Chapter 28 Shep
SHEP
Location: Off the Fucking Grid
THANK GOD THEO trusted me enough to let me handle our move without asking any more questions. While he showered and packed, I made plans to get us the hell out of there.
We needed somewhere he wouldn’t be tempted to run wild when he got bored, which was inevitable, considering this could take days or even weeks.
There were Libertine safe houses all over the world, and while I’d been to all of them, I had a feeling the one we were heading to wasn’t on Theo’s radar.
I didn’t tell him where it was, and he didn’t ask, but the flight was long enough that I figured he had a good idea of the general vicinity once we landed.
As with any of our safe houses, we kept cars near the airport so we wouldn’t leave a paper trail from renting one, nor would anyone working for a private car service know our whereabouts.
It was as under the radar as we could get without removing our trackers, which only our brothers, specifically Alessio, had access to.
And considering we trusted them with our lives, I refused to entertain the idea that we’d been infiltrated in that way.
Whoever was coming after Theo was close, but not that close.
“You know I’m not one to complain,” he said from the passenger seat, side-eyeing me. “But Jesus Christ, are we there yet?”
I couldn’t blame him for asking. Every time I moved, a body part cracked from the long hours spent on the flight, and then we’d added several more on top of it driving out to the remote location.
I was ready for a hot shower and to pass out, but there were still things to do and someone to contact once we arrived.
“Actually, yes. Should be coming up on it soon.”
Theo stretched his legs out as far as he could in front of him, but I could feel the waves of impatience rolling off him.
Or maybe they were mine.
“I thought the next time I was in Brazil it would be for the S?o Paulo Grand Prix,” he mused. “Oh, or the Rio Carnival. Now that’s a good time.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think this trip will be quite as exciting as you’re used to.”
“I’m sure we can think of a few ways to spice things up.”
I saw him grin out of the corner of my eye, could hear the teasing in his tone, but I was too focused on looking out for the house to flirt back. We were deep in the jungle, no one and nothing around for miles.
As the house finally came into view, Theo let out a whistle. “Now this is better than the cabin I would’ve expected all the way out here. What’d you do, find the remotest place you could and stick a house here?”
“Yes.”
I shut off the engine and popped the trunk. As I stepped out onto the dirt driveway, I took a moment to stretch.
The house itself was an architectural masterpiece, designed by one of King’s good friends to accommodate the surrounding rainforest and the balmy climate.
From the inside it seemed as though it was an open-air style of living, with glass walls that welcomed nature inside.
From the outside, however, the walls were reflective, keeping it private and blending into its surroundings.
And that was before the concrete walls came down.
We dumped all our belongings near the entry, and then I gave Theo a quick tour. The walls and ceilings were smooth, elevated concrete, and it was mostly an open-concept space that allowed for uninterrupted viewing until you reached the metal staircase that led upstairs.
The pool on the roof captured Theo’s interest the most, and I hoped that was enough to keep him occupied over the long days ahead.
I wasn’t counting on it, though.
“I like it,” he said as he inspected one of the bedrooms with a keen eye. “I’m surprised I haven’t been here before. Have you?”
I’d been here more than a few times; I’d overseen the construction.
“You could say that,” I said before heading back into the main room. I could feel the weariness in my bones starting to take over, like all the adrenaline I’d been running on the past twenty-four hours had drained out of my body.
I just had a call to make first.
I pulled out my laptop and set it up on one of the main tables, then connected to the secure network before finally making the call.
The last thing I felt like doing right now was briefing King, but if past experience had told me anything, it was that the sooner I updated him, the happier we would all be.
Especially when there were explosions and bodies involved.
I glanced over at the fully stocked bar cart pushed up against one of the walls and was almost tempted to stop the call, make a drink, then come back and redial. But that would just piss King off, and I really wanted to get this over with, with as minimal conflict as possible.
“Shep, I was wondering when I was going to hear from you.”
No, Hello, how are you? Just straight to the point. That was Tyrone Kingston. But he’d always been that way when it came to Libertine business—even when we were a couple.
“The flight to Brazil is long. We just arrived.”
King would know by now exactly where we were.
The second news of the bombing hit, he would’ve had Alessio checking on our trackers.
But he was also smart enough to know I’d move Theo as soon as I was able.
Out of the public eye. Out of harm’s way.
That was why I was here, what he’d sent me for, and the fact he trusted me enough to do that without blowing up my phone spoke volumes.
“I trust everything there is in order?”
I glanced around the safe house, knowing that the floor-to-ceiling windows were replaced at the touch of a button by thick concrete walls that could keep out just about anything.
“Seems to be. I’ll be doing a full check of the systems once we’re done here. But so far, everything seems to be in working order.”
“Good. Now, fill me in. Leave nothing out.”
I gave King an in-depth rundown of everything that had happened back in Cardiff, from the game, to the explosion, to the aftermath when Theo and I had run down his wannabe assassin.
There was no way around telling him about Theo’s decision to remove that particular threat from the chessboard, since King would’ve gotten word that the cleanup crew had been called in.
But there was one piece of information I might have left out: the texts sent to Theo on the way to Cardiff.
I didn’t see any need to bring them up, not now, especially if King hadn’t received them.
It was clear the person behind these threats was trying to stoke conflict in our ranks, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Plus, it wasn’t like they meant anything. They were just Theo being Theo, trying to antagonize me.
“So what exactly were you doing when Theo was taking out our only potential link to whoever is doing this?”
I’d known this question was coming, but it rankled just the same. “I was standing right beside him.”
“And you just let him kill this guy?”
My jaw locked as I bit back my automatic smartass retort. But I couldn’t say I wouldn’t be asking the same thing if I were in his position.
“No. I made him stop and ask a few questions first.”
“Oh, well, that makes it all right, then,” King said, unamused.
“Look, he wasn’t talking. We didn’t have much time to decide what to do, and in the end—”
“Theo took matters into his own hands,” he grumbled. “Seems he’s been doing that a lot lately.”
“If you’re referring Istanbul, I thought we’d come to the decision that it wasn’t him.”
“We are ninety-nine point-nine percent sure, but until that last point-one is cleared up, nothing is off the table. Theo is a wild card, always has been. Don’t act like you don’t know it.”
“He might be wild, but he’s not reckless. I just don’t think he’d ever put us at risk that way.”
“I don’t either. Trust me, I don’t want to believe he’s capable of what these videos and messages are saying, but I also can’t take any chances. Not when it puts all of us at risk. I don’t like this any more than you, Shep.”
He’d like it even less if he’d seen the most recent messages to Theo, the images that showed me in a compromising position. Then King would have more than just Theo to worry about—he’d worry I was too close, or worse, thinking with my dick.
“Has Alessio turned up anything new?” I asked, wanting to change the subject ASAP.
“It’s looking more and more like it’s coming from in house.”
Fuck. We’d had our suspicions, but with Alessio now backing them up, it made this even more fucked up. Someone was trying to mess with our organization. Someone from the inside. Not a brother, but a member of the wider Libertines. That meant they knew our secrets. Could expose them…
“He’s closing in on them, but it’s clear they have knowledge the general public would not. They’ve known where you’re at and what you’re going to do next, so I think it’s smart for you to stay off grid.”
I agreed. I couldn’t remember the last time, if ever, we’d faced a threat like this from the outside, let alone the inside. But it was obvious someone had an issue not only with Theo but all of us, and we needed to keep shit as quiet as possible from here on out.
“So we’ll hunker down here until told otherwise?”
“That’s the plan. Only Alessio and myself know where you’re at, so keep all technology off and check in in a few days.”
“Will do.”
“Okay. Keep safe, and Shep?”
“Yeah?”
“Go get some sleep. You look like hell.”