52. Oliver
52
That next morning, the sun illuminated the fighter jets on the runway outside. Not a cloud in the sky. And somewhere, there were probably birds chirping, too. For the first time in a long time, I was okay with the sun and birds. All of it. Because not only was this all coming to an end, but Michael was okay.
“POTUS will get your guy home safely to you, don’t worry,” was the last thing I’d said over the three-way call with Michael’s wife and Julia before they’d both hit me with thank yous and goodbyes. They didn’t need to thank me, but I was sure as hell choked up with relief there was no reason to issue an I’m so sorry for your loss call instead of the one I’d made this morning.
Michael was not only stable and in recovery, but the doctors assured all of us he’d be fine. I knew doctors rarely delivered news like that, just in case anything went sideways while their patient was still in the hospital, so . . .
Then again, Carter had paid them a visit at four in the morning, post-surgery, and he may have scared the surgeons into understanding Michael not being okay was not an option.
Speak of the devil. I pocketed my phone, looking up to see Carter returning to the space we’d taken over as our temporary tactical operations center. He’d changed from the clothes he’d worn last night to a tailored suit. I had to assume it was because of the FaceTime call he’d stepped out to take with Nicholas Barbier, and one other “guest” Carter had invited to the meeting as well.
Directing his focus to Griffin as he came up next to me, Carter asked, “Is he in?”
No time like the present for an update.
A lot had happened since the sun had set last night and rose again this morning. We’d been running on java and adrenaline ever since Tony Vanzetti handed over the ring with the list of names on it. It helped that the doctor here, at Mya’s insistence, had patched up the injuries I’d sustained from the fighting ring, making it a bit easier to power through this. But in truth, patched up or not, I could go a few more nonstop days if need be as long as we were going in the right damn direction like we were now.
“Savanna spoke to him,” Griffin brought Carter up to speed on what I already knew, “and POTUS arranged a military escort to Italy to help out. We’re good to go.”
I was grateful the off-the-cuff idea I’d come up with about accessing the vault was working out. We needed one of the world’s best safecrackers to get us in, and Marcus’s brother, Nick Vasquez, happened to be the man to do it.
Marcus had served as Bravo Three, and had been married to Savanna, until terrorists stole his life years ago. In a way, Nick had brought Savanna and Griffin together. Protecting Savanna when she’d been in danger was Falcon’s first official mission, and now here Nick was helping us out on our biggest op ever.
“We really have come full circle, haven’t we?” I spoke my thoughts almost casually, but I really did feel A-the-fuck-okay.
We had the list of names and one of the best safecrackers in the world helping us. POTUS managed to alert the Italians to stop a drone strike of the vault at 0300, staving off the attack by a minute or two. Talk about down to the wire. And for the first time in a long while, we were all safe.
Then there was the plea deal for Tony Vanzetti that’d been signed thirty minutes earlier. It came with immunity and no prison time, along with Mya’s blessing.
Meryl Vanzetti on the other hand, well . . .
Mya had stated, “Let the woman rot in hell. Anyone who can steal a baby from a mother deserves whatever she gets and then some.”
I knew she’d never been close with Meryl growing up, but had Tony been truly evil, that would’ve hurt her a hell of a lot more than she’d have cared to admit.
I looked over at Mya, working on the other side of the room with Gwen, Sydney, and Jessica. Talking animatedly with them, her hands flying in excitement. Or rage. Maybe a bit of both depending on the subject. I still couldn’t believe she had a whole other family out there.
In between trying to save the world since last night, Mya had taken a moment to look up her family online. She’d cried at the sight of their images while reading up on them. There wasn’t too much available. Not any information on her twin’s job or current whereabouts, but I assumed Gwen would do some more digging for her soon.
But those tears had been happy ones. Tears of relief and hope. The woman was strong, and she was choosing to be stubborn in a way we could all take a lesson from. Stubbornly focused on choosing to prioritize thinking about the good yet to come instead of focusing on the bad that brought us here.
“So,” I prompted, returning my attention to Carter. I waited for him to share news about his call with the hotel owner, especially about the curveball he’d planned to toss Nicholas’s way.
Carter gestured for us to follow him over to where the rest of Falcon was gathered. Well, we were missing our honorary member, Mason, but he’d texted a little while ago and was heading to the base now that we knew Michael was stable and solid.
“McGregors going home to Ireland now? Renaud?” Griffin asked Carter as we cut across the room together.
“Yeah, they were waiting to spin up until my call with Renaud and Barbier ended,” Carter shared.
Mya had been sitting on the edge of Gwen’s desk, and at the sight of us, she hopped off. Her attention flitted toward the roll-up door, and I turned to see Mason there.
The man didn’t waste time, heading straight to Mya. And for once, I didn’t recoil or flinch as he hugged her. Progress.
Carter waited for their quick hug to end before sharing, “Nicholas agreed to our proposal. In his words, ‘two sharks are better than one.’ It wasn’t an offer he’d have considered with myself and Soren, but with a man known as the devil of Dublin—who happens to have hotel-owning experience—he was sold on bringing Renaud in as well.”
“Not to mention he’s getting double the price tag with Renaud in the picture, right?” Jack piped up from his position between Gray and Jesse. “So, we’re really co-owning the bad-guy hotel with Renaud, huh?”
The light laugh that left Carter’s mouth caught me off guard. We were probably all overtired. Or Carter was starting to loosen up given the weight was finally beginning to lift from our shoulders after being crushed by it for so long. “I don’t know about you owning the place, but yeah, by the time my son is born, I’ll be a hotel co-owner with?—”
“Your doppelg?nger,” Jack finished for him, getting him back with his own jab. It was doubtfully the word Carter had planned to use. “You know, we should change the logo to something involving a fork.” He waved his hand in the air. The classic I can see it now gesture.
“Or a leaf,” Gwen teased, drawing a few chuckles from the rest of us. The man would also never live that down, courtesy of the jungle dating-game op that had brought Jack and Charlotte together.
I wasn’t quite sure yet what Falcon would be doing with the hotel, but I was game. New beginnings and all required new changes. New doors and new roads to take.
“I see my dramatic eye rolling is rubbing off on you.” Mya elbowed Carter in the side. “But, um, back to the serious stuff, what are the next steps? What’s POTUS want us to do? We can’t holed up here forever, right?”
Carter and Gray exchanged a quick look, Carter deferring to Gray with a lift of the chin. While Carter had been managing the hotel deal, Gray had been on a call with his father figuring out next steps for taking down The Collective.
Gray folded his arms, looking around at all of us with small nods as if saying, Good fucking job, everyone. “POTUS likes the plan about the headline story revealing everyone’s name. He has a few concerns about the ripple effect it may cause, creating some fear and anger among people as they learn how we’ve had our strings pulled for quite some time. So, we have to do this cautiously. But ultimately, the President and his administration believe this is the right move, particularly going after those we can’t simply arrest or freeze their assets.”
“We definitely don’t want people to panic, or have a major stock market crash from this. Need to protect people’s 401ks and the like, but we also can’t give these assholes time to reorganize and restructure,” Sydney noted, and yeah, I was in agreement with that.
“I forgot to tell you with everything going on, but Raymond Pecker was intercepted at the border trying to escape,” Gray revealed. And thank fuck for more good news.
“Almost disappointed about that.” Jack grinned. “I would’ve enjoyed watching Carter hunt that bastard down and giving him a taste of his own medicine.”
Yeah, me, too.
“Until the vault has been cleared out, and some of the dust settles after Mya’s story is published,” Gray cut back to the main focus of our conversation, “I think we should all maintain a low profile. Stay off-the-grid.”
I hadn’t realized Wyatt had joined us until I heard his quick, “Agreed.” He pinned his daughter with a sharp look as if worried she might object.
She returned his stare with an innocent smile and shrug, holding her hands in the air. Poor guy. I didn’t envy him.
“I’ll be sticking by Diana’s side in Dubai until my son is born, letting the SEALs and POTUS’s Delta guys handle the target list,” Carter said decisively. “Then my family will come with me to The Sapphire during the transfer of ownership in October.”
“That’s about three months from now. Glad you could convince Nicholas to hold off until then.” Another win for us, I supposed. And after everything we’d been through, we deserved it. “Does that mean no operating for the next ninety or so days for any of us?” I was good with that. I had time to make up for after being away from Mya for so long. And I needed time to finish the process of healing both mentally and physically.
“I’m down with that plan,” Jack agreed. “My son’s due soon, and Gray, well, your baby is still newish.”
“Newish?” Gwen chuckled. “You really will be a fun dad, won’t ya?”
“Damn straight.” Jack eyed Wyatt. “Still as overprotective as your old man, though.”
“You’ll all understand what I go through when your kids get older,” Wyatt grumbled. “And what I’m going through now with my youngest, too.”
“Well, there’s plenty of room at my place in Dubai if anyone would like to stay there. Otherwise, move your asses somewhere else until we can guarantee everyone’s safety with everything going down.” Carter’s order was one I could get on board with. Well, the second part of what he’d said.
“No plans to go to Dubai. Not on my bucket list to revisit, but thank you.” Not even for therapeutic purposes.
“A safe house in Florence might be nice?” Mya shot me a pleading look, as if concerned I might not agree about a meeting with her family before the so-called dust of our problems officially settled.
“Listen, we’re never truly safe, are we?” And that’s the truth. “In our line of work, we’ll always be looking over our shoulders. It’s the consequence of what we do, so I’m on board with Italy. As long as it’s as safe as possible for us and your parents and sister, then?—”
“Wait, I’m confused,” Mason cut me off, and oh shit, that was right. He hadn’t been at base to learn about Tony’s other shocking revelation. I supposed no one on the team wanted to deliver that message to him, knowing it was only Mya’s to share.
“We’ll give you some space.” Gray gestured toward the group to move away.
Mya tugged my shirt to stop me from following that order. “Stay.”
She grabbed an iPad from her desk, and shared with Mason what she’d learned about her parents and sister.
After he picked his jaw up off the floor, she showed him a photo of Adelina.
“You’re not serious.” His brow tightened and all the color drained from his face as he shoved the iPad back in her hand.
“What is it?” She set the device aside, wide eyes pointed on him. “What’s wrong?”
Mason took two steps back, tearing his fingers through his hair. “I know her,” he rasped. “Like know her, know her.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
And then it clicked, and it was me blurting this time, “You’re not serious.”
Mason’s gaze whipped to me before he peered at Mya. “We, uh, dated before. I mean, I never really dated anyone, but you know what I, um . . .” He cleared his throat as if he could kill the awkwardness with it.
Nope, not happening, man. Because you slept with Mya’s sister? Twin sister. Not identical, but still. My brain and stomach hurt on his behalf.
Mya remained quiet, just staring at him slack-jawed. “You know my sister.”
Her words inspired my skin to break out in goose bumps from head to damn toe.
“Mya, your sister has been looking for you for a long time. I had no clue it was you, of course. I mean, she said your name. Spelled differently, but how would I know . . . just thought it was fucking weird.” He rotated his neck, clearly uncomfortable. “I didn’t make it a habit of introducing you to the women I . . .” He coughed into a closed fist, then rushed out the holy-shit news. “She works for the FBI in New York, in their kidnapping unit. She hunts the kind of assholes who took her sister. I mean, you.”
Here I thought we were done with any more jarring plot twists.
“She told me the police report said a man at the park overheard the woman who took her sister speak English. American accent. It’s all she had to go on, and why she moved to the U.S. and became a citizen.”
I could tell Mya was shaken up and about to go down. That her knees were buckling. Lightheadedness taking over. The stubborn will to push through to the positive was on pause.
Hooking my arm around her back, I held on to her so she didn’t fall.
Mason scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “If I had just introduced you two, then maybe you’d have realized you’re sisters. Hell, I don’t know. This is wild.”
“She was so close to me. Living in New York. Hunting people like I was doing with you, just kidnappers instead of serial human traffickers.” Puzzle piece after puzzle piece had to be snapping into place as she spoke. “And dating you, I mean, my God, we really are . . . alike.” From the corner of my eye, I saw her tears start to fall. “What do I do?”
I guided her around to face me, doing my best not to let my own emotions get the best of me so I could be there for her how she needed me to be. “I’m thinking it’s time you let her know she no longer has to keep looking for you.”