31. Oliver
31
“Hey, Tessa,” Mya said softly as Gray’s wife came on-screen right in the thick of our holy-shit revelation. She had their daughter in her arms and their dog, Lucky, was glued to her side. Carter’s dog wasn’t on screen, so I had to assume Dallas was with Carter’s wife in Dubai.
“Not to eavesdrop,” Tessa began, “but it sounds like you all have just moved a few mountains in that conversation.”
“I think so.” Mya nodded, her attention shooting to Tessa’s baby. Pink cheeks. Green eyes. Already a thick head of dirty-blonde hair. “How’s Penelope?”
“She keeps me up all night.” Tessa handed her daughter over to Gray while yawning. “Can you tell?”
As if on cue, and forgetting all thoughts about the evil group trying to ruin our lives, Jack set a hand on his wife’s belly and rubbed it like a genie lamp. “Penny’s best friend will be here soon, and we’ll have those late nights, too.”
“There better be no friends-falling-in-love thing happening between our kids one day,” Gray said while rocking his daughter in his arms. It was an odd juxtaposition. I was used to seeing him hold an M4, not a baby.
“Would it be that horrible if your daughter falls in love with your best friend’s son?” Charlotte teased, and based on Gray’s hard nod, that was a yes.
“Anyway,” Gray commented, shutting down the tea party and letting everyone know to switch gears back to the mission.
“Fuck,” I said under my breath, then apologized for cursing, even though a baby wouldn’t understand me. “I never said congratulations. But yeah, congrats. She’s beautiful.”
Tessa smiled. “Thank you, Oliver. We appreciate that. I can’t wait for you to meet her in person.”
“Just got a text from Easton,” Carter said the moment she was done talking. “The guy doesn’t know who hired his team, but they were ordered to kill Oliver and to take Mya alive. They’d be given a location to drop her off only when they had proof she was with them and that Oliver was dead. That’s all he could get from him.”
“So, I was right, but that’s also confusing. Why keep me alive? We established that whether my parents are tied to this or not, The Collective would’ve executed orders to have me killed.”
Now Mya was being hunted all over again, and I had to do everything in my power to never let these fuckers take her captive.
Gray handed Penelope back to Tessa. “Well, now that we have our assumptions about the Sorens’ role in all of this, where or how would your parents fit in?”
“Maybe they’re not part of The Collective,” Mya said softly. “Well, not part of that round table. Or wheel. Whichever analogy we want to go with. But maybe they’re part of the hub like the Sorens.”
She tossed out a few more ideas, continuing to sound detached from the fact she was suggesting her parents were criminals connected to what happened to us in Thailand.
“My parents have connections to a lot of people. And Dad’s a judge for the Court of Appeals in New York. A position like that might be valuable to the Sorens.”
“You’d think we would’ve found a connection between them when digging into the Sorens’ background before your undercover assignment, and we never did,” Gwen pointed out.
“Because the Sorens are careful not to let any connections be found.” Just like the rest of The Collective. “But I still don’t understand why the Sorens would want Mya kept alive today, but they didn’t have a problem killing her on that plane in Singapore.”
“Your parents didn’t have a heads-up in Thailand about what was going on,” Sydney added on, “because they didn’t know you were undercover for FYVM and hunting The Collective. But they know the truth now, and that changes things.”
“We keep beating around the bush with these people. What if we just face them head-on?” Mya proposed, talking with her hands. “Hell, why not confront the Sorens in Zurich and tell them we know who they are?”
The blood rushed from my face at her use of “we” in the last part of her statement. “You’re not proposing you go to The Sapphire, are you?” I faced her instead of the screens.
Arms folded, I knew what was coming. Bold, but stubborn determination.
“We can’t hide out here forever. Also, I think it’s time we change strategies and do something we haven’t tried before. No more going undercover. No more long game.”
Forget Hugo taking me out for good, Mya was going to kill me from a heart attack.
“Now that we have more of the puzzle solved, we should make our next move before the Sorens can.”
“So, not only do we buy the hotel, we tell the Sorens we know who they really are,” Sydney said, not clarifying, but from the sounds of it, agreeing.
“Have you confirmed if the Sorens are in Switzerland? Did they take the bait?” Did I want them to say yes or no? At this point, I was torn. Yes, I wanted this to all end so Mya could have her life back, but she needed to survive for that plan to work.
“Not yet,” Sydney answered. “The hotel is old school about their guest log. Everything is done with pen and paper. You know, like the Sorens are probably doing with their pigeon messages.” She shook her head. “Also, they’ve beefed up their security measures since last time we were here. I can’t hack their surveillance cameras the way Gwen was able to.”
“I can do that when I get there,” Gwen offered without missing a beat, and I caught the concerned groan from her dad at the idea she’d be diving into the op headfirst.
Carter nodded, ignoring the death-stare glare Wyatt was giving him. “We learned a few hours ago the owner, Nicholas Barbier, is holding an event for the top contenders looking to buy the property.”
“Like an open house?” Jack smirked.
“Basically, but in evening wear and at night. And they know damn well what they’re doing by placing top-tier buyers together like that,” Sydney explained.
“A bidding war between bad guys, huh?” Jack piped up. “Guess it’s good they don’t allow weapons on the property, or we’d be dealing with pistols at dawn to fight over who wins.”
He wasn’t totally wrong, but were we really considering this plan?
“Nicholas knows I’m interested and highly motivated to buy, so he’s given me a private wing on the seventh floor for myself and my guests.” Carter and his endless supply of money kept saving our asses. “Will you all be joining us?”
Gray quietly looked to Tessa for permission, then Jack to Charlotte.
Gwen ignored her father and said, “Well, you know I’m coming.”
Wyatt grumbled something, a phone already to his ear before disappearing from screen.
“We’re in,” Gray and Jack both agreed.
“And you two?” Carter tipped his head, waiting for an answer from me. He already knew Mya would bulldoze her way there regardless of what I wanted her to do.
“What choice do I have?” I avoided eye contact with Mya, too pissed she was risking her neck for what felt like the millionth time. But I couldn’t pass up a chance of confronting Hugo myself. I had to add his brother to my hit list as well, given the pigeons and shipping crate, and the possibility he was somehow part of our capture orders in Thailand. As far as I was concerned, anyone involved that day needed to die.
“So, it’s settled. We talk to them there,” Mya stated, and I rubbed my chest, now knowing why Wyatt always looked like he had heartburn when it came to Gwen’s decisions. Mya was doing the same thing to me. “It’ll be safe there despite the fact we’re in a hotel for bad guys.”
“We don’t have to run the risk of RPGs or a sniper on overwatch while at this meeting,” Jesse said, almost too casually, and my shoulders fell as their plan came together.
“Unless you count cutlery as weapons,” Jack joked.
Carter would never live down the “forking” incident. At this point, I was surprised Jack hadn’t made memes from that night.
“But what do we do after the confrontation? We can’t attack them at the hotel or force an interrogation,” Jesse reminded us as he stood.
Griffin took to his feet too, because yeah, this wasn’t a sit-down moment for any of us.
“Exactly,” I growled out. “The hotel has protocols in place to prevent their guests from being attacked both to and from the hotel, which also keeps Falcon safe. But we probably won’t be able to track them when they leave. So like Jesse said, we face them at the party, then what happens?”
I couldn’t believe it, but I was looking at Mason for backup. I sent him a silent, Will you please reason with her? message I hoped he could read in my eyes.
“If she won’t listen to you, she won’t listen to me,” Mason said under his breath, accurately reading me but not helping.
Mya discreetly elbowed me in the side for that attempt as Carter said, “If the Sorens are really the central messaging system for The Collective, they’ll definitely want to control a place like The Sapphire and garner access to their existing clientele. So, if I steal it out from under them, they’ll do anything to get it back from me.”
“And we’ll draw them out to a place that isn’t as secure, where we can have snipers and R-P-Fucking-Gs.” Jack winced and apologized to Charlotte’s belly for his curse.
“I might have an idea where they may agree to meet us.” Gwen was back to typing, and she must have been onto something, as her fingers flew across her keys as she spoke. “What do we know about Hugo? What’s his obsession?”
“Fighting and races.” Mya visibly cringed. “And ugh, now that we know about the pigeons, I bet he gambles on those races, too.”
“Right. Anything involving betting, for sure.” Gwen spun her second laptop around, then pointed at the screen. “There’s a big fight happening next week, and a man like Hugo won’t miss that. Pretty sure his family is friends with the ruler there, too. Hell, maybe the ruler’s part of The Collective, too.”
“Where?” I knew, though, I fucking knew, and I didn’t want to hear it.
“Yas Island, also known as Fight Island. It’s in the UAE. We could stay with Diana in Carter’s fortress in Dubai until it’s time. It’s about an hour or so to Abu Dhabi from there,” Gwen quickly explained, and Mya immediately went for my arm.
Dubai was a hard no for me. Bad memories of being falsely accused of murder and all. And now I really am a murderer. Fuck my life.
“Abu Dhabi is where I first met Diana,” Carter said as if a memory unfolded in his mind as he massaged his temples.
“And Dubai is also where . . .” Mason’s words trailed off as the dark square on the call came back to life and Finn and Julia reappeared.
“Sorry we were gone so long, what’d we miss?” Finn arched a dark brow, hooking his arm around Julia.
“Just the fact it looks like we’re coming full circle,” Gray spoke up, his tone low and deep, eyes on me.
And I couldn’t help but remember how Falcon Falls was originally formed at Julia and Finn’s wedding. All because Gray and Carter had been arguing over whose team I’d work with, and they wound up uniting forces instead of either of them losing.
Full circle. Is that what this is? Or is this just how it all really ends?