26. Stefan
STEFAN
The moment I walked in the door last night, I had told Tori everything.
“We have to stop him,” she’d said, flipping through the stack of printed emails with shaking hands, her jaw clenched.
“We will,” I had promised her.
Getting those documents to Gavin Chase’s brother at the DOD would go a long way toward making that happen.
It was lucky I’d been able to get all the pertinent information before ducking out of my father’s office—names and flight numbers, dollar amounts and rendezvous points.
Even with the coded language, it was clear that he was involved with illegal trafficking.
Within an hour of Tori leaving the condo for her morning classes today to pass off the information to Gavin at school, I got a call from the feds.
“This is everything we need to make an arrest,” Frank told me, sounding more confident than he ever had. “I’ve been waiting on the higher-ups for the green light, but this blows all that bureaucracy and red tape to shit. We’re gonna move fast. No more tiptoeing around.”
“Thank fucking god,” I said, relief washing over me like a tidal wave. The nightmare was almost over. “How soon?”
“You don’t have the security clearance to know the details,” he said, dropping his voice to a lower register, “but off the record, this might be the last night KZ spends outside a cell.”
When Tori came home, I gave her the good news.
“So you’re thinking tomorrow morning?” she asked.
“That’s what it sounds like,” I said. “I’ll head into work early just in case.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious? You can’t go to the office tomorrow.”
“I have to,” I told her, pulling her into my lap. “I need to see this through.”
“Stay home with me,” she begged. “I don’t want you anywhere near your father when the shit hits the fan. Who’s to say he won’t do something drastic when he’s cornered?”
“Like what? Go out shooting?” I said. “He doesn’t keep a gun at work.”
“Maybe not, but those agents will be armed. What if he tries to take you down with him? You’re not bulletproof.”
Her chin started to tremble, and I cupped her cheek and kissed her long and slow.
Once she’d relaxed in my arms, I leaned back and said, “I understand that you’re worried—you have every right to be. My father is a dangerous man with a volatile temper. But I’ve waited years to see him brought to justice. I need this closure. I promise I’ll be safe.”
“You can’t promise that.” She was blinking back tears. “You’re making a mistake.”
“I’m sorry,” I said gently, “but it’s not fair for me to leave everyone at KZM to deal with a raid without me there. Plus, my father might think something is up if I don’t go in. I don’t want to give him any reason to suspect tomorrow is anything but another normal day at the office.”
She let out a sigh and wrapped her arms even tighter around me, resting her head against my chest. I held her close, stroking her hair.
“You’re a good man, Stefan,” she said. “Please be careful.”
The next day—as planned—I woke up early, made love to my wife, showered and dressed and drank my coffee, and went into work. I’d given Tori an extra long kiss goodbye, promising to call her as soon as I had news.
It was impossible to concentrate on anything once I was in the office, though.
Sitting at my desk responding to emails, I tensed every time I heard footsteps coming down the hall.
My knuckles were white as I clutched a pen, staring blankly at a stack of papers, trying to give the illusion that I was vetting a pile of modeling contracts.
In reality, all I was doing was waiting.
The minutes dragged. The ticking of the clock seemed to echo in my brain as I struggled through a few calls that were scheduled on my calendar. Beneath my desk, my foot tapped impatiently. Nervously.
Then, at practically 10:00 am on the dot, just as I was turning the corner to enter the employee lounge, the doors to the agency burst open and swarms of black suited men poured in.
It was immediate chaos.
Through the glass walls of the lounge, I watched them infiltrate KZM.
I could hear shouts of confusion, a few screams, the sounds of filing cabinets being opened, the clang of them vibrating throughout the building.
Word of the raid spread like wildfire, going from office to office, and a few people began freaking out and scattering, running for exits with phones pressed to ears and keys in hands.
Most of them were unaware of what was really going on, having only worked for the legitimate side of the agency’s business, but there were a few more senior employees darting back and forth through the hallways, shifty-eyed and clearly in a panic.
Meanwhile, KZM’s main receptionist stood at her desk, her dark skin gone ashy, clutching her purse to her chest and looking around in confusion.
“Mr. Zoric? What’s happening?” she asked, spotting me through the glass.
“It’s okay,” I reassured her, finally coming out of the lounge to stand near her desk as agents began storming in our direction. “Just give them whatever they ask for.”
They wouldn’t find anything in her desk or my office, and I didn’t think they’d look that hard. What they wanted was my father—the person in charge. The rest of this was a charade. Everything they needed was already in their hands.
I headed back to my office, figuring it would be best to stay out of the way. As I walked down the corridor I could see, through office doors flung wide open, executives who were rifling through the contents of their filing cabinets or screaming into their phones.
“If you don’t keep your mouth shut, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born,” I heard one agent hiss into his cellphone as he shoveled papers into his shredder.
“You whore,” another was shouting at someone he had on speakerphone. “If I find out you’re responsible, you can consider your career a dumpster fire!”
Part of me wanted to stop and bash their faces in, or at least drag them to the nearest federal agent and offer them up for handcuffing, but I kept going, taking solace in the knowledge that the DOD would bring all the guilty parties to justice.
None of them would be getting away scot free.
My father’s office door was closed, and suddenly my stomach dropped at the thought that he had somehow escaped—but then I was grabbed from behind and pulled into an empty office.
Turning around, I found my father and brother standing there. Luka looked confused and terrified, while my father just looked purple with rage. I kept my own expression neutral.
“What’s happening?” I asked. “Who are these guys?”
“We need to get the fuck out of here,” my father yelled, ignoring my questions.
“How? They’re everywhere,” I pointed out, my tone affected by genuine anxiety.
“Stefan’s right,” Luka said, eyes darting left and right. “We’re trapped.”
“We’ll duck out through the back of the conference room,” my father said. “There’s a staircase that goes down to the basement, what used to be an old freight shaft. Let’s move.”
As he turned away, I saw the dark flash of a gun on my father’s hip, under his suit jacket. Tori had been right to worry.
“Come on,” Luka said, tugging my arm.
I had no choice but to follow.
In the conference room, door locked securely behind us, my father was babbling again.
“There’s already a car waiting for us. It’ll take us straight to a private jet, and we’ll be in the air before they even realize we’re gone. The fucking bastards.”
He was sliding over one of the soundproof panels off the wall, revealing an ancient-looking steel door that I hadn’t even realized was there. Though the office building had been renovated into a sleek, modern style, underneath it all the original architecture was still intact.
Fuck. I had known my father would be prepared, but I didn’t realize how prepared.
“We’ll start a new life—a new business—in another country,” he was saying. “South America, maybe the Bahamas. I have the passports and money all ready to go.” The door swung open, revealing only darkness behind it. My father motioned impatiently for us to follow him.
“Wait. I don’t understand,” Luka said. His eyes were wide and he looked like a little kid.
I hated that he was caught in the middle of this, hated that I hadn’t been able to protect him from our father. But I could take care of him now. Because there was no way in hell I was going to let my father take Luka out of the country—there was no way I’d let him get away.
“Christ, but you’re slow on the uptake,” my father sneered at Luka. “You want to stay here and rot in prison, or get the fuck out of here and start a new life?”
My brother hesitated. “I—I don’t know.”
Scrubbing his hands over his face in frustration, my father managed to flash his gun again. I could see Luka had noticed it, his eyes wide as he looked to me for help. For guidance.
“We can’t just drop everything and leave,” I said, trying to stall. There was no way I was going to tell my father that it was over for him—that I’d given him up to the feds—when he had a gun on his hip. “What about Emzee? And Tori?”
“Your sister’s not involved. They’ll leave her alone. And don’t tell me you’re still hung up over your god damn self-righteous bitch of a wife!” my father spat. “Has it not occurred to you that this could all be her fault?”
“She’s got nothing to do with this!” I lied vehemently. We were both breathing hard.
If I could just get him to stay in the building a little longer, the agents would find us. They had to be making their way to us even now, I just knew it.
But fuck if I wasn’t frustrated and pissed. They should have found my father first, gotten him into custody before they ever tried to spread out and take control of the entire office. Instead, I was the one who was going to have to keep him from leaving the country.
“Suit yourselves if you’re too brainless to save your own skins!” my father exploded. “I’m getting out of here.”
He ducked through the door, into the dark passageway beyond, sliding the wall panel back into place behind him.
Luka’s eyes bounced back and forth between the misaligned wall panel and me.
Swearing under my breath, I knew I didn’t have a choice.
“You go first,” I told Luka. “I’m right behind you.”
Quickly, I pulled out my phone and texted Tori.
911
kz escaping to garage in secret tunnel
tell agents now
Then I stepped over the threshold and pulled the wall panel closed behind me. I could only hope that she would get the message and alert the feds in time.