Chapter Sixteen #2
Kenzie started out the door, but she could already hear Tris calling for them. “We’re in the basement.”
It wasn’t long before Tris was walking in.
He’d easily gotten through the security system, and Kala was right.
He hadn’t come alone. He’d brought his partners with him.
Carys and Aidan strode in behind him. The doctors.
Aidan specialized in trauma and Carys in obstetrics, but they could handle this.
“I got here as fast as I could,” Tris announced, not seeming to notice the dude hunched over the trash can or the half-dead assassin slumped in the chair usually used by Cooper. “Gabby is a plant. I have proof.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” Kala gestured around the room. “She’s locked in for now, but she’s already poisoned these two.”
Aidan was on one knee, a hand on Tim’s back while Carys had noticed Sosa.
“This is a pharmacological effect,” Carys said, examining Sosa’s eyes. “She’s almost surely been poisoned. We need to get her to the hospital. She says she knows the formulary.”
“This one, too, and he’s in worse shape.” Aidan frowned up at his partner. “I told you to text them but no, you had to have your cinematic moment.”
“I called Uncle Ian this morning and he said everything was fine.” Tris ran a hand through his hair, pink staining his cheeks.
“I told him I had some intel I was bringing him. He didn’t demand it or anything.
Damn it. I’m sorry. I wanted to verify my findings with Lou before I did anything. Where is she?”
“With Huisman.” Kala said every word cold. “Ben took her straight to him, and he’s using something to block her tracker. Everyone’s gone. They knew exactly when to strike. I’ve got word to Lucy and Sami. They’re going to watch the chateau, but it seems so obvious.”
“Obvious might be the whole point. He won’t keep Lou there, but I think he might keep Ben somewhere different hoping we’ll focus on the chateau.
He has to know we’re looking into it. Chaos.
He wants chaos. It’s why he sent me a video right before he took Lou.
” Kenzie started to explain as Carys was helping Sosa stand.
“She is right. This was his plan. I was not in on most of this,” Sosa managed, standing with Carys’s aid. “Gabby was the lead, and that mean the rest of us follow. What was on video?”
“A video of Ben fucking the hell out of his supposedly dead fiancée and saying some shitty things about me,” she admitted.
It was a porn-worthy performance, and that alone made her question the authenticity. She knew how Ben made…had sex.
Or maybe you know how he performs when he’s working a job, when the act itself is slightly distasteful because the woman he really loves is waiting for him.
She was not listening to that annoying voice. There was something wrong with that video. She just couldn’t put her finger on it.
“I’ll kill him and I’ll make sure that bitch doesn’t come back from the dead again,” Kala announced. Her twin would fasten straight onto rage because it was far easier than the anxiety she had to be feeling about Lou in Huisman’s clutches.
The video had been graphic. It was Ben balls deep in his ex-fiancée before some nasty pillow talk about how stupid Kenzie was and how Deanna was his only love.
He told her he loved her. He’d laid with his head on her breasts and said he loved her and always would, promised as soon as he’d taken down the dumb bitch—she assumed he was speaking of her—and her family, they could be together when Kenzie was dead and Manny’s revenge was complete.
How many times had Manny watched it? Had he gotten off? Or was he jealous?
Yep, she was going to have to shut that voice down.
“TJ and Coop are here.” Kala started for the door.
“We’re ready to go. Hail a cab for us,” Aidan said, wrapping an arm around Tim and helping him up.
Kala nodded and ran out the door.
“I’ll come,” Tris offered.
Aidan shook his head. “Nope. You stay and figure out how to track Lou down. Cooper can go with us if we need a guard. He can escort us, and then you can send someone else.”
“I’ll call Robert and Ari,” Kenzie promised with a massive sigh of relief.
In moments she was alone with Tristan. She quickly brought him up to date on everything, including the video she’d received.
“I downloaded it on my laptop,” she explained as Tristan sat down at the desk she’d been using. The one closest to Ben, where he could look up and wink at her or gesture for her to join him, and then he would kiss her senseless.
Tris’s eyes were on the screen as he started the video. “Why not leave it on your phone?”
“Because I switched it with Kala’s a few minutes ago.
” When she’d hugged her sister, she’d slipped her cell in Kala’s pocket and taken hers.
They were on work cells for the time being, so they looked exactly the same.
Same screen. Same passwords. Two different numbers, but they were programmed so they would look the same.
It would take Kala time to figure out it wasn’t hers.
Hopefully long enough for what Kenzie was absolutely certain was coming.
It wasn’t merely Lou Huisman wanted. He wanted her sister, and she wasn’t about to allow it.
Tris hit a button and the video paused. “Shit, Kenz. You watched this? Who is the woman? The time stamp is a couple of weeks ago. Right after the Nepal mission. Do we know where Ben went?”
“Supposedly back to Toronto.” She was pleased with how even her voice was.
She stared at that still shot. It showed Ben’s back as he worked over Deanna’s body, her legs wound around his waist. “Can you tell if it’s a fake?
I don’t know what was on the picture Ben was upset about, but I know he wanted to see if it was AI. ”
“AI is so good now,” Tris said, his hands on the keys.
He pulled out his phone and connected the two systems. “I have some protocols that can tell quickly if it’s AI.
” His eyes closed as he looked down at the screen.
“Uhm, Kenz, I’m sorry. According to my software, it’s likely not AI. It’s not showing any markers.”
Something eased in her chest as she realized what was missing.
“You’re sure the time stamp is after Nepal?”
Tris nodded. “About a week.”
So where the hell had the wound gone? His back was perfectly smooth.
“He took a little fire on his way out of the complex. There was a lot of confusion, and some of the mercenaries were firing at anything that moved. Ben took a bullet to his left shoulder, right above the scapula.” She pointed to where it should be onscreen.
“It’s healed now, but there’s a visible scar. ”
Tris stared like he was trying to figure something out. “Maybe it’s from earlier.”
“It’s a fake.” She was certain now, and more certain than ever that she was going to need to find a way out of here.
“He’s got more advanced AI than we can imagine.
Ben is an idiot who doesn’t love me, but he wouldn’t betray me like this, and he wouldn’t work for Huisman, which is what Huisman wants me to think. This is a play. It’s his go-to.”
“Chaos.”
Kenzie nodded. “He wants us chasing so many leads, dealing with so many problems, that we won’t notice when my sister slips away and goes wherever he’s going to tell her to go or he’ll hurt Lou.”
Tris paled. “What? Shit, that makes sense given what we know about him. You think Ben is a distraction.”
Kenzie sighed and let her brain go through all the scenarios.
All the ones that made sense. This was all a plot and Ben fell for it because deep down he wanted to play this game with Huisman.
He needed to win, so he was open to manipulation.
Kenzie wanted Huisman dead, but she didn’t care who did it.
She would happily go into hiding if that made things easier on whoever could take the fucker down.
“I think he wants to humiliate Ben and wants him so wrapped up in trying to convince me this was all a lie that he doesn’t notice Kala slipping off to meet Huisman.
If I’m right, this phone will get a text with explicit instructions on how to get Lou back. ”
“But only if she trades herself,” Tris surmised and sat back. “Kenz, he’ll kill you.”
Like she hadn’t thought that one through.
“He’ll think he’s already damaged me. I think he’ll go easier.
He won’t want to kill me right away. He wants to break Lou.
He’ll take me to the place where he has Lou since I’ll be used to get Lou to do what he wants.
Pain won’t break her, and honestly, he needs her sharp to do what he wants.
So what’s the quickest way to get her to comply? ”
“Hurt someone she loves,” Tris agreed. “Why wouldn’t he go for… I was going to say TJ, but he’s being practical. He has to know he’s got one shot at this, and he wants Kala.”
“TJ would go to my dad. Kala wouldn’t. She wouldn’t even tell me or Cooper. If she thinks she’s the only way to save Lou, she’ll do it no matter the cost.” She knew how her twin would feel.
And that was precisely why she intended to take her place, and she couldn’t think of a better partner than Tris. He wasn’t afraid of Kala, and he would see the logic.
“You’re going to do it.” Tris stood. “You’re going to walk into the lion’s den for your sister’s best friend.”
It was more than that. “I’m doing it for all of us. Lou’s my friend, too.” She looked to the CCTV monitors, and Kala was wrapped around her husband. She’d held it in until Coop showed up, and now she sobbed while he held her. TJ looked lost. He was on his cell. Likely calling his parents.
She couldn’t let this end in tragedy. They had their whole lives ahead of them. They were happy. That fucker didn’t get to take it from them.
Not while she was on duty.
“Kenz, you can’t walk in. He’ll do the same thing to your tracker that he did to Lou’s.”