Chapter Twelve #3
That was Kenzie’s belief, too. The Schengen Zone was a group of countries that agreed to forgo internal border checks so movement could happen freely among the countries. Passports weren’t necessary when moving around the zone, and no one would question young women traveling with their parents.
But if Gabby had been to Dallas, then that wasn’t the case.
Kala hissed suddenly.
Kenz didn’t have to turn around to know who had entered the room. “Hey, Lucy. How was France?”
“It was good.” She rolled her eyes as she walked past Kala, who was making the sign of the cross.
Her sister got distinctly more religious whenever Lucy was in the room.
“I think I’ve identified a couple of patterns.
I also think I found the house where Sosa and Gabby were kept.
It’s a big-ass compound in the countryside.
I couldn’t get close to it. It’s incredibly well guarded. ”
Kala sat up, all professional now. “Can we connect Huisman?”
“Not yet, but I will.” Lucy sounded determined. “Something’s going down. I think he’s getting desperate. This whole assassination thing proves it.”
But Kenzie wasn’t sure. Sometimes Huisman’s “desperate” was all an act.
She had to wait to see who was starring in this part of the play.
* * * *
Ben watched as Tim’s whole face lit up. He grabbed his laptop and started for the door.
“I’ll catch you later,” Tim said, following after the young woman who’d walked by the doorway.
Cooper looked up from his computer. “Was that Gabby? Uh, does he know what she does for a living?”
Lou sat at the desk across from Cooper. They’d taken over this part of the building. It had been explained that once a group of men had used this lower floor as their offices. Robert often came in and told them stories of the men he called the Lost Boys. “I think it’s sweet.”
Ben was on Cooper’s side in this small disagreement. “I think it’s dangerous. We still don’t know why they’re here. I know Sosa had a big reaction to seeing a picture of Manny, but that could be an act.”
“Which is why we’re watching them carefully,” Cooper assured him. “And apparently Tim is watching them even more carefully. I noticed him hanging out with them both a couple of nights this week. I thought they were being friendly. You know something we don’t?”
He knew Tim pretty much fell for every woman they met, but he was awkward around them. “I think it’s safe to say he’s making his move. I hope Gabby doesn’t kill him.”
“I still think it’s sweet,” Lou said before diving back into whatever she was working on.
Ben sat back, staring at the board they’d made weeks ago. Tracking Manny’s movements around the globe. Trying to pinpoint where he would strike next.
Or he could think about the scene he was going to perform with the most gorgeous girl in the world. That seemed like a much nicer way to spend the afternoon.
When had he become this guy? He was a workaholic. It wasn’t like he hadn’t dated while he worked, but he never let a woman take up space in his head when he wasn’t with her.
Kenzie had built a mansion there, and his brain was twenty-four seven Kenzie Taggart.
“Hey, babe. You want to ditch work and go see a movie?” Kala walked in and planted herself right on her husband’s lap. She glanced over Ben’s way. “Hello, Benjamin. I hope you are having a good day.”
Ah, the Peace Accords were still in place. Although Kala’s politeness often scared him. “I hope you are having a good day as well.”
Lou snorted and shut her laptop. “All this love is making me hungry.”
Cooper had an arm around his wife’s waist. “Well, that’s going to make TJ happy. What do you say we hit up that fish and chips place you love and take the crew out for the evening while the olds play. If we drink enough, we might not notice your dad railing your mom in public when we get back.”
Such a weird world he found himself in. But he wouldn’t go back. Not for anything.
“You know I’m thrilled my parents play at Sanctum and I never, ever enter that club,” Lou announced. “Is there a reason we haven’t gone to Ollie’s club? I think we made an excellent decision when we opened The Hideout.”
Kala’s lips curled up. “I’ve heard Damon wouldn’t front Ollie the money for his club and they don’t have a couple of handy billionaires around to cover the costs. So Ollie’s club is a pit of despair. Vivi’s words, not mine.”
A sharp huff came from the doorway. “I will be having a talk with Vivian. How dare she impugn my beautiful club?”
“It’s a dump,” Sami said, walking behind him. It looked like the whole gang was here. They’d been spread out, investigating the properties they’d found during the Nepal mission, but it looked like they were all at base for the next couple of nights. “But it’s our dump.”
Ollie wore a suit even though he’d been around the office all day. He frowned in that rich-boy male-model way of his. “Well, I didn’t have an inheritance to buy a whole building in Chelsea with. My parents decided to stay alive, and that apparently means I’m on my own.”
Sami snorted. “I’m telling them you said that.”
Ollie’s eyes went wide. “Don’t you dare. I was only joking, and Dad’s loaning me money for reconstruction of the second floor. How was I to know that tiny hole in the roof would lead to a deluge?”
“For fuck’s sake,” Lucy said as she strode in.
Though she didn’t look Kala’s way, she seemed to know instinctively where she was and held up her middle finger.
“You should know because I told you, and I also told you I could fix it. My father is big on fixing things himself. I started learning home improvement at a young age. I can also build furniture.”
“Yes, evil furniture,” Kala said.
“It’s not evil.” His whole fucking world walked in.
Kenzie was in jeans and a sweater that contrasted with that gorgeous hair.
She looked soft and sweet and so fuckable it made his cock ache.
He’d had her twice a day for almost three weeks, and he was fairly certain no amount of time or familiarity would make him want her less.
“You know the dining room table you’ve sat at for years that I told you I found at a garage sale? ”
Oh, he loved it when she got that evil glint in her eyes.
Kala sat up. “She did not build it.”
Lucy flashed her a grin that held all the arrogance in the world. “Shipped it to her for her birthday. Which is also yours and proof that the universe does indeed make mistakes.”
Kala sighed. “Damn it. That’s the solidest table. You can’t get that shit at a furniture store. It’s because of her deal with the devil. The table at our place sucks. It can’t even handle the weight of two people.”
Kenzie dropped herself right on his lap. Like she belonged there. Which she did. She looked at him seriously. “Is she being nice to you?”
“She wished me a good day like we’re back in the Gilded Age and met up in the park before going about our days amongst the common people,” he admitted.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Parker,” Kala said and wrinkled her nose.
“I almost called him sir. But like little s Sir. Not big s. I caught myself. That would have been gross. Also, just because Ollie’s club is a dump is no reason to stay away when we have to share.
The price of admission is catching sight of my dad’s ass.
Now I’m thinking about that table. I almost declared fight club over it. ”
Oh, they were not doing fight club. He started to say something but Kenzie stopped him, looking to Lucy.
Lucy sighed. “I had my dad do it. I thought about putting a curse on it that would make her lady bits itch for years, but my sister wouldn’t let me.
She said curses should be saved for the truly evil people of the world and then they put it to a vote on whether Kala was evil. I lost. Stupid democracy.”
“I commissioned a table from Lucy a couple of weeks ago since I saw what Cooper was planning to buy. Let me say it was not built for two tops to go at it on,” Kenzie offered.
“Dad totally knows how to make a bang table,” Lucy admitted. “Let me tell you, there are closets in my house no kid should wander into. You should be grateful you were raised in a place where your dad had a club and could keep all the weird stuff in a locker or something.”
Lou stood, glancing down at her phone. “TJ’s in the lobby. I told him we might be going out for dinner and he’s ready. I mean, he’s always ready. And we can see the new rom com.”
Lucy and Kala both groaned at the same time.
And then looked embarrassed by it. From what he could tell, they either didn’t realize they were kind of the same person or they did and it bugged them. Either way, it was infinitely amusing.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “I love rom coms. Thanks for the suggestion, Lou.”
Kala practically growled. “You don’t love them more than I do. I love them all.”
Kenzie leaned in. “We totally planned this earlier today. Lucy and Kala would have wanted to go see either some overly analytical treatise on the working class or an action film where some dude avenges his dog. This was my and Lou’s compromise. Tash said it wouldn’t work.”
Ah, but his Kenz could perform miracles when she wanted to.
“Awesome.” A rom com would put his baby in a good mood, and he was surprised at how much of his thought process was starting to be taken over with making Kenzie smile.
“Let’s do this. Should we invite Tim? If we invite him, we probably end up taking the assassin twins with us. ”
Only the slightest tightening of her jaw gave away the fact that she was disturbed by that bit of news. “They’re getting along?”
Kala stood. “Then we should absolutely invite them.”
Lucy nodded. “I’ll go get them. Meet you upstairs in five.”
Kala agreed without complaining, making the sign of the cross, or initiating an exorcism.
Something was wrong.
But then Kenzie kissed him and he didn’t care.
Life was as perfect as it could be.
Week Three
“I should be there. If we have absolute certainty that Huisman is on the ground in Taipei, Tim and I should be there,” Ben argued.
Her dad sighed. “I’ve told you why. He knows you.
He doesn’t know the MI6 team. I made the call to send them in because Joseph feels better working with MI6 than sending in another CIA team.
They’re watching him. Honestly, Huisman isn’t the one we should be looking for. We need to find the bombmakers.”
Over the last few weeks a pattern had emerged. Kenzie had been monitoring a bunch of syndicates and other criminal organizations who would link to freelancers. She and Lucy had IDed four bombmakers.
Three of them were now dead, their bodies dumped in countries they did not reside in.
“We need to be looking for a man named Alen Grul. He’s a former biochemistry engineering professor from Bucharest. His work was specifically in how bombs are made.
” She couldn’t tell that he had any criminal ties like the other three, but he had done some work for Disrupt on the dangers of using explosives to the environment.
“As far as I can tell, he went missing two days ago.”
“Then he’s likely in Taipei, and we should be there on the ground,” Ben argued.
“I seriously doubt he’s building the bombs in Taiwan,” Damon added. “We’ve got a shipment of something necessary to build bombs arriving at the Scottish compound in two days. Lucy is going up to watch it. From what we’ve discovered, he’s got everything he needs to build the bombs there.”
“Everything except the right person to do it,” Lucy agreed.
“Zach’s taking his mom camping for a few weeks.
Devi’s with them. There are a couple of off-the-grid places in that part of Colorado.
They can hide for weeks. Keeping Shannon Reed out of Huisman’s hands is our most important duty right now. ”
“Henry’s staying in Bliss for a few months,” her father explained. “He’s watching over my sons, and he’ll be there if Zach and Devi need anything. Theo and Erin are hanging out, too.”
“So we’re stuck here?” Ben’s whole body was tight.
She reached under the table and put a hand on his thigh.
Ben took a long breath. “I’m sorry. I’m getting anxious. He’s been too quiet. I don’t like it. My every instinct tells me he’s planning something and we’re walking right into the trap.”
She was feeling that way, too, but putting Ben directly in the line of fire wasn’t going to help. “Which is why we keep a low profile. I worry that one way or another, he’s going to try to drag you into this. He’ll want you to witness his final act.”
“It’s not his final act,” her father disagreed, “but I do think he’ll want Ben to participate. I know he still wants his hands on Kala again. So we stay safe. Well, as safe as we can be with a trio of kid assassins who might or might not be playing us.”
“They’re all capable of it.” Ariel sat at the opposite end of the table, her eyes moving back to Ben as though she needed to study him.
“Claire is worse than Sosa, a bit better than Gabby. I’ve had the doctor prescribe her sleep medication since from what I can tell she doesn’t get more than an hour or two here and there.
I think she was more physically abused than the other two. ”
Claire had joined them after being sprung from Dallas County Jail. She was quieter than the other two, though she’d seemed deeply happy to see them again.
She wasn’t enjoying therapy, though, and she’d heard them all discussing Gabby’s growing “relationship” with Tim.
It was a bad idea, but she also knew what forbidden fruit could do.
Ben assured her Tim was solid and it was nothing more than a crush.
She hoped he was right.
“For now we’re keeping them close,” Damon announced and closed the folder in his hand. “All right, you have your assignments for the week. We’ll be back here in the morning. Be safe out there.”
“Out where?” Ben complained since they were staying close to the club this week.
She turned her hand over, offering it to him. He was getting anxious.
Still, he took it and seemed to calm.
The last few weeks had been sheer perfection. They could do this. Even if they had to be long distance for a while. They could work together. Be together.
She was in love with him.
And she would show him tonight.