8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Carys
L ucas is on my hip as I make myself a cup of coffee and wait for Jay to get back from his meeting with the police. They claimed to have developments in the bombing of the hotel and casino. My grip on the cup isn’t as secure as I’d like it because of the cast, so I don’t fill the cup too full. I’ve had a few mishaps with trying to do too much when I’m not at full strength.
“Jay back yet?” Sofia asks as she breezes into the kitchen. She pours herself coffee in a to-go mug and leans against the counter.
“Not yet, no. They’ve had two weeks to investigate. They must have an idea of what happened.”
She grimaces and sips her hot drink. “Maybe that’s the problem. What to do with what they know…”
“You don’t think it was a gas leak.” I hitch Lucas up higher on my hip, and he tugs on a strand of my hair.
“Jay doesn’t like me in his business.” Her lips twist. “With a building that open, and no obvious ignition source close, it probably wasn’t the gas that sent you flying.” She winks. “Might have been a little bit of pillow talk the last few nights while he tried to piece everything together.”
Pillow talk. A spike of longing shoots through me, and I cross the floor into the living room to place Lucas on the play mat. I stare into my coffee while he kicks and rattles bar above him. Memories of Finn whisper and threaten to pull me under.
“I’m not supposed to understand what you’re doing,” Sofia says from the kitchen. “But I’ve got faith you’ll get him back.”
I glance over my shoulder. “If it doesn’t work, though…”
“Then you’ll find another way. One thing I love about my husband is his tenacity. He won’t give up, and neither will you.”
Before the explosion, before I saw Finn in Michigan, I was high on hope. Evander didn’t miss a step in our meeting. Even still, the last few days, my stomach has churned with worry. What if the escape isn’t successful? What if he’s injured or killed? What if he’s caught and sent to the supermax prison? What if, for a reason we can’t see, the plan never gets off the ground? As Evander warned us, there are so many moving pieces, it only takes one to slip and we could be free-falling.
The door opens, and Jay comes in carrying an envelope. He kisses Sofia on the cheek and makes himself a cup of coffee. He’s processing—stalling—before he acknowledges me. The last lingering hope that the explosion is pegged as a gas leak vanishes. If the explanation is easy, there’s no need for him to avoid me.
“I have to pick up the kids from school.” Sophia grabs her purse. “Lena is grocery shopping. I’ll take them to the park so we’re out of your hair for a bit.”
“Thanks.” Jay gives her a peck on the lips before she slips out the door.
“It’s not good, is it?” My morning brew is cooling, but I can’t bring myself to drink it. It’s too bitter.
With a sigh, he comes over and tosses the information on the coffee table. “No idea what it means, and that’s the part that worries me.”
I take the manila envelope off the table, and I slide my finger along the seal when there’s a knock at the front entrance. Dominic, whose injuries have mostly healed, pops his head in. “Mr. Williams has arrived. He’ll be in shortly.”
When the door closes, I give Jay a questioning glance. “I thought—”
“He had to rearrange his schedule because of another crisis. Sorry—we changed the time while I was with the police. There’s only so much texting you can do when you’re supposed to be listening.”
A security guard, who was stationed near the rear entrance, comes to the front door, hand on his gun. “Williams is known to you?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Jay says. “A schedule change. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to loop you in.”
The extra safety measures have taken getting used to. For a long time, Jay was my main source of protection. Then in deference to Finn, and because we didn’t understand the reason for the confetti bomb, we brought on Dominic and his crew. But now we have three other firms in rotation, and it’s easy to forget to tell someone something.
When the guard heads back to his post at the rear of the house, Jay sighs. “If I was looking after my ass, I’d be annoying myself. I’m always forgetting to tell people shit lately.”
“Do you want me to hire somebody else? Remove tasks from your plate?” I’ve never had money coming out of my account faster than it’s going in, and a brief flare of uncertainty shoots through me. If he needs more help, I can’t deny him. Everything hinges on his ability to juggle multiple jobs, and maybe that’s not fair.
“Nah.” Jay shakes his head. “You’re bleeding cash. I need a better organizational system till Finn’s out, and then he can take over some of this, right?”
The door behind us opens. “Two days.” Evander enters the house. “We’re making our move in two days.”
I toss the manila envelope onto the coffee table and rise to greet Evander. Whatever bad news is in there will have to wait. “Two days?” Excitement laces my voice, and I am excited, but that familiar unease lurks under the surface. Like anything good—the wait is forever and then everything happens at once.
“I got word the last guard I needed in place is changing shifts tomorrow. So, we should be good to go for the day after that.” His cylinder of files is clutched in his hand, and he taps them onto the table.
Jay rubs his hands together. “You’re going to take us through your steps now that the plan is set?”
“I am.” Evander settles into the couch beside me. He spreads out the sheets and flattens them down. Plans A through D are clearly labeled and color coded. We’ve picked up an extra plan. If C was risky and dangerous, I’m not sure he needs to explain D.
While he clarifies the various scenarios, I listen, but it’s hard to focus when I have no ability to influence the outcome. Do I want to understand what’s happening and whether things go smoothly? Yes. Unlike the last time, each explanation doesn’t calm me but instead causes my uncertainty to swell.
Jay meets my gaze across the coffee table and gives me an encouraging look. “Nothing obvious you haven’t thought of.”
Evander chuckles. “I’ve had a whole tactical team on this. If there was an obvious flaw at this stage, somebody would be getting fired.” He looks between me and Jay. “There’s one loose end I haven’t been able to tie up. Might be nothing, but I have to ask in case either of you knows the story.”
“Okay.” I take a sip of my drink and wince at the taste. Finn would love this brand of battery acid coffee, but it’s not my favorite.
“My sources tell me he’s gone to see the warden a few times. Could be nothing, but I was hoping to get a definitive answer. I couldn’t get anyone there to talk, which is always a concern.”
Jay and I hold each other’s gaze for a moment, and I frown. “He tends to get in trouble a lot. Could it be related to a fight or altercation?”
“Could be. I have a source who says Finn was attacked in the showers within the first few days of being there.” Evander rubs his face. “Does the name Hagen Volkov ring any bells?”
“Like a choir,” Jay admits.
“Would he owe him or be owed anything? I didn’t get a lot of information from my contact, but I understand the Volkovs have branches inside this particular prison.”
I purse my lips. Finn called Hagen for help when he was trying to track me to Ireland and didn’t have enough money or resources to get himself there. “Yes,” I acknowledge. “He owes him.”
“Experience tells me he’s having pressure applied to him in there to do something , but we don’t have a clue what or when. If he is sent to isolation, and our plan is already in motion, we’re sunk.” Evander gathers his color-coded sheets. “I wanted to flag the issue before go-time. If you’ve got any way to get a note to him, I’d do that. If not, we’ll take our chances. He’s kept his nose clean so far. Much cleaner than at maximum. I don’t like surprises, and this situation could become volatile.”
Jay takes a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can communicate with him in time. I don’t want to tip off anyone to what’s about to go down.”
Evander closes the lid on his cylinder and eyes the two of us. “I can get a message to him, but I don’t want him acting out of character either. There’s a delicate balance here.”
I shake my head. “Let’s leave it. He’s been steady so far apart from the one incident, right? So, status quo for two more days is risky, but probably no riskier than trying to communicate through someone who could give us away. Right?” I look to both of them for confirmation. Is this the safest decision? Even if Finn knows we’re coming, there’s no guarantee he’ll behave himself. He’s not going to ignore a threat.
“You understand him best,” Evander agrees. “I’ll be here in two-and-a-half days with Finn.”
Lucas fusses on the mat, and I set my coffee on the table to pick him up. I follow Evander to the door, my son tucked against my shoulder. “You feel good about this, right?”
He takes a deep breath and gives me a wry smile. “If this didn’t feel like the best time, we wouldn’t be moving ahead. The window is here, Carys. If we’re doing this, we take it now.”
His brown eyes are full of sincerity and a touch of impatience. The ball of anxiety bouncing in my stomach slows. “Yeah, okay.” I nod. “I want him out.”
He rubs my free shoulder. “Two-and-a-half days. Don’t dwell on the plan. Dwell on what you’re doing once he’s here.”
“You’ll be the one with him?”
“Yes. I hook up with the crew as soon as they’re off US soil. I’ll bring him here.”
We’ve gone over this, but I need this last-minute reassurance. Lucas wiggles in my arms, drawing my attention from Evander.
Jay comes up behind me and shakes his hand. “Looking forward to seeing you and Finn in a few days. Thanks for your work on this.”
A hint of a smile tugs at Evander’s lips. “I’ll see you then.”
Once he’s gone, Lucas squirms and lets out a dissatisfied cry. I need to feed him and get him down for a nap, but I also have to go through the manila envelope from the police with Jay.
Just then, Lena comes in, struggling with grocery bags. Without missing a beat, Jay takes the bags from her and carries them to the kitchen. “I’ll put these away,” he says.
She scans me and Jay. “You’re stressed.”
“He needs fed and a nap, but I also need to talk to Jay.”
“I’ll take him.” Lena heads to the fridge. “He can drink his bottle, and I’ll rock him in your room.”
“You’re a star.” Relief washes over me.
Once I’ve handed him off, I grab the envelope from the table and bring it to the island while Jay puts away the groceries. Sliding the pages out, I scan the police notes and report.
“A bomb?” I frown and run my fingers over the conclusion. I squint at the partial serial number they pulled off the remnants of the device. “A remote trigger? Someone was watching us and set it off?”
“Yeah. The placement of the bomb and the timing of the trigger suggest the explosion was meant to scare rather than kill. The gas leak exacerbated the situation. Police said if there’d been windows or more of a structure, the blast probably would have killed us even though it wasn’t meant to do much damage.” He glances at the door. “Didn’t want to say that part in front of Sofia.”
“Or Lena.” Although Lena’s affair with my father was a difficult pill to swallow, she treats me more like a daughter than my actual mother. Over the years, we’ve grown very close. When Finn and I made the decision to quit the arms business and move to Cape Verde, we thought we left our perils behind. Apparently, danger intends to follow us.
“Is that serial number familiar?” Jay opens a top cupboard to put away canned goods.
I scan the number again, and recognition dawns. “Oh my God. That’s one of ours. From the warehouse in Russia.” When the theft happened, I went over the missing products constantly trying to trace any piece and recover something.
“Yep.” He stuffs the reusable bags under the sink.
“What does that mean?”
He grimaces and spreads his hands along the island across from me. “Someone was here in Cape Verde with at least one product from the warehouse. They intended for the bomb to scare us but not kill us.” He takes a deep breath. “It means you’ve got a target on your back, Carys. Leaving your father’s company hasn’t removed it. And the person doing this? They’re escalating.”