Chapter 43 Behind the Curtain
Behind the Curtain
My fist slammed against the side of his jaw, the blow knocking him clear off his ass and sending him straight to the concrete floor. I got in two more hits, busting his lip and eye before strong hands finally gripped me and yanked me back.
“Jason, stop!” Romero demanded as Anthony and Derick held me back from completely demolishing Matthew Rainer into the fucking ground.
“You lying piece of shit!” I roared, raging against their hold as Rainer spit blood onto the floor. “You fucked up that entire operation and betrayed our agreement. I should fucking end you right now!”
Rainer said nothing as his hand clutched his bruising jaw and slowly stumbled to a stand. The old warehouse we were in didn’t hold much light, but I could still clearly see the glare on his face from the accusation.
“I had no idea they were going to attack ahead of schedule,” he argued.
“I had to scramble to get my own team together in less than an hour to coordinate our attack at the same time, and it was almost damn near impossible. Either someone had miscommunicated something or Miguel was an even bigger fool than I thought.”
“Bullshit!” I retorted. “We never should have fucking trusted your word. I should have just infiltrated the suite myself and gotten Jaden the fuck out of there. We have the goddamn cloaking device. She doesn’t need to be there anymore.”
“But then who would have convinced Darren to go to the country estate, genius?” Rainer countered.
“I’m surprisingly impressed she actually managed to do it in the first place.
And besides, we already agreed you can’t be her contact anymore.
You can barely control yourself as it is.
The last time you saw her you nearly fucked everything up and almost went back for her.
We all agreed it’s best you stay away for now, remember? ”
I groaned aloud, because yeah, I fucking remembered. I remembered the inferno that burned deep in my chest as I watched Jaden walk into that beachside restaurant with him. As beautiful as she looked, I caught the slight limp in her step and the way he took her hand to help her inside.
It was just a single glance from the driver’s seat of a passing car, but five minutes later that was all it took for me to whip the car around and go back, even if it was just for a glimpse of her shadow.
Thankfully, Derick had been with me at the time and successfully brought me back to reality, but I’d gotten us about fifty yards away from that restaurant before I realized I’d be driving myself straight to my own damn death, and maybe even Derick’s.
That was when I knew I couldn’t be trusted with being that close to her anymore. That first time in Rome had nearly broken me. I never wanted to have to leave her behind again. So I just needed to stay away. For now.
“As much as I hate to admit it, Jason, he’s right,” Romero conceded. “We need Jaden to be there if we’re going to have any shot at taking this guy down. She made the attack possible in the first place. We may need her to do it again. Remember, she isn’t the only one we’re trying to save.”
I shook my head at Romero, knowing damn well we were making a mistake with this fucking guy.
“He doesn’t give a shit about any of that,” I reminded him. “As long as he gets Daniel, he won’t care if our plans fail or not. And he couldn’t even get the stupid fucker!”
Matt’s eyes flashed with fury as he took a step toward me. “Why the fuck would I want that mission to fail? I need Darren just as dead as you do to avoid his retaliation. That fucker will never stop until someone puts a bullet in his head.”
I scowled at him, my fists tightening as I imagined blackening one of his eyes next.
“Who the fuck knows with you,” I retorted. “We’ve been at this with you for months, and we’ve gotten no closer to ending this. Your intel and plans are proving to be inadequate and unreliable.”
Rainer shook his head as he glared back at me. “Believe what you want, it makes no difference to me, but the agreement remains the same. Either we can work together as a team and coordinate our efforts or we can go at it separately and most likely fail.”
My gut wrenched, knowing I had been this close to ending all of this, and this motherfucker still had the balls to deny it. I had one goal and one goal only.
Get. Jaden. Out.
That time had finally come. And then it was gone before I even knew it.
I could only imagine Jaden’s devastation right now. And it was gutting me from the inside out.
Derick grunted. “What’s the point of coordinating our efforts if your resources are unreliable? We just lost a huge advantage because you put your faith in the wrong enemy,” he scolded as he and Anthony released my arms from their hold.
“Like I said, if I had known Spade was going to attack the country estate a day earlier, I would have informed you sooner.”
“And why would they reject our assistance?” Anthony asked, his arms crossing over his chest as he stared Rainer down. “We could have ended that son of a bitch right then and there, and instead, Davis ended 80 percent of Miguel’s cartel the very same night. Some great collaboration that was.”
Rainer shrugged with a heated glare. “Apparently, I miscalculated Miguel’s ego. He was a prideful moron with no sense in his little coked-out brain. He wasn’t exactly a fan of accepting aid from what he considered a bunch of self-righteous gringos.”
I groaned and threw my hands into the air, enraged and in disbelief at the new bit of information. It might have been useful to know before agreeing to work with a drug lord who preferred to personally test his own product every week.
“Now he fucking tells us,” I said, ready to rip my damn hair out. “Why didn’t you warn us of that before?”
“And jeopardize the collab? You all were already suspicious of each other. I didn’t want to make it worse!” Rainer explained.
“A lot of fucking good that did!” I shouted in retort. “Any other surprise reveals you’d like to share tonight?”
Rainer’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Other than the fact that I agree on the self-righteous part? No. Though I don’t think that should come as a surprise to any of you.”
“Self-righteous? Seriously?” Romero challenged, taking a threatening step toward Rainer.
He sneered, blood tainting his otherwise perfectly white teeth. “That’s right. You’re all high on your own heroic nobility, but deep down, you’re nothing but a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers trying to even a score. Just like me.”
“Don’t try to compare us,” I barked. “We’re nothing like you.”
He cocked a brow as the corner of his mouth lifted. “Oh, you don’t think so? I know your body count, Jason. What you did to Darren’s surveillance team in Chicago? Even I didn’t anticipate that. Your bloodlust is getting out of control.”
I advanced on him, ready to knock his head off his fucking shoulders. I didn’t care how many bodies I had to stack to end this, I would not be deterred.
“Careful, Rainer, or I’ll add you to it,” I snarled, loving nothing more than to follow through on it.
I didn’t give a single fuck what this manipulative piece of shit thought of me. His judgment was meaningless. I wasn’t doing this to prove something to anyone, including myself.
I was doing it to get my fucking woman back. And if that meant I had to get my hands dirty, then I’d stain them until they were good and black before I let myself give up on her.
“Please,” Rainer taunted, dropping his chin. “You’ve accepted my weapons, my intel, and my funding. I doubt it’ll be much longer before you start accepting my employ once this is over.”
“Once this is over, you better pray we never cross paths again,” I shot back.
“This is just a means to an end,” Anthony interrupted, side-eyeing me. “You need our skills and ambition, and we need your resources and connections. Anything else outside of that is insignificant.”
“Fair enough,” Rainer stated, his gaze unwavering. “But we’ll need to come up with a new strategy now that Spade is out of the picture.”
Romero tilted his head as he narrowed his gaze. “What did you have in mind?”
“We need to attack more of Darren’s bigger resources,” Rainer answered.
“Bleed him dry. Disrupting the auction and rerouting the funds was good but not enough. There’s a small cartel in the Colombian jungle called the Lobos.
Darren supplies them with money, guns, and women, and they supply him with the best cocaine crop there is.
If we take them out, that’s a serious chunk of income gone, and it will rattle his other suppliers. ”
“And you want us to be the ones to take them out,” Derick stated with an eye roll.
“No, I’ll handle that operation,” Rainer answered. “Consider the information a sign of good faith.”
My mouth formed a straight line while my gaze narrowed, my suspicions solidifying in my brain.
“And how exactly do you plan on executing that?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
“I’ll be calling in a family favor,” he replied, his eyes meeting mine.
“You’ve got another resource we don’t know about?” Romero asked, his brow arching.
“Just trust me on this.”
I rolled my eyes and dropped my arms. This guy could not be fucking serious.
“We also need to do a better job of disrupting his weapons supply. Our isolated attacks to avoid detection were too small to really be effective. Now that our failed attack is over, we don’t have to contain the noise anymore. It’s time to ditch the subtlety.”
“Finally,” Derick griped. “I’d say it’s time to kick it up a notch.”
“The underground brothels he has in Vegas, the ones disguised as exclusive massage parlors that host much darker and more sinister natures. They’re the most lucrative. You can even get your kicks off knowing you’ll be ‘rescuing’ some of the whores when you dismantle it all.”
“Watch it,” Romero warned.