Chapter 32
Georgia
Patched up and medicated, we—me, Stephanie, Rafe, and Laz—are ferried to an airfield under guard and loaded aboard another private jet. A Global Bombardier from the labels. I’m distrustful of private jets at this stage and this one has no Navarro markings.
“Rafe?” I have to ask, as we are escorted to the boarding stairs. “Do we know who this belongs to?”
“It’s okay.” He rests his hand on my shoulder. “It’s one of ours, just incognito through other holding companies. You’re safe, and once we’re home, you’re off to hospital.”
“I’m okay. It’s not that much blood. It just looks awful.”
“Shhh. We’ll let a doctor decide.”
“Okay.” I clasp my hand over his, deciding now is not the time for arguments.
I doubt I need a hospital. I’ve been stapled together and dosed with antibiotics and painkillers. A few times, my legs have felt disconnected and about to collapse, but I figure that’s the drugs.
When the plane surges forward into takeoff, on board are also a medic and two men I assume were part of the Navarro force, though they’ve changed into civilian suits. Rafe knows them so I try to relax.
Except how do you relax after everything that has happened to us?
I’m sitting in these luxurious, creamy-gray seats with Laz beside me and Rafe on the other side of the aisle.
Stephanie is seated forward of us and I decide to make her sit with us once we’re airborne.
I doubt she needs private time, though I guess I should ask.
She needs real humans, people who are wanting to help her though this.
“Three hours flight time,” Rafe says, leaning across, once we level off.
The blue sky out there is unbelievably pure, as if the world is trying to say sorry.
I fumble with my belt and Laz growls at me. “You need something?”
“I’m getting her to sit with us. Her head will be full of worries.”
“Sure. But you stay. I’ll get her.”
I frown as he does this, but I am tired and sore and the belt hurts, and… Really tired. I close my eyes as the cabin swims.
“Thank you,” I hear Stephanie say as she sits in the seat opposite.
“We’re taking care of you. Or else. You’re our precious package.” I squint at her and smile.
“Same then.” She reaches forward to pat my knee. “We saved each other.” Then she looks nervously at Rafe and Lazlo.
“Agree with that,” Rafe nods. “Now, I’ve had some…information given to me I should share. What happened here was a massive cleanup of a lot of bad men. First, Georgia, they’ve identified the man in the demon mask. It was Mitchell Hull, the man you met at the estate.” He waits for Laz to react.
“What? You’re serious?”
“I am. I also know he was not in the fraternity.”
Me, I’m keeping my mouth shut. Yet another shocker. Sir Ben’s neighbor was aiming to violate me, kill me eventually, I am sure, and will have done it a thousand times already to others. These men are poisonous spiders. How was Joseph connected to this?
Laz is staring blindly forward. “So, from that…Sir Ben’s son being killed may have had nothing to do with this network of filthy filmmakers? Was it politics? Were they trying to hurt Sir Ben? Why?” he finally asks Rafe.
“I don’t think anyone knows that, yet. Either way, no matter the answer, we’re going to take care of you, Stephanie, and make everyone”—he does air quotes—“help you in any way you need. If they don’t, this is going to become news.”
“It’ll be hushed up. If I learned anything from working for years for Sir Ben, it’s that the wealthy and powerful are good at covering their tracks. That said, I’m with Rafe. You’re getting cared for.”
I have almost closed my eyes, but I am smiling. “All for one…”
“One for all,” my men say in unison.
A few seconds later, “Me too,” Stephanie whispers.
“Good.” I lift my hand off the armrest, give a vague floppy motion. “And now… See you in London. Wait. Wait.” By pure will, I keep my eyes open. “How did they find us here? I mean there.” Because we are not there anymore. Thank god. “I have to know.”
Rafe clears his throat. “That is my fault. I had to lie to you both. After St Katherine’s and being followed, I felt it best to be sure we could be found if something happened, so I had them plant a tracker in my tooth.
It’s Navarro tech. The sacrifices I make.
” He holds the side of his face, grimaces.
“That reminds me, I have to get it removed ASAP.”
“You lied.” Lazlo tsks. “I think I can forgive you, like thousand times over.” He shakes Rafe’s hand. “Excellent play.”
“So he gets to lie, but I don’t?” I sigh. “I forgive you too but why couldn’t you say?”
Stephanie is watching this exchange with bright eyes. “Wow. This is so James Bondish.”
“They are pains, but you get used to them. Well?” I insist, pursing my lips. “You had a reason.”
“She wants to know,” Laz tells him, as if it isn’t obvious.
“There was a chance we were being bugged and I thought it best to keep it secret.”
“That is…” I nod a few times, slowly. “A good point. And it worked out in the end.”
We would’ve all been dead otherwise.
“You’re forgiven.” I slide down the seat and shut my eyes, murmuring. “Play some chess or something with Stephanie while I have a rest.”
When I wake, we’re in London and we’ve all been asleep, I’m informed. So I don’t feel so bad for being AWOL. After we leave the landing field, we are being split up from Stephanie. They’re still insisting I see another doctor and then maybe go to hospital.
Promises are exchanged before I let them take Stephanie to a hotel, where Rafe assures us she will be okay. Once the nuances are ironed out, her family will be informed.
Whatever that means.
The woman who supervises our arrival has clearly no intention of getting passports from any of us.
Red flag.
Again, Rafe assures us he is in the loop.
This is as underhand and unconventional as it gets, and there must be some government or departmental sleight-of-hand going on. I think I know why. I vaguely recognized Domino from a parliamentary news release, sometime within the past year.
And since demon mask was Mr. Hull, from an estate that is next to Sir Benjamin’s…oh what a wicked web we weave. Shakespeare, but it was tangled not wicked? Except wicked suits this better. The repercussions will be echoing across the land.
We are escorted to a limousine for the next leg. It’s not until we’re a few steps away from the limo door the chauffeur is holding open that Laz pops another big question.
“If one of them was in government and the other was rich, old Mr. Hull arguing with Sir Ben over that land sale, then who is Mr. Beast?”
I slide in next to Rafe then Laz squeezes in on my left.
We’ve buckled our belts, the car eases forward, and Rafe says quietly, “A very good question. I am told his face was too mashed for ID that way and then…the body vanished en route to here along with all DNA samples.”
“His blood was all over the floor,” I point out.
“That place has been burned and erased.”
“Rammed earth?” I frown.
“Someone’s still fucking with the facts.” Laz puffs out his mouth. “Shit.”
“Yes,” both Rafe and I say.
Very, very shit.