Chapter 17 Shep
SHEP
WELL…SHIT. WHEN I’d heard the crash of dishes earlier, both East and I had bolted to the kitchen, ready to break apart a fight.
And now? King, Theo, and I had finally found some common ground after King’s apology. That was all Theo had wanted. Acknowledgment. To hear that King knew he’d fucked up and that he appreciated and trusted Theo the same way Theo had.
Wasn’t this a “Kumbaya” moment?
King took his phone from Theo, but instead of bringing it to his ear, he did something I’d never seen him do even during our time together—he answered the call on speaker, letting us in on the conversation.
“This better be good news,” he said.
The sound of Alessio breathing heavily like he’d just run a marathon was all I could hear until he said, “I got him. I got the motherfucker.”
My entire body froze.
“Did you hear me?” Alessio repeated. “I said—”
“You fuckin’ got him.” A smile curled Theo’s mouth as his eyes met mine.
“Is that Theo?”
“Damn right it is,” Theo said. “Shep’s here too.”
“Good. Saves me a call.”
“Yes, yes, we’re all here, now tell us what you found.” My words came out a little demanding, but fuck, he’d said he found the guy, so I was allowed to be impatient.
“He’s a Libertine, all right,” Alessio said. “Aristide ‘Ari’ Moreau, better known as Aris Danforth.”
“Wait a goddamn minute.” King scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head, like he was wondering if he’d heard right. “Ari Moreau? The French investor?”
“More like a high-level hacker from Chicago. His whole persona is bullshit.” Alessio still sounded out of breath, and it made me wonder if he’d chased the fucker across the city.
“Where are you now?” I asked.
“Where I always am. Why?”
So at Libertine in his cave of computers and tech gadgets. Good. “Just making sure you didn’t take matters into your own hands without backup. You sound a little…winded.”
“You’d be fuckin’ celebrating too if you finally caught the asshole who’d managed to slip by you for weeks.”
Theo grinned at me and mouthed, Was he dancing or fucking?
I snorted and shook my head, knowing there was no way it was the latter.
Alessio had been too focused on cracking this mystery to even consider enjoying himself.
He hadn’t even gone to confession nights, which we all knew were just an excuse to see Father Vitale—even if he refused to acknowledge the priest when we were there.
“You’re absolutely sure?” King asked.
“Positive. I’ve been tracking his online presence over the last two days to make sure he’s not communicating with anyone.”
“And?”
“Looks like he used to be a two-man show, but when you offed his brother, he went solo.”
King cursed. “Okay. So we need a plan. Obviously he’s aware that things went to shit in Brazil, otherwise he’d have Theo tied up in a storage unit—”
“Don’t fucking remind me,” I growled.
King grimaced. “So what would we do in that situation?”
“If things went to shit?” Theo said.
“Right?”
“We’d regroup. Come up with a new plan.”
“But we’d also be watching our backs,” I pointed out. “He’s going to be on high alert right now. Keeping a close eye on all of us to make sure we aren’t onto him. We need to be smart. We need to lure him out. Have him come to us.”
“And how the hell are we going to do that?” Alessio said, his chair creaking as though he’d just flopped back into it.
I started to pace the room, my mind running over a hundred different scenarios. We had access to pretty much every event in New York, whether it be charitable, entertainment based, or political.
If we could host some kind of event and invited all our members, that would naturally include Ari. There’d be nothing suspicious about that. No reason for him to suspect we were onto him. It would give us an opportunity to observe him, and give him a false sense of normality.
“What about a party?”
King’s and Theo’s heads turned in my direction, skeptical looks on their faces.
“A party,” Theo said. “No offense, Shep, but I was thinking more an ambush in a dark alley with a gun.”
“That’s too obvious,” Alessio added. “Although we should definitely revisit that idea when it’s go time.”
“Keep talking,” King said, narrowing his eyes on me.
“What you said is true—Ari’s going to be on high alert.
Paranoid. He’s going to be looking for any changes in our behavior, watching to see if we have any idea who he is.
But what he doesn’t know is that we found his storage unit.
He doesn’t know that Theo overheard his captor.
All he knows is that Theo escaped. So he’s going to be doing his very best to blend in. ”
“And what makes you think he’ll come?” King asked.
“So he appears cool and calm. Nothing going on over here.”
“Oooorr…” Theo drawled, looking between King and me, “you could use me as bait.”
Ice filled my veins and I adamantly shook my head. “Absolutely not.”
“No,” King said at the same time.
“Why not?” Theo replied, as though he hadn’t almost died less than a week ago.
“Because I said so,” I was quick to answer, before King had a chance to voice his own opinion.
“Excuse-moi? The last time I checked, I don’t need your permission.”
“Yes, you damn well do,” I said, marching back over to where Theo stood. He was out of his mind if he thought I was going to let him risk his life again with this motherfucker. “I’m your second-in-command.”
Theo angled his chin up, his face turning a deep shade of red as irritation washed over the stubborn ass.
“You might be my second-in-command, but he”—he turned to face King—“is my King. My leader. You don’t get the final say here.”
“The hell I don’t—”
“I’m going to go now,” Alessio said through the phone before the line went dead, and I turned my wrath on King.
“Don’t you even think about letting him do this.”
“Him?” Theo sputtered out, and then jabbed me in the chest. “Don’t you mean me? I’m standing right here, you know.”
It was pretty hard to forget when all I wanted to do was strangle him. How could Theo suggest something so asinine? To use himself as bait. To suggest putting himself directly in harm’s way?
Hell, at this point, I might just kill him.
“Cut it out,” King said in that no-nonsense way he had about him. “Don’t you see what’s happening here? We’re fighting all over again. Butting heads over this fucker. We need to be thinking like a team, agreeing on a strategy and plan. Not going off half cocked, pissed off at one another.”
Theo muttered something in French that I didn’t understand, but if I had to guess, it wasn’t anything nice.
“I’m all for a plan,” I said. “As long as it doesn’t involve Theo as the bait.”
“Putain,” Theo growled, and whirled around on me.
“Stop thinking about me like a fragile piece of glass that’s going to shatter.
This asshole took me, Shep. He fucking took me, threatened my life and tried to ruin my reputation.
If I have a chance to draw him out, to lure him into some kind of trap, you are not going to take that away from me. ”
I balled my fists at my sides, fuming at the idea of Theo willing to risk his life for a chance of revenge on this guy.
“Shep,” King said quietly, and he didn’t have to say anything else for me to know whose side he was on.
I shook my head. “No.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
As I paced the room with my hands clasped behind my neck, Theo and King stood side by side, finally on the same page again after so long.
While that should’ve had me feeling relieved, all I felt at that moment was panic.
They were both insane. There were better ways to go about this if they would just stop and think for a fucking minute.
“We have a chance here while he’s not on the defensive,” King said. “And don’t forget who was number two on his list.”
I didn’t need to remember; I never forgot.
It was me.
But that still didn’t mean I was ready to put Theo in danger.
“I don’t like this,” I said.
“I know.” Theo rounded the table and took my hand. He rubbed his thumb against mine, trying to soothe me when it was impossible.
“We’ll make sure he’s safe,” King said. “This guy doesn’t like to do anything too public—”
“You forgetting the car bomb at the soccer game?”
“No. He didn’t make his move at the game.”
Fuck me. This was a losing battle, and I wasn’t used to that. Didn’t like it a bit.
A growl rumbled out of my throat, and I shook my head. “Goddamn you both.”
“Aww, don’t be like that,” Theo said, smirking and kissing my shoulder before shooting a wink at King. “We were all just getting along so well.”