39. Mya
39
It wasn’t hot in Carter’s suite, but I could feel the sweat rolling down between my breasts as my pulse raced. Leaning against the door, I remained a spectator in the sport of Wyatt’s pacing as my own thoughts unraveled.
We’d just laid out the plan to the rest of the team, including how everything had unfolded at the party, and Wyatt wasn’t taking it so well. Knowing Gwen needed to be in the midst of battle two nights from now was definitely eating away at his resolve and his control.
Oliver had quietly hung by the window in the living room ever since we’d come back. I knew he shared Wyatt’s worries as well, but he also had to be thinking about how the new arrangement meant he’d be fighting Hugo.
Three rounds, not to the death, though. But what if . . . no, don’t go there. No more what-ifs unless they were positive. And let’s be real, whoever what-ifed the good stuff?
Carter began rolling his sleeve to his elbow while joining Oliver by the window.
“My daughter is not going to some uninhabited island to die. She has nine lives, and she’s somehow managed to use up eight of them,” Wyatt growled out, tossing a hand in the air. “And she’s not even thirty.”
Gwen went over to her dad, blocking his path. He grasped hold of her biceps and physically moved her to the side. He was probably wishing he could do the same for our problems.
“Your math is not mathing, Dad. Also, I’m in the room, and you’re talking like I’m not.”
Her words managed to stop him in his tracks better than her attempt to block his path had. “You’re not going, and that’s settled.”
“I’m also twenty-five now, and you’re not allowed to make decisions for me.” Gwen folded her arms, surveying the room in a silent plea for help. Before any of us could, or would, get in the middle, she switched gears and asked, “I know we’re all focused on what will happen in forty-eight hours, but is anyone else thinking about what happened with Hugo at the reception? The whole thing with his brother.”
Shit, how’d I forget about that? Right. Everything really had gone on the back burner because of my concerns about the upcoming fight in and out of the ring.
“Any chance we didn’t get a heads-up from our insider because he’s with his father and brother and unable to get word out to us?” I doubted that was possible, but at this point, I didn’t know what to think anymore. “Based on what I know about Sly—and yeah, that’s what I’m calling Sylvester now—suggests he’s not a cyber genius, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t task one to get the messages out for him.”
“You think one of the Sorens has been keeping us alive?” Oliver broke his silence, eyes pinned my way.
“Hell, I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I’m just confused. Maybe I’m grasping at straws, but this night was a lot to take in.”
“Sly may be part of this, but maybe not that way,” Gwen said, her tone letting me know she wasn’t necessarily discounting what I said, but also not completely believing I was on the right track.
“Go on,” Gray prompted, stepping into his team leader role as Carter continued being a silent observer while we worked through it all.
“Based on what Hugo said tonight,” Gwen began, drawing Sydney and a few others to their feet, “I believe he thinks his brother manipulated the situation in Thailand to make a power play for control of the family.”
I braced my back against the door. It’d been a long day, week, and well, year. I needed the support.
Wyatt locked his arms over his chest, abandoning his mission to tear up the floor from nerves as he waited for his daughter to continue. Despite being one of the world’s best snipers and a Tier One operator, the man really was a great dad.
Then there was my father-of-the-year, who’d tried to have Oliver and my friends killed. I’d take cautious and protective over a psychopath any day of the week. Maybe I wasn’t so fallen apart over the news, though, because some deep part of me always knew I was different from my parents. That while we shared the same blood, we weren’t the same people. Not to mention the nightmares, which now had me believing good ol’ Mom and Dad had absolutely bleached my brain, figuratively speaking, making me forget something horrible that’d happened.
Shit, it took me a moment to realize Gwen had begun explaining her reasoning already. “I’m sorry, can you start again.” I peeled my eyes away from the team and back to her.
“What if it was Sly who tipped you off about the pigeon sale?” Gwen offered up the idea. “I mean, only someone from the inside would know about the exchange. The cargo did have his zip code on it. He knew you were working for FYVM. Based on your reputation for being an honest journalist, maybe he was testing the waters to see what you’d do?”
“But why?” I whispered, a shiver rolling over my skin.
Gwen frowned. “That’s another billion-dollar question.”
I blinked twice, a thought hitting me. “Maybe it was never about me. Maybe it was about Sly’s brother all along. He knew the second I reported the story to my editor, it’d get back to Hugo. Hugo would have no choice but to take action, especially being placed in charge of FYVM. He anticipated Hugo would assume I was onto their family regardless of the fact I said it was a dead lead in connection to the pharmaceutical company story. Because how else would I know about the pigeon sale to begin with, if I wasn’t after his family or their organization?”
“Sly just never knew you were actually undercover doing that precise thing. And why would he think that given your parents’ relationship with his family?” Sydney pointed out, inspiring chills to bathe my skin in goose bumps. “But I bet Sly was also looking to end that partnership with your parents if he chose you to set up that day.”
“Kill two birds with one stone.” Jack grimaced at his analogy. “Try and instill doubts about the Vanzettis in his dad’s head, and make his brother look incompetent. Like he couldn’t even run their media company without one of his own journalists turning on him.”
“He still placed a target on his head in doing all of this,” Mason joined the conversation. “Why take that risk?”
“Because he didn’t know I was truly undercover until it was too late. Hugo only . . .” I did my best to tamp down the flashback to that horrible day and power through this, but Oliver must’ve seen me struggling.
He cut across the room and offered his hand, which I gladly accepted, feeling better once his fingers were united with mine.
“Hugo was ready to take us down regardless,” I continued, “but he planted the listening device on us, confirming his suspicions.”
“And probably shocked the hell out of Sly.” Gwen blew out her cheeks, shaking her head in surprise.
“Birds really took everyone down that day. Fucking birds,” Jack muttered under his breath, plopping down between Easton and Mason on one of the couches.
“Our hacker isn’t Sly, but it has to be someone close to him. Someone who doesn’t approve of what’s going on, but is too afraid to risk sharing their identity yet,” Sydney mused, and I was glad to see her on the same page.
“Which means it’s probably not someone at this hotel with the Sorens, which is why they couldn’t give us a heads-up,” Oliver said, tightening his grip on my hand slightly.
“Their days are numbered now that Stef and Hugo realize they have a mole.” Carter peered at Gwen, finally speaking. “Is it possible to find a way to get a message to the insider to warn them?”
Mason stood, eyes on Gwen as she stared off at her computer on the desk, her reluctance to run to it confirmation of uncertainty. “The hacker has been our guardian angel,” he began, “and I’m thinking you’re going to need to be theirs now.”
“I’ll do my best, but the signal may be intercepted by someone on Team Soren, which could paint the target on their heads,” she let us know, heading to the desk to work.
“They have no shot if we don’t warn them, though,” Gray said, clearly in agreement with Carter on that.
“What do you think Stef and Hugo will do to Sly?” I asked, not to anyone specific, but just thinking out loud. “They’re going to figure out he started this mess for them.”
“They’ll Cain-and-Abel their way out of this.” Jack squeezed the back of his neck. “Someone’s going to be sacrificed, and I’m guessing it won’t be Stef’s firstborn. Like hell will Senior let his son live after pulling the move he did.”
“That’s their problem. One less Soren to deal with two nights from now is fine with me.” Carter reached into his pocket, producing his phone. “We should get to work on a plan. We’ll have to study every square inch of space at our destination. We need to be prepared to fight them, but also devise a plan to get Mya and Gwen off the island when part two begins.”
“Finally something I can get on board with.” Wyatt ignored the eye roll from his daughter. “I’ll make some calls,” he said, motioning to Teddy, the only other SEAL there, to follow him from the room.
As Gray began dividing up tasks, Sydney crossed the room to me. “You sure about having your parents on the island, too?”
I squashed the desire to come up with another biblical analogy about a child having their parents murdered, because what a horrible choice even if they were guilty as sin. But I couldn’t hold my true feelings back from my closest friend. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re no longer my parents.”
Oliver tightened his hold of my hand at that, offering his support. The man knew what it was like to lose both parents but in different ways. And at that point, I was more concerned with his life than the Vanzettis’. It wasn’t hard to feel that way considering they’d tried to kill him and my friends. So yeah, fuck them. Remaining detached from the idea they were really my mom and dad would also be the only way I’d get through this.
“Well, the Sorens didn’t dispose of them despite everything that happened. And the fact they even let them have a shot at saving your life in Canada must mean they’re pretty important to the Sorens,” Sydney said, not holding back her thoughts. “We should try and keep them alive for questioning. If nothing else, they have intel that can help dismantle The Collective.”
“Okay.” The word came out soft and barely there, so I added a nod with it.
She gave me an apologetic look, rubbed my arm twice, then joined the rest of the team already at work.
At that, I faced Oliver. There was still another obstacle we had to surmount before part two—the fight against Mr. Bloodsport. A man who’d potentially be even more off-kilter if he killed his brother.
“You’re sure about fighting three rounds?” I couldn’t help but ask him.
Oliver squinted. “When I looked into that man’s eyes tonight, what I saw was someone who isn’t afraid of dying.”
“Not helping.”
“That means he has nothing to live for.” He pointed out in a deep, gravelly voice, “I do, though. I have you.” He swallowed, then lifted his eyes toward the others in the room. “I have this team.”
“Does that mean you’re back for good?” Gray asked, evidently eavesdropping on us.
“You still want me?” Oliver’s voice was nearly hoarse that time.
“What do you think?” Gray shot back, his tone as low and deep as Oliver’s had been.
Oliver dipped his chin, eyes returning to my face while whispering, “Then yeah, I’m back for good.”