38. Oliver
38
We have a new plan. I had to keep reminding myself of that. I couldn’t let my anger for the Sorens take over my mouth. Nothing good would come of me slipping and saying something we hadn’t rehearsed.
Although both Teddy and Easton had offered to swap places and fight Hugo for me, they also knew their limitations. They were badasses in their own right, but they weren’t skilled boxers or UFC fighters. They had no experience inside a ring.
Aside from Carter and Jesse, who we’d already ruled out, Asher Hayes from Bravo Team and Adam McGregor were viable options as fighters. They would have been our best shots if we really wanted to win the hotel. But like Carter and Jesse, they had families waiting for them at home. And we refused to risk their lives for the sake of our team owning The Sapphire.
So the new plan basically boiled down to doing whatever it took to make sure Hugo selected me. Not that it really mattered anymore since nobody would actually be fighting, but I’d be whoever I had to be for this mission if it meant a second chance with Mya.
I still had to find my way to that second chance, though. I knew it started with learning how to forgive myself for the past, then actually doing it. That was a fight I was willing to take. Fighting to get better and heal so we could have a future one day.
None of this changed the fact that I knew the minute I laid eyes on Hugo Soren, the desire to personally throttle the life from him would ramp back up.
Remain on mission. Don’t let Hugo get to you. How many more times would I have to practice those words until they finally sank in?
Although, as far as ops went, this one wasn’t exactly the same. We were dressed up in evening wear, not the easiest to maneuver in, and we didn’t have the comfort of comms in our ears, limiting the connection between us and the rest of the team. We knew we’d be thoroughly checked before entering the party, so we couldn’t take the risk. In a way, that leveled the playing field with the Sorens. If we weren’t strapped or wired, neither were they.
Regardless, thanks to Gwen hacking into the outdoor surveillance cameras before we’d left for the party, we knew Sydney and the others still had eyes on us.
“You doing okay?” Mya asked, gently tugging my arm.
The knot in my throat had me pulling on the collar of my shirt as I took in the sight of her. Her dress was thanks to Sydney, and I wasn’t a fan of the fact our archenemies would be seeing her in it tonight. Because, God help me, that dress was a statement in its own right, but on this woman, it was something else altogether. I could have used one of Mya’s made-up words for an adjective to describe how she looked. She’d probably say something like fanfuckingtabulous. Well, she swore less than I did. More like fanfreakingtabulous.
“You like it, huh?” Mya released my arm to play with the skirt of the dress.
More like half of a skirt. Where’s the rest of it?
She smiled and twirled as if she’d forgotten we were on an op instead of inside a fairy tale where that pink flowery dress belonged. “Whimsical ruffle hem, flowing silhouette, daring high slit, and this captivating open back—gorgeous, right?”
“Daring. Yeah, you could say that.” I swallowed. “You don’t have to sell me on it.” I finally worked free the top buttons of my shirt so I could breathe. “I’m sold.” Definitely captivating, and gorgeous, that’s for sure.
She had on some type of shimmery pink eyeshadow and the same shimmer was on her high cheekbones. But when she dragged her thumb along the line of her pink lips, I about fell the fuck over.
It’d been a long time since that mouth of hers had been wrapped around my cock, and this was the wrong time to be thinking about that.
“Smudge-proof.” She showed me her thumb, with a distinct lack of lipstick. “Just in case you feel like testing it out at some point.”
Soren-the-fuck-who? With her tempting me like a goddess in the flower garden, I could barely remember my own name, let alone our targets’.
I took hold of her wrist, leaned in, and dropped my mouth over her ear. “You’re trying to calm me down so I don’t explode, huh? It may be having the opposite effect.”
She arched into me as if only the two of us were here. “Racing heart, but calm mind, right?” she asked, her tone provocative.
“More like a dirty mind.” But nevertheless, a mind no longer contemplating murder. So, yeah, she was successful in her efforts to calm me.
Well, sort of. I did want to fuck up that dress. Rip it from her in one fast movement and see if she’d been a bad girl, one who’d left her panties in our suite.
“Need a room?” Jesse joked—interrupting my thoughts about panties—as he and Gwen joined us. “They’re here,” he let us know, and those words were bullets to my brain, wrenching me from the moment I’d been locked in with Mya.
I let go of her and forced myself back into operator mode, scanning the crowd of criminals in search of our marks.
Gwen offered Mya a champagne flute while lifting her chin in the general direction of yonder. “We’ve got the father and the son here, but most definitely not the Holy Spirit.”
It took me a few more seconds to search through the sea of rich assholes to find the Sorens, but once I did, my stomach turned at the sight of the two of them. “Wonder why only Hugo’s here with his dad.”
“Maybe his other son likes to be fashionably late.” Like Mya, Gwen’s jokes were probably flying on my behalf, both of them trying to help downplay the moment.
Did the two of them have a sidebar conversation about how to prevent me from changing my mind about my desire for revenge?
I had to remind myself I did take off on them and quit the team, so I couldn’t blame their skepticism, or not taking my word for face value after that. Maybe I wasn’t quite ready to trust myself, either.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood when I made eye contact with Hugo. He halted behind his father, who was walking with a cane, staring right back at me.
A few men in suits walked between us, obstructing my view of the pricks, so I stepped around the nearby high-top table to get a better look at them.
“Carter’s still talking to Nicholas, but based on all the owner’s head bobbing and beard-stroking, he looks to be going along with his proposal,” Jesse noted.
I followed his gaze toward one of the white tents off to our side where Carter and Nicholas stood talking. “The Sorens just spotted Carter, and they’re heading right for him.” I hooked my arm with Mya’s, not wanting her more than an inch away from me. “We should join them.”
At that, the four of us cut through the crowd of guests while the orchestra played ominous music in the background like a soundtrack to the moment.
“Dominick. Soren. Not sure if you two have met before . . .” Nicholas was already in the middle of his introductions as we joined, the Sorens having beaten us there. Based on the owner’s name and accent, he was French.
Carter wordlessly gestured for the four of us to surround him. Jesse and Gwen went around Carter to his left, and Mya and I stayed on his right.
Remain on mission. Don’t let Hugo get to you. I repeated that mantra again, continuing to keep hold of Mya’s arm to get me through this.
Carter reached for Stef Soren’s hand, then shifted to Hugo’s outstretched offer. “You could say we know one another. We have a few mutuals, don’t we?”
That was one handshake I’d never have been able to stomach. Not after what that man had ordered done to us in Thailand.
“Dominick here has agreed to match your bid,” Nicholas shared, keeping his tone casual as Carter returned his hands to his pockets.
“Oh, you don’t say?” Stef arched a thick, gray brow. “And how does he know my bid?”
“I don’t.” Carter’s aloofness had to be meant to get under Stef Soren’s skin. “I offered to match whatever number you throw at him.”
Hugo pulled a cigar from his pocket, offered one to Nicholas, and lit it for himself after he declined. So help that man if he blew smoke in our faces.
Mya gently bumped her hip into me as I held on to her, a reminder for me to stay cool and focused. Yeah, roger that. Just barely.
“I’ll keep upping my bid, then.” Stef’s challenge drew my eyes away from his evil son and to him.
Carter shrugged. “I’ll match that one, and every other one, too.”
“Surprised the money your wife left you hasn’t run out by now.” Stef’s cheap shot didn’t land.
“You of all people know money makes money.” Carter lifted a hand from his pocket, gesturing toward the woods off in the distance at the back of the property. “Practically grows on trees now, doesn’t it?”
Stef’s lips curled into a sneer. “Two billion more than my current bid.” Clearly irritated, he stomped his cane.
“Aren’t you an upstanding businessman? Don’t really see how you’d fit in here with the clientele. In fact, having you run this place may make them nervous.” Carter stepped closer to Stef, invading his personal space, towering over the man. “Well, unless there’s something you want to tell us.”
Our team leader was a better actor than me, because it was taking Mya patting my hand on her arm to keep reminding me not to lose my shit. It wouldn’t take much for me to pull a Carter and use a fork to kill these two men. And she knew it.
“You see now,” Stef said while hitting his cane against the grass again, “you’re right about not fitting in, but that’s you, not me. You’re pretending to be bad, whereas I’ve been pretending to be good. I’ll be just fine here.”
“I can vouch for Dominick,” Nicholas said without hesitation. “And I guess you don’t know each other all that well.” He snapped his fingers, and a server came over with a tray of tumblers and a bottle of expensive scotch. “Carter has offered an interesting proposal to this conundrum of ours. One I’m in the mood to entertain.”
Nicholas waited for the server to pour their drinks and hand them out. Carter politely accepted one, but I doubted he planned to drink, even if he was a scotch man.
“I would like to ensure I pass this property over to the person best suited to run the place. I have no heirs to hand it over to, and Carter helped me remember that money is not always everything, even if my wife likes to think it is.” He faked a laugh before turning serious once again, addressing Hugo directly. “Dominick mentioned you enjoy boxing. There’s a big fight coming up at Yas Island next week.”
With the cigar between his lips, Hugo answered with a brief, “Yeah. And?”
Nicholas adjusted the lapels of his black blazer, a match to his hair, and addressed Stef next. “I take it you wouldn’t be personally running this place long, given your advanced age, and that means your eldest son will be taking over.”
Stef shot a conflicted look Hugo’s way that read, Jury’s still out. “What are you getting at?” he asked Nicholas instead of offering confirmation. “Are you suggesting we settle this the old-fashioned way? Duke it out?” He laughed, and thankfully, Nicholas didn’t that time.
“You can pick any of my men to fight you at the island,” Carter commented, just as we’d rehearsed in the suite earlier.
“We’re not considering this,” Stef said with an accompanying adamant shake of the head. “I won’t have Dominick calling the shots here.”
Carter sighed, continuing to play the role of unbothered damn well. “Nicholas, do you mind if I have a word with the Sorens?”
“Oui. I’ll call my friend who owns the arena to see about getting things rolling in the meantime.”
“Merci,” Carter responded, then waited for Nicholas to leave us before setting his tumbler on a nearby high-top table.
“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Stef jumped right to it.
“Happily,” Carter responded. “You know who we are. We know who you really are.”
Stef snickered, stomping his cane like an angry old man again. “What makes you so arrogant to think I’d ever agree to this? Why go to some island so you can try and corner us afterward?” He surveyed the four of us before pinning Carter with a dark look. “You don’t get to where I am in life by walking right into traps.”
“It’s not a trap, it’s an invitation,” Carter remarked, keeping his tone level. “You came after my people in Thailand, then after all of us in Singapore. Then again recently.” He opened his hands, palms out. “You wanted us, now you’ve got us.”
Stef backed away from Carter, fixing his red tie beneath his suit jacket without losing hold of his cane. “This isn’t a game of Marco Polo. You don’t call us out and expect us to call back.”
“You don’t know your history,” Mya spoke up for the first time. “Marco was a sailor who didn’t know where he was going. We do. That island, and you’ll be there.”
Stef locked eyes with Mya. “Just like your mother, aren’t you? Headstrong.”
Those words sent Mya faltering, and I kept hold of her and counted back from three so I didn’t take his cane and use it to beat him to death.
“Do you really think it was my people who targeted you the first time in Canada the other day?” Stef waved away the smoke from his son’s cigar, but at least the fucker hadn’t been stupid enough to blow it in any of our faces. “My family would never be so sloppy as to allow that man’s family to survive the fire. Not after he didn’t do what he’d been tasked to do.”
Steve . . . and that impossible choice he’d been given. God, I really hated these assholes and their games.
“We shouldn’t have listened to your parents,” Stef went on, presumably believing this was news to us about the Vanzettis. “They wanted the chance to take out the rest of your team for us in exchange for keeping you alive.”
“That’s not The Collective’s way, you’re right,” I gritted out, unable to stay silent any longer. “They eliminate anyone who knows about them, regardless of who.” Would he read between the lines there? Would he get what I was suggesting when it came to his own family and their parlor tricks to deceive their own group in an attempt to protect their asses?
“You don’t look shocked,” Hugo spoke up, not letting his father answer me. “You already know this about the Vanzettis, don’t you?”
I’d have to start thinking of her parents as the Vanzettis instead of as her mother and father now. Separate the emotions from the equation somehow. But how in the hell would Mya be able to do that? We’d cross that bridge later, I supposed.
“We know a lot,” Mya responded, keeping her tone steady, not letting the asshole get to her.
That’s my girl.
“As we said,” Mya continued, “we know who you really are. You don’t just spin stories on behalf of The Collective, you’re their messenger.”
Stef’s nostrils flared at that detail, but he didn’t appear too shocked. “And who told you that?”
Mya flicked the air as if simulating a wing flying. “A little birdy.” From the corner of my eye, I spied a grin cut across her lips as she gave Stef a second to comprehend how much we truly did know.
Stef fixed his tie again. “I hadn’t been sure if my son was being paranoid until the day he set you up and listened in on your conversation.” The old man’s piercing, knowing look nearly fucked up my resolve to remain steady. “Surely you remember that day.”
Breathing hard, nostrils flaring and my body locked tight, Mya firmly held on to my arm, holding me back. She recognized I was a moment away from losing control the way I’d done in that room in Thailand, stabbing that Interpol agent over and over again.
“The irony in all of this is had you not come after us that day, we may have never put two and two together about your carrier pigeons,” Mya said.
Her strength and confidence broke the tension somehow, stopping me from using the only tool I had available for murder—Stef’s cane.
“We were undercover to try and take you down, yes, but at the time, we had no evidence to definitively link you to your evil pals. And as for the birds, we thought that was a bad tip. You brought this all on yourselves.” She stabbed the air in Hugo’s direction. “You exposed yourselves by coming after us. So, you only have yourselves to blame.”
Stef shifted toward his son, unmistakable disappointment in his eyes. “This is why you never leave a job up to anyone else, not even your own blood.”
“Just killing the two of them would’ve had the same domino effect, drawing out the rest of their team regardless. They’d have come after us for revenge.” Hugo put out his cigar in a nearby ashtray. “My plan was the best one. The only reason it didn’t work is fairly obvious now.”
“And that is?” I arched my brow.
“We have a traitor amongst us, Dad.” Hugo shoved his hands into his slacks pockets. “It never made sense to me why I kept failing with these people, because I never fail.”
So, the hacker is still alive, but we just marked him for death.
Hugo zeroed in on me like his next target. “I never lose.”
But you will this time.
“I have to admit, knowing this was the only card you had to play, I was wondering why you never leaked our names in connection with our organization before,” Stef began, his voice surprisingly steady now. No cane thumping the ground this time. “I’d assumed you believed we were at the top, which was why we were still alive after my son botched your deaths. But I understand now. You were waiting for the right time to make your move. You know if you expose the truth about us to the world, we’ll be eliminated, which means we’re your only lead to the others.”
Insightful son of a bitch, I’d give him that.
Of course, we didn’t need to let these pricks know we only just put the puzzle together as to why The Collective hadn’t taken out the Sorens after what went down in Thailand. Had I not taken off, maybe we’d have figured this out sooner. I couldn’t harp on the past now, though. Not the time.
“You’re right,” Mya was the first to respond. “One thing we’ve witnessed in the last few months is anytime we get close to anyone in The Collective, they kill their members first, ask questions later. Not the kindest bunch, are they? They’ll replace you as their messengers before the soil even settles over your dead bodies if they so much as get wind you’ve been compromised.”
“Which is also why you couldn’t expose us to them,” Jesse pointed out, breaking his silence for the first time.
Stef swapped his cane to his other hand, his gaze slowly sweeping between us all. “Quite the predicament we have ourselves in. I suppose you wouldn’t consider a truce, would you? Walk away from here and just go live our lives. You know, what happened in Bangkok, stays in Bangkok?”
So, the old man still had some kick in him. I supposed evil had no age limits. At least he admitted he was screwed and didn’t beat around the bush, but I certainly hadn’t expected him to try to joke his way out of this mess.
“I’ll take that menacing look from you, Dominick, as a no.” Stef turned to the side, eyeing his son for a moment, and Hugo nodded at him.
What’s that OK for? “How about you just surrender now and call it a day instead? What happens at The Sapphire, stays at The Sapphire.” It was worth a shot, I supposed.
“Spell this out for us. Are you threatening that if we don’t accept this offer to fight you, you’ll ensure the world learns our names and who we work with?” Stef asked instead of considering my proposal. “You’re willing to lose your only lead in your ridiculous mission to fight our organization if we don’t show up,” he continued once a couple that walked by was out of earshot again, “knowing we will also expose your identities to the world. I have a feeling you’ll have a lot more than just The Collective hunting you down, too.”
“We both know after tonight, neither of us can walk away.” Carter stepped before Stef. “But only one of us can survive. I’m offering you a fair fight, moderated and controlled by a third party. That’s more than you’ve given my team these last four months in failing to come after us.” He paused to let the full weight of his words sink in. “This needs to end one way or another.” He rested a hand over his chest. “We win, you give us the other names. We lose, your problems go away because we’re dead.”
Not happening, but sure, let them think it was possible.
“Why would we roll over and give up the others’ names?” Hugo lifted his chin, jutting it forward.
“Because they’ll kill you regardless, and you know it. Why save their asses when you can save your own by giving them up to us.” My words punched the air as if they were fists, and Hugo had a physical reaction, stepping back. “We’re offering you a much better choice than you had those crooked agents give the two of us,” I said, gesturing to Mya, “back in Bangkok.”
“We could also just cut to it now,” Mya proposed. “Give up their names, and you can go into hiding until they’re all dead or behind bars. We’re offering to handle the problem for you.”
“What would stop you from coming after us then? You wouldn’t let us live after what my son . . .” Stef cleared his throat as if actually displeased by what went down in Bangkok.
Hugo’s eye twitched. Yeah, both him and his father had no doubt seen the video footage of what happened that day. It was also clear Hugo had issued those disgusting directions to the Interpol agents as to how to handle us.
“What’s it going to be, Soren?” Carter asked, eyes on Stef. “Hide out for the rest of your lives, or have a shot to take back control of your lives on that island?” He hadn’t bothered to reoffer Mya’s suggestion, clearly knowing the Sorens wouldn’t hand over their little black book of names like that.
“This was a smart move, Dominick. I hate saying that, but it is.” Stef pushed at the grass with his cane. “Pulling The Sapphire in like this. Picking a location where you know I can’t order a drone strike to take your people out without having to show up instead. No backup from my organization without exposing why we’re there, which wouldn’t end well for me. From where I’m standing, you’ve given me no choice.”
“It sucks to have your choices taken from you, doesn’t it,” I hissed under my breath, muscles drawing tight again the moment Hugo’s eyes swept to Mya’s legs.
“Think about this, if you defeat us, you get the hotel, and you can call your buddies and let them know you not only found the President’s people who have been hunting them down, but you’ve killed them. You can spin your own story as to how you found us, but regardless, you look like the heroes. Maybe they even upgrade you from the hub of the wheel to something more important in their group.” Mya’s antagonizing the two of them was brazen, bold, and very much like her.
God, I love you.
Hugo lazily drifted his eyes from Mya’s legs to her face. “Your whole team needs to be there or we don’t show.” His jaw locked tight. “Including your little cybergirl here, too. I have a feeling she’s been that annoying thorn in our sides lately. Poking around with the big boys on the dark net where you don’t belong.”
Gwen took the bait, stepping closer to evil, and Jesse matched her steps, remaining defensively at her side. “Since you’ve done your homework on us, let me be clear, we have, too.”
A sly, amused smile crossed Hugo’s lips as he faced off with her.
This unexpected showdown between Gwen and Hugo had me momentarily forgetting the fact Hugo was demanding our entire team be on that island.
“Your people are too afraid to even play around online. Scared of women like me so it would seem.” Gwen went on, “Hence the birds. Because you clearly know I could destroy your group if you dared relay messages over the internet.”
Hugo laughed, and his husky chuckle had Gwen looking like she wanted to grab her laptop from upstairs and smack him across the face with it.
Ditto. Although, I’d rather use my fists. And I was starting to regret that I wouldn’t actually be fighting him.
“No women and children,” Carter remarked, breaking through Hugo’s laugh. “That’s non-negotiable.”
“If these two women on your team aren’t on the island, they could be a problem later.” Stef’s gaze bounced back and forth between Mya and Gwen. “We can’t take the risk. They have to join you ringside.”
“Fine,” Gwen about snarled her response, and that’d be a hard no from her father, and she knew it, but that didn’t stop her bold determination.
Apparently, I wasn’t about to stop Mya, either, because she agreed, “We’ll be there.”
“Absolutely not,” I shot out on instinct, urging Mya to face me by gently tugging her arm.
She refused to look at me and instead told Stef, “If you want me there, you bring my parents ringside as well. I’m not letting them get off so easily.”
I was about to lose my mind at this change of events. “Mya.”
“Done, but one more condition before we tell Nicholas we’re good to go.” Stef’s words had my blood pressure spiking again. “My son gets his chance to redeem himself inside that ring for not closing the deal in Thailand like he should have.”
Closing the deal? Yeah, this really was just business to these people, wasn’t it?
“That’s what we?—”
“You have no intention of truly fighting my son,” Stef cut me off. “The fight is a ploy to get us to that island, but I want it happening. If he can’t defeat you, then he has no place taking over for me.”
“I’m fine with fighting, but you can’t be serious. Sylvester didn’t even have the stomach to come to the party knowing Dominick was here, but you think he can run the company? Be the intermediary for the organization?” Hugo looked toward the ground, cursing. “That son of a bitch set me up, didn’t he?” At that, he took off, leaving us all hanging, including his father.
Before Stef could call him back or say more, the owner and his less-than-perfect timing appeared. “You two come to an agreement? Or is your son power walking away like a man on a mission a bad sign?”
Stef looked between Nicholas and his son’s retreating back as if torn over what to do. I kind of wanted to go after Hugo myself and let him finish whatever he’d been saying.
“It’s a deal,” Stef said in a low voice.
“Great. I have a few amendments to the proposed plan, though.” Nicholas eyed Stef and Carter while spinning his wedding ring around a few times.
“What are they?” Carter asked him, his expression hardening.
“The owner of the arena is concerned things may get a bit messy between you two after the fight ends.” Nicholas clearly read the situation well. No idiot, either. “I think we all know that only one family, or in your case, team, is leaving that island regardless of what happens in that ring. The fight is just to kick things off.”
Way to be blunt.
“I’ll be livestreaming the fight and watching it from here.” Lifting his hands from his pockets as if he thought either Carter or Stef would protest, Nicholas continued, “I’d prefer not to be a casualty caught in the crossfires when I’m so close to retirement. My death would make my wife far too happy, and we can’t have that.” He grinned. “The fight must happen, because I’ll have men here betting on it, but they’ll also be watching and betting on round two. The, uh, post-show action.”
The war between us and the Sorens will be fucking livestreamed?
“Whoever leaves that island alive can buy the hotel. You’ll also garner the respect of your future patrons here in doing so.” Nicholas scanned our group and added, “Like I said, I want to leave my place in good hands. The best hands.”
“You’re going to livestream not just the fight but everything after that . . .” Stef repeated what Nicholas said, allowing his words to trail off, as shocked as I was. “I can’t have anyone seeing that kind of video.”
“And I can assure you,” Nicholas said, while gesturing to the resort’s main building, “only guests here will view the footage. And they’d lose their tongues if they spoke about it after they parted ways from the hotel.”
“You said the owner of the arena is worried about a mess?” Jesse asked, pivoting back to that unfinished thought Nicholas had previously dropped.
“He doesn’t want the fight at his arena, but he owns another island that’s a bit farther out from mainland Abu Dhabi. It’s uninhabited, but it was used as a temporary training center before the arena was officially opened.” Nicholas’s new information was actually good news. No risk of civilian casualties in our matchup. “We’ll provide you both protection to Abu Dhabi, as well as to the location of the fight. We’ll also be in control of the immediate air space overhead to ensure no one has an unfair aerial advantage.”
Fuck, this could all work even better. Of course, there were still two problems we had to tackle. Mya and Gwen now needed to be at the island, too, and from the sounds of it, I’d have to go through with the fight.
“This will be happening in forty-eight hours, not next week.” And there was the other shoe. We needed more time to prepare. “My wife, damn that blasted woman, has a cruise scheduled for us next week. A cold plunge in Alaska. So, this needs to happen before then.”
“Two nights from now?” Mya sputtered, stepping forward. There I went again, going right with her, shock moving my feet for me.
Nicholas opened his palms and shrugged. “Oui. Take it or leave it.”
“We’ll take it,” I answered before Carter could, “but I do have a request. Only three rounds inside the ring, and the winner is declared by knockout, or by you, but not by death.” I swallowed, hoping this would work, and that I could survive all three rounds. “There will be plenty of opportunities your guests can place bets on after that fight. We both know that’s where the real action will be.”
Nicholas swapped a quick look with Stef, and at Stef’s nod, I did my best not to sigh with relief.
I wasn’t out of the woods yet, not even close, but one step at a time would get us all there. Get us all free.