Chapter 35
Washington, DC
“Good evening, Mr. Sumners,” the beautiful flight attendant said as he climbed upon his private Learjet.
He gave her a nod and made his way to his seat.
Jeff sat down and looked out the window.
He’d known a trip to Europe would be coming, but he hadn’t expected to be making it now.
Especially with the virus working as well as it was.
Flying to Europe was going to bring scrutiny upon him.
Then again, he’d always been able to shrug off such things. He would again.
The gorgeous brunette smiled at him as she brought his whisky. “We’re about ready to depart. Don’t forget to buckle your seat belt.”
“Of course, not,” he replied as he took the drink and set it on the table in front of him.
He’d already slept with her twice. Some men had a thing for blondes. For him, it was brunettes. The smarter they were, the more he wanted them. He couldn’t stand anyone who was dumb. And he rewarded his employees very well.
He checked his watch to see the time before he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed. It was answered on the second ring. The tremor of fear he heard in Janice’s voice made him smile. “You failed.”
“I need more time,” she hurried to say.
“You’ve had plenty. I’m handling things on my own from here on out in regards to Maks.”
There was a beat of silence. “And what does that mean for me?”
In the background he heard the door of Janice’s home being busted down. He listened patiently as the phone dropped and there was a brief struggle. Then a moment later a deep voice said, “It’s done, sir.”
“You’ve never let me down. Good work. Take a few days off.”
The line went dead. Jeff set the phone on the table before him and looked out the window.
The plane lurched forward as it began taxiing down the runway.
His gaze landed on the woman. He really should try to remember her name, but names meant nothing to him.
She got him hard and gave him release. To add a cherry on top, she was so pretty that he couldn’t stop looking at her.
Unfortunately, there was a chance that she would contract the virus the Saints had unleashed upon the world. It was too bad, really. He liked her. However, there were a hundred women just like her waiting to take her place.
And they were always eager to work for him—and spread their legs.
They never hesitated to do whatever he requested because they got paid handsomely.
That was everything in the world. It all came down to money.
Who had it, who knew how to make it, and who knew how to use it to their advantage.
There was so much money in his accounts now that he couldn’t spend it all if he tried.
He mocked the stupid ones who gave away their fortunes to help the needy.
Didn’t anyone understand that the poor and needy would always be like that unless they learned how to pull themselves out of the muck like he had?
In his opinion, if they didn’t have the will or drive to make something of themselves, then they needed to remain just as they were.
Jeff settled back with his drink as the plane soared through the air, headed toward Romania of all places. He’d never cared for the country, but then again, he wasn’t going there on holiday. He was headed there because that’s where Maks was.
He swirled the amber liquid in his glass, thinking back to the years he’d known Maks and the Petrov family. From an early age, he’d seen something in Maks that alerted him to the potential waiting to be found. And had he found it.
Maks didn’t know it, but he had been the one to push Maks to join the military. It was all done behind the scenes, so no one knew. The way Maks had blossomed in the Army had been more than what Jeff had expected. Much more.
After that, it had taken nothing to get Maks to go down the roads he wanted. Jeff just had to open certain doors for him and wait, and Maks unknowingly complied. Things had gone exactly to plan. Right up until Maks met that stupid woman.
Just when Jeff thought he’d have to kill her, he’d found another use for the bitch.
She had fallen into the fold rather easily.
It had been almost too simple to convince her that Maks needed the Saints as much as the Saints needed him.
All would’ve worked out perfectly. It should’ve worked out like the rest of Jeff’s plans. But things had gone sideways.
When Maks left Stacy, the woman was severely wounded, half his team was dead, and he was a changed man.
Enough that Jeff became concerned that he wasn’t going to be able to recruit Maks.
The rest of the Elders began to doubt his vision of Maks taking his place one day.
Jeff was able to convince them to give Maks another try.
They spent weeks surveilling him, waiting to see if Maks would go to someone and begin looking into the Saints since they didn’t know everything Stacy had told him before Maks shot her.
Jeff agreed with two other Elders that the woman might have told Maks everything in a last-ditch bid to get him to their side. Thankfully, Jeff worried for nothing.
Once they were assured that Maks was walking down the path they wanted again, Jeff made sure that Maks was offered a position with the CIA. It was right up Maks’ alley. Sure enough, he took it. After proving himself there, Jeff made sure that Maks was moved to Russia to infiltrate the FSB.
Maks kept performing just as expected. He had no idea he was taking out targets sent by the Elders. Jeff made sure that Maks had so many orders and missions coming from both the CIA and the FSB that he had no time to consider anything else. And Maks hadn’t.
Until a week ago.
Jeff drained the last of the whisky. He was getting old. Too old to be doing this shit. Maks should be with him, being groomed to take his place the moment Jeff died. Instead, Maks had fooled them all.
He still couldn’t believe that Maks had betrayed them. Jeff had kept such a close eye on him. How could this have happened? Unless…
“No,” Jeff whispered to himself.
There was no way that Maks had been planning this since he believed his lover died.
There’s no way someone could’ve walked away from their life, their family, to hunt down an organization the size and scope of the Saints.
It would be suicide. And Maks was smarter than that.
Yet there was a part of Jeff that knew Maks was smart enough and patient enough to do just that.
Jeff briefly closed his eyes and sighed. “This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.”
He didn’t want to kill Maks, but the man was giving Jeff no other option. Since no one seemed to be able to bring Maks in, it was now up to Jeff to stop all of this nonsense. The future of the Saints, the future of the world depended on it.