Chapter 30
Wex Boer leaned back in the passenger seat of the SUV, scratching idly at the healing scars on his jaw.
He and Nicole stared intently at the small screen that monitored Grifo’s secret hideaway.
Secret, hah. For a talented surgeon, the man really was staggeringly stupid sometimes.
He had been in his choice of a wife, and his two simpering daughters didn’t strike Wex as the sharpest knives in the drawer, either.
Not that he was complaining. It made his task easier. Boring as shit, but easier.
They heard the sound of doorbell ring on the audio. Nicole jerked her head around, startled out of her sullen reverie. “Is that him?”
It was good to hear a little energy in her voice.
Nicole had been sulking ever since that shitshow at the cabin near Kalaharee, and he was sick of it.
Almost tempted to just remove her from the playing board.
It made sense to reduce the number of people who got a piece of the final take.
Nicole had made it clear that she expected fifty percent of the haul when they got control of SmokeScreen and the billions started rolling in.
She thought it was her due, for presenting the idea, working out all the details.
But none of it could have happened without his muscle, his resources, his infrastructure, his inside position at Ready Line Security.
He’d served in the Rangers with Clearwater and Masters, and they had trusted him enough to work with him, even if they never did invite him into their fucking elite private club.
The Unredeemables. Affectatious assholes. Not that he’d wanted to be in their stupid-ass secret society. Dumbfucks. Thought they were better than him. Always had.
He was the real player, here, with the real power. Nicole was just a concubine who doubled as a secretary. At least, she had been before. Lately, from being a seductive-sex pot up for anything, she’d become a dead-eyed robot girl with a pallid, scabbed-up face and unsightly bruises. Boring.
Then again. She was smart, ruthless, and on a good day, beautiful. When she was in top form, she was an amazing asset. It was still too soon to eliminate her.
Wex concentrated on the screen. Grifo was rushing around inside the house, freaking out, like the powderpuff asshole he was. Grifo disappeared from the screen, and reappeared moments later, followed by Clearwater.
Nicole lifted her phone, upping the volume. “…know yet where Rachelle and the girls are staying,” Grifo said, his voice tight and thinner than usual. “Can you get the bodyguards in place tonight?”
“Tomorrow morning, early,” Clearwater said. “The team is flying to Portland now. I’ll brief them as soon as they arrive, and we’ll get things in order right away.”
“Hurry,” Grifo bleated. “Please. Just hurry up with that.”
“As soon as possible.” Clearwater assured him. “Do you have the info?”
“Right here.” Grifo pulled a small silver flash drive from his pants pocket. “Bank account info, photographs. Data from the lab where the DNA and blood samples are kept. Other stuff, too. Financials that only Mickey understood.”
Boer sucked in a breath. “That lying prick was going to fuck me up. Maybe I will take his wife and daughters. Just on principle. Have fun with them while he watches.”
“We don’t have time for you to punish everyone who bugs you, Wex.” Nicole sounded bored. “Shut up and let me listen.”
He disliked her tone, but she had a point.
They were on a tight schedule, and besides, punishing Rachelle Grifo would be tedious.
He’d much rather punish Freya Masters. He’d bet good money that uppity little cunt wouldn’t be tedious at all.
He’d get lots of fight out of her, lots of sass. She’d be all kinds of juicy fun.
Jed Clearwater’s response to Grifo was inaudible, but the flash drive went into the pocket of the man’s black jacket. They shook hands.
“It’s time,” he said.
“I know.” Nicole’s voice sounded faintly annoyed. She was already opening the app on her phone, and checked the settings. She activated the gas, which began silently blasting out of all vents in the room.
The bar display on the phone app showed the concentration of soporific gas in the room rising quickly. Grifo was the first to react. He staggered, catching himself on the back of one of the couches, even though Clearwater was actually closer to the nearest vent the gas was coming from. Predictable.
Ever since their Ranger days, the bastard had been boot-leather tough in any conditions. Heat, cold, dry, wet, noise, dark, nothing took him down. Fucking Unredeemable. Thought he was such a fucking hero, up on his high horse.
He’d die knowing he was nothing more than a worthless piece of shit.
Grifo was now sprawled on the floor, only his ass currently visible in the camera. Clearwater was visibly sagging too, but still looking around for the camera that he knew had to be there. He would never see it. The Grifos certainly never had.
“You always were a sneaky little prick,” Clearwater said, very clearly, as he thudded down to his knees, behind the couch, and then pitched over, out of sight.
He grabbed the two gas masks and handed one to Nicole. “Let’s go. Hurry.”
“What’s the big hurry?” Nicole said. “We have at least twenty minutes, and that’s a conservative estimate.”
“This is Jed Clearwater,” Boer said. “He’s like a fucking cyborg. Drive up as close to the front door of the house as you can get. He’s heavy. The less distance we have to drag him, the better.”
Nicole drove swiftly out of the concealing foliage and up onto the driveway. She pulled up behind Grifo’s SUV. They put on their gas masks, and pushed the door open.
Clearwater lay behind the couch, eyes still open, amazingly. Still conscious.
He stared up at Wex as he approached, blinking. His eyes watered. Wex aimed a hard kick to his ribs as Nicole wrenched his arms back and cuffed him.
“Hey, fuckface,” Wex said. “I’m going to get that Masters girl.
I’ll make her scream like a little bitch.
It’ll be very relaxing for me, after the stress you put me through.
Maybe I’ll even let you watch. Think you’d like that?
” He reached down into Clearwater’s pocket and pulled out the flash drive, waving it in front of the other man’s face.
“You’re going to tell me where you stashed her.
Don’t think you won’t. Everybody breaks eventually. ”
Clearwater was gasping for breath, but his lips drew back, his teeth showing in a thin, dangerous smile that said everything without words. Arrogant fuck.
Nicole was busy securing Clearwater’s feet, so he left her to it and strolled over to where Grifo lay sprawled, his face squashed into the parquet floor. Out cold.
Wex looked over and saw Clearwater staring at him. Trying to speak, but failing. Just conscious enough to look horrified. Small pleasures.
“You know something?” he said. “I would’ve let the stupid fuckwit live, if you hadn’t gotten yourself mixed up in it. So this one’s on you, Clearwater.” He raised his gun.
Bam. Grifo’s body twitched. A pool formed behind his head on the wood floor.
Wex watched it spread as Clearwater lost consciousness. At last, that arrogant bastard would learn who was boss. Not that it would do him much good now.
It was far too late for that.