against me. I would never win, and the cost would always be too high.
“If you want to survive, if you want your families to live, you can’t just drop off their radar. They’ll never stop watching you. The moment you make one wrong move, you’ll be a target again.”
“That’s why Cash left,” Lock cut in. “To cut ties. He pissed us all off to fucking save us?”
As he looked around the room, the gravity of his words resonated with every man and woman at the table. They had been willing to help him before they knew the full picture, but now…
Now it was war.
I sighed heavily, shifting in my seat. All I wanted was for this to end, and if that meant going along with them and helping, I would do it. It was the only way to have some semblance of a normal life.
And I desperately needed that right now.
Jason stood suddenly, pushing his seat back. “You’re missing the bigger picture. If they’ve been following us for this long, then FNG and Thumper were most likely followed. They’ve led these guys right to Cash. You need to get ahold of them and warn them.”
“I already sent a fucking message,” Lock snapped. “They’re not answering.”
“Because they’re dead,” I surmised. “A fitting end.”
“Hey—” Jason spun on me, jabbing his finger in my direction.
“Enough,” Jack cut in, standing to get between us. “Let it go.”
I couldn’t find it in me to feel even a little remorse for my comments.
It wasn’t that I hoped Cash was dead. He was one of the good guys and he sure as hell didn’t deserve the mess Rafe dropped him into.
But I was trying to be realistic. If these guys were tracking Cash, FNG, and Thumper, and none of them were answering, that most likely meant they were already dead.
And it was fitting that so much hate and manipulation would end in such a horrible way, with Cash set up to take the fall for the murder of a president.
“I’ve had enough of your shit,” Jason snapped as Jack held him back. “This sucks for everyone, and a lot of that lands on you, but let’s not forget who got us into this mess in the first place. It was Rafe, not Izzy. She never fucking asked for any of this!”
I held in my temper and calmly explained my comments.
Anything else would only fuel the fire. “I didn’t say she did.
All I’m saying is that logically, if they’re not answering their phones, it’s most likely because these assholes have already caught up to them.
Would it really be that hard to conceive since they went after Johnny’s family? ”
That got him to shut up, and despite the anger still thrumming beneath the surface, he backed down and stopped glaring at me like I was the problem.
“Look, right now, I don’t care who started what. I just want this to be over. We can’t assume that Michael is on our side since he’s not even bothering to check in with us when his son has just been accused of murdering a president.”
“We’re not making any assumptions,” Lock cut in. “Until we have verification that something has happened, we work as if they’re still over there, trying to get Cash to safety. The goal is the same. We bring Cash home no matter what.”
“How are we supposed to do that when they’re watching our every move?” Slider asked.
“We make it so it’s impossible to track us. I don’t know how many of them there are, but if we all disperse and spread them thin, it’s less likely that they’ll be able to track our movements thoroughly.”
“That doesn’t solve the problem of how to get Cash out,” I pointed out. “If they’ve tracked your guys to him, then they already know where he is.”
Lock nodded. “He’ll have to figure his own way out of this. He’s smart. He must know by now that they’re watching. And now he has backup with FNG and Thumper.”
“And Fox,” Rae grinned.
“Fuck,” Lock rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you guys to keep an eye on him?”
“I did. I watched him walk out the door,” Rae said. “Well, it was more of a jaunty dance, but either way, there was no stopping him. He said something about the mouse telling him where to go and that he was off to the box social.”
I frowned, not understanding what that meant. But by the sighs and grumbles around the room, I was the only one. “Okay, for someone who doesn’t speak Fox, what does that mean?”
“It means he’s going after Jud.”