Chapter Thirteen #3
not my fault his nose got in the way of my fist,” Sami said with a negligent
shrug as she sank into her seat.
“Oh, I miss fight,” Sosa said with a frown. “It is only
thing I live for.”
Kala had her phone out. “Got it on video for you. Texting it
now.”
“It absolutely is your fault,” Oliver replied, holding a
cold bag to his nose. “I did not walk into your fist. You humiliated me on a
public street. I have a reputation to uphold, and it doesn’t involve getting my
ass kicked by my sister. Also, I had to take public transportation. I couldn’t
even get a cab. Do you know how horrible that is for me?”
“I was working,” Sami argued. “I was working on an important
case, but you called me and lied.”
Oliver slumped into his chair. “Well, if I’d asked you to
pick me up because I had a rough day and didn’t want to get on the Tube with a
possible concussion, would you have come?”
“Of course not,” Sami said. “I would have sent someone else
because you can’t get a concussion.”
“I certainly can,” Oliver retorted.
Sami huffed. “You have to have a brain to get a concussion.”
“Do I have to claim them?” Penny asked. “We could say we
found them in the forest.”
“Is it always this chaotic?” Mal asked.
Vivian winced. “I’m afraid so, yes.”
His lips curled up. “Good. Come here. Your dad’s not around
to go hysterically blind again.”
He pulled her onto his lap and secured that big muscular arm
around her waist.
“I am here,” Cooper pointed out. “My eyes are important,
too.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” Kenzie said, her eyes glossy with
unshed tears. “Our Vivi found her dream Dom.”
“His name is Malcolm. We don’t have to call him that outside
a club,” her brother protested.
She wrinkled her nose Cooper’s way. “I can get you earplugs
if you like.”
“Or we could get on to the meeting,” her uncle offered.
“Damon spent the afternoon calming the police down. Our people will have no
charges brought, but you should know it took the MI6 director getting
involved.”
Vivian didn’t like the sound of that. “What was Mal supposed
to do, Uncle? Was he supposed to let those men kill more people?”
Her uncle sat back with a sigh. “I’m not saying that. You
did well today, Vivi, and I was impressed with how Mal handled things, and even
Oliver dealt with his injury in a proper manner and still took out one of them.
I simply wish one of you would have clipped your guy. I could use some
information.”
“That’s precisely why Lucy is here,” Damon explained with a
long sigh. “I called Lucy from the station and had her start on identifying our
potential kidnappers. Sami, too. Or she would have helped had she not ended up
driving Mal and Vivi around for a sex afternoon.”
Cooper groaned. She might need those earplugs.
Lucy sat up and tapped her folder. “I sent some of this to
you earlier, but I’ll go over it again for the agents who just joined and for
the black hole who also joined us, though no one invited her.” Kala’s eyes
rolled but she didn’t say anything. “Our bad guys have records around Europe.
Assault and kidnapping, but it appears that they also have someone taking care
of them as most of the charges brought were eventually dropped due to lack of
evidence. I would bet it was due to bribes or influence. I think these guys
were connected to The Chateau.”
“Why?” Kala asked flatly.
“I’ve traced their bank accounts with businesses we’ve
connected to The Chateau,” Lucy replied and shoved a folder Kala’s way. “While
some of us are fucking around with pilots, the rest of us are working.”
“Uhm, it’s not fucking around,” Cooper protested. “We’re
married.”
Kala frowned and waved Lucy off. “I’m excellent at
multitasking. Would you like an example?”
“Yes.” Sosa clapped her hands together like a delighted
child.
“We’ve had enough proof that our children can balance work
and sex,” Charlotte replied. “Please, baby, think of your father’s heart.”
Kala grunted, a sound she’d perfected over many years of
bluster. She opened the file and started looking through it.
Lucy continued. “Sami and I also pulled up some intel from
the Dark Web.”
“Well, I did before my brother forced me to be his limo
driver,” Sami said. “Asshole.”
“Fine. I’ll never ask you to drive again. You know you’re
terrible at it,” Oliver complained. “I swear you hit every pothole in London
last week.”
“Our ride was quite smooth,” Mal said with a nod Sami’s way.
“You were excellent. I would hire you again.”
“Lucy, please continue,” Penny prodded.
“We believe they were being paid to kidnap someone at that
restaurant,” Lucy explained. “We don’t know who. I believe all of that was arranged
several days ago. Philip Lanton had a flat near here. He was the one in the
restaurant lobby. I broke in and grabbed his laptop before the police could. I
think they’re still trying to ID the guy.”
Damon looked up from his notes. “You were careful?”
Lucy nodded. “Wiped the security cams, and no one will
remember me. What we suspect him of doing isn’t something the police can
handle. They’ll have to call intelligence in. I saved MI6 some paperwork.” She
turned to Big Tag. “Tag, I already gave Charlotte the quick version. The rest
is in those files.”
“Your work is excellent, as always,” her uncle said. “Tell
me what you know about the kidnapping plot, especially who the target was.”
Lucy winced slightly. “I haven’t figured that out. They used
a codename in the messages over the web.”
“Let me guess,” Mal said, his arm tightening around her
waist. “The blonde?”
Lucy nodded.
“Now, I once knew a dude who knew this Italian dude who was
an assassin, and they called him Il Biondo,” her uncle mused. “I would think he
would be retired by now, but are we sure that’s not someone they were trying to
hire?”
“It was definitely the target, and the target is referred to
as a she,” Lucy said.
“We know they wanted a blonde woman who was going to be in
that restaurant at that time,” Sami agreed. “The whole deal went down three
days ago. Until then, I don’t think they had any idea they would be working
that day. I believe the actual details were given at an in-person meeting
somewhere in the city. I don’t know yet because a lot of this is in code, and
I’m not as good as Mum. Who really shouldn’t be cross with me.”
Penny nodded her daughter’s way. “I’m not really. Your
brother is a menace. I’ve taken a look at the code, and I think I can have
something for you in a week or two. It doesn’t look intricate, but I do believe
it’s actually in French, which was confusing at first.”
“Well, that would go along with the idea that we’re dealing
with The Chateau,” Charlotte commented. “The question is what connection do
they have to the people in that restaurant?”
“They were coming for our table,” Oliver said, sounding more
serious than he had in hours. “I know they were coming for us. We were at the
back of the dining room.”
“They could have been confused,” Damon offered.
“I doubt that.” Lucy held up a piece of paper. “On his
laptop, I found a layout of the dining room, including the way they number the
tables. If you would look, you can see they circled one along with the date and
time.”
Vivian sat up slightly. She’d studied something similar, and
so she knew exactly what she was looking at. “That’s our table and the time of
our reservation.”
“And there were two blonde women there,” her uncle said. “Is
there any reason to believe this was about Vivian?”
“It’s about Tatiana,” Oliver said. “I’ve always suspected
there was something odd about her family. They’re extremely wealthy. Much more
wealthy than they should be if you look at them on paper. There’s also the fact
that we know Tatiana was kidnapped as a child. She was eight at the time.”
“But they paid the ransom, correct?” Kala asked.
“They did,” Oliver replied. “Which is why they think she
might be worth more now. She’s about to marry into an even wealthier family.
They think the payday will be even bigger. It worked before.”
“That’s one theory,” Mal said. “But there was another blonde
sitting there.”
“I considered that, too,” Charlotte said. Sosa had moved to
the seat to Charlotte’s left. “It seems farfetched.”
“Not if The Chateau thinks Sosa still hasn’t told us
everything,” Mal said quietly.
Damn it. She wished he’d held this for a private time. The
young woman didn’t need more guilt. “Sosa is working at her own pace. She’s
told us what we need to know.”
Sosa looked at her, and she could have sworn she saw a flash
of something in the young woman’s eyes. Regret. Or guilt. Vivian knew she’d
been holding back, but they couldn’t force her.
“I am telling everything that you need. Some things are
private,” Sosa said quietly. “If you do not trust me, I can leave.”
“No one is asking you to leave,” her uncle said. “Though it
might be time to take you back to Dallas.”
Sosa’s eyes flared, and then she seemed to calm. An odd
reaction since she always talked about wanting to stay with Ian and Charlotte.