Coup de grace an ops pro.., p.27
Coup De Grâce: An OPS Protector Romance, page 27
“Rae,” I barked out harsher than necessary as I answered. Setting the phone down, I put it on speakerphone for everyone to hear.
“Boss…”
“What is it?”
“A news report, boss.” She cleared her throat, very unlike Rae. “Boss…”
“Whatever it is, just tell me.”
Silence greeted me for an entire minute before she continued. “We got a call from local LEOs out in Colorado.”
“And?” My heart thundered in my chest as I waited for the news. Claire. It had to be about Claire. And if the LEOs were involved, it wasn’t good.
“Boss, they responded to a 9-1-1 call. When they entered, they found Claire on the floor with a knife in her chest.”
My eyes slipped closed as the weight of the package I held finally sank in.
“He was with her,” I murmured, knowing it before she even said anything.
“Yes,” she answered quietly. “He was with her. Along with four other men. All of them dead. Michael was…he didn’t go down without a fight. I’m so sorry, boss.”
The package felt like a lead weight in my hands, ready to explode as the news of my father’s demise hit me. I glanced over at Knight, but the look on his face was the same cold expression he always wore. Then again, he hadn’t had contact with our father in years before this whole mess started.
Michael had left him and his mother behind for my mother. So, if anyone had a reason to be pissed at the man, it was Knight.
“Thanks, Rae.”
“As soon as I have the names of the other men, I’ll send them over to you.”
“And crime scene photos,” I cut in.
“Boss, do you really—”
“Just get them,” I snapped, feeling slightly unhinged.
“On it, boss.”
I hung up without another word, staring at the envelope in my hands for a good minute before I finally broke the seal and pulled out the contents. I didn’t see a thing.
My mind was replaying the fact that my father was dead. Killed alongside Claire, who didn’t deserve any of this after the shit she’d been through. Whatever Michael had done, it finally came back to bite him in the ass. The Shadow Government wouldn’t stop until we were all dead, and apparently, that included my father now.
Pulling out the documents, I spread them on the table, allowing everyone else to see them, but my fingers clutched the letter that was inside.
Cash,
If you’re reading this, that means I’m dead. I instructed these documents to be delivered to you upon my death. Don’t ask me how the courier knows where to deliver them. You’d only hate me for it.
I’ve included the last information you need to take out the Shadow Government. Be smart, just like I taught you. There’s only one way to end this, and that’s by taking out the linchpins. Iron, Brick, Watch, and Lock are the four key players. Take them out and the rest of the Shadow Government crumbles.
I don’t know when it’s going to happen, and if this reaches you after the event, I’ll already be too late to stop it. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
The plan was put in motion over twenty years ago. At the time, it was a scenario we used to catapult our cause into the right position. It was never intended to go through unless certain things didn’t align. But men are greedy, and that has taken over the Shadow Government.
It has twisted their minds into doing things that would cause worldwide destruction. End this. Even if it costs you your life, this has to be stopped. There’s no other way.
I’m sure you probably hate me by now, and I won’t try to make excuses for what I’ve done.
Use this information and end their reign.
Michael
That was it? After all the shit he’d put us through, there was no personal message? Nothing to explain his actions? I didn’t know if he was a good guy or a bad guy. I had my suspicions, but nothing was confirmed.
That’s seriously what Knight and I were left with?
I handed the letter over to Knight, still confused as hell, but he just snorted and tossed it aside.
“What do we have?” I asked, trying to focus on the task at hand.
“Fucking World War III,” Thumper muttered. “Literally.” He handed me a document that laid out plans for an assassination of the President of the United States. “It would be made to look like the assassination is in retaliation for you taking out President Codi.”
“Except, I didn’t take out President Codi,” I muttered.
“No, but the entire world thinks that you did,” IRIS pointed out.
“A retaliation by their government would light the fuse,” Kavanaugh said. “There would be no stopping the events that followed.”
“Like I said, World War III,” Thumper muttered. “If they succeed in killing the president, there will be no stopping any of this.”
“Then we have to stop it. Clearing my name just took a back seat to the fact that someone is going to kill the president. We need to be on a flight to the United States now.”
“Boss, there’s just one problem,” Thumper pointed out. “There’s no way in hell anyone in their right mind would let you into the country.”
“No problemo,” FNG grinned. “I think we can work out a simple solution.”
“FNG, no offense, but I don’t think smuggling Cash into the US with a shipment of wine is going to do the trick.”
I would have laughed in amusement at IRIS’s comment, but Kavanaugh was right. There was no way for me to get back into the US, and if we didn’t stop this, I was as good as dead anyway.
“Like I would really try smuggling him in with wine,” he scoffed. “Seriously, did you guys all forget that I have contacts everywhere from my year abroad? I am literally the most well-connected out of all of us!”
“Well, whatever your plan is, put it together fast. We have to get back to the US and find the linchpins and take them out before they start a fucking world war.”
“I’m on it, boss, like white on rice.” He started to leave, but turned back to us. “Maybe more like knives in an umbrella. Do you think that phrase could catch fire?”
“Go!”
“This is a fucking stupid idea,” I muttered as I limped across the frozen tundra. “We’re gonna get killed.”
“Like you haven’t already risked that?” Thumper snorted. “You were going to go this way, anyway.”
“Yeah, but that was when I was on my own. Besides, now I have more people with me and I’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“Relax, it’ll be fine,” FNG grinned, rubbing his hands together as we headed toward the house in the middle of fucking Russia.
The door opened and a very large, very Russian male stepped out, his face splitting into a grin as we approached. “FNG!”
“Ivan!” FNG ran at him, leaping into his arms for a big Russian hug. It was weird. I would never understand their relationship. How did an ex-KGB agent develop a friendship with FNG of all people? It didn’t make sense.
“Man, it’s so good to see you. How’s Marta?”
“She is good. Very, very good,” he laughed uproariously. “But that is story for another time. Come, come. We drink.”
“Ah, actually, I need a favor, and time is of the essence.”
“Is good favor, no?”
“No.”
“Then we drink,” Ivan grinned. “Come. We discuss over vodka.”
I rolled my eyes as Ivan waved us all inside. We didn’t need to get drunk. We needed to get out of Europe and back to the United States.
“Relax, boss. You know Rae’s on it. She won’t let us down,” IRIS said.
“Yeah, but we have no idea when this is going down. We have to find the four linchpins, take them out, and prevent a world war. It’s not exactly a small ask.”
“Well, your old man definitely wasn’t one for doing things the easy way,” Kavanaugh chuckled.
“It’s fucking cold over here,” Knight muttered, his eyes searching the tree line for any threats. “Who lives like this?”
“I believe you did for a while,” I pointed out.
“Not in fucking Russia.”
We stepped into the house and kicked the snow from our boots. FNG was already by the fire, downing shots with the mad Russian. There was no way we were getting out of here if they hit the vodka too hard.
“Come, come,” he waved us over. “We drink. Then we save the world.”
I shot daggers at FNG for daring to tell him anything. He might trust Ivan, but I sure as hell didn’t.
But I walked over to him and took a seat, ignoring the twinges of pain in my body. I was loaded up on more drugs than I ever thought possible, and they were doing the job reasonably well.
“So, is good job, no?”
“Oh, it’s so good, Ivan. You’d love it.”
“Come, tell me.”
“Well—”
“Hey!” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at FNG.
“What? He’s trying to help us out.”
“And you don’t think this information might be a little too tempting to someone like him?”
Ivan chuckled as he took another shot. “I like you. Very untrusting. Is good in our line of work.”
“My line of work isn’t the same as yours,” I pointed out.
“No?” He looked at me like he knew exactly what I had been up to, and the longer he stared at me, the more I realized the “ex” in ex-KGB might very well just be for show.
“What exactly do you know?”
He shrugged, grinning at me. “Is good to have friends.” He raised his shot glass and looked me dead in the eye. “To the end of the world.”
I cocked my head at him, refusing to toast to that.
“No? Ah, so you are on side of us all being friends.” He chuckled again. “Then perhaps you trust your friend to get you where you need to go.”
Against my better judgment, I lifted a shot glass and toasted, hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake. “To us all being friends.”
He clinked my glass and we both downed the contents. I was pretty sure mixing alcohol with my meds was not a good idea, but it wasn’t like I could deny the mad Russian when he was trying to help us.
“So, we save the world.” He pounded his fists on the table and shoved back from the table. “Good. We go.”
35
SCOTTIE
“Would you get your feet off the controls?” I griped at Max.
The fucker was lounging back in the co-pilot’s seat, drinking directly from the bottle. Hell, I could smell the alcohol wafting off him from here. I wanted to pull that straw hat down on top of his head and slap that cigar out of his mouth. How the hell did Christa put up with him?
“Is there a reason you felt the need to bring the whole fucking bottle of scotch?”
He took a long swig, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yes.”
“And that would be?”
“I didn’t want to vomit on the flight,” he shrugged. “See, you may not have a problem vomiting mid-air, but I most definitely do. I prefer to be drunk over a complete fucking wreck.”
I rolled my eyes, checking my controls one last time. We were sitting ducks out here at the Ass End of Nowhere, Russia. But we couldn’t leave until Cash got his ass over here and we flew him home. The whole plan depended on him being in the United States when everything went down. Otherwise, it wasn’t a sure thing that we would clear his name.
And even then, there was a possibility he could get thrown in Guantanamo Bay.
“Put out the cigar,” I snapped, my anger rising by the second. I wasn’t sure what was getting to me more, but the whole persona he had going on really grated on my nerves. Just once, I wanted things to go smoothly, and it felt like a fucking omen, having him on this trip with all that alcohol.
“Geez, you are so cranky today. You know what you need?”
“For you to get the fuck off this plane.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a good lay or—”
“Do not finish that sentence.”
“Like I said. Uptight. You know, you never used to be this way.” He tipped his hat back, showing me his eyes. “When I first arrived, I’d say you were a lot more loose. What the fuck happened?”
I slowly turned my gaze toward him, shooting daggers with my eyes. “Do you really need to ask that?”
His blunt nails scratched his beard slowly. “Well, I’m thinking that’s a yes since I asked.”
Fucking unbelievable. “Our boss is on the run, we’re in fucking Russia, my co-pilot is drunk off his ass…Do I really need to say more?”
He shrugged noncommittally.
I scoffed, turning my attention back to the runway. And thankfully, our package had arrived. With this trip, I was lucky enough to have a bigger plane, which meant a door between the cockpit and the back of the plane.
No more distractions. No risk of anyone coming up here and touching buttons or pulling levers. I would finally be free to shut out the world and do things the way they should be done.
Well, if only I had a real co-pilot.
“They’re here,” I snapped, grabbing his attention momentarily.
He tipped his hat up again, peeking out the window. “So they are.”
I rolled my eyes. It was like he didn’t even care. “Look, do me a favor and just forget that you’re up here.”
“Kind of hard to do my job like that.”
“Like you’re really doing a job anyway. Let’s face it. You’re drunk and won’t be of any use.”
“You know, I resent that. I do some of my best work when I’m drunk.”
“Not today, you’re not. I will not end up in the ocean, freezing my ass off, because you decide to take the controls.”
“But—”
“No!” I said firmly. “Just sit there like the good little boy I know you can be. Smoke your cigar and pretend you’re on the beach somewhere.”
“But—”
“I’m not arguing with you about this!” I could feel my temper rising, but this job was too important to fuck up. “Not a word. I don’t want to hear a peep out of your mouth. Am I understood?”
He rolled his eyes, miming zipping his lips.
“Thank you.”
I marched into the back, greeting our guests as they arrived. Not that my teammates were guests, but when in a foreign country…
“It’s about time you guys arrived.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” IRIS grunted sarcastically. “You know, traveling across the frozen tundra and all.”
“Whatever. One more minute here and I might have shot Max.”
“Why? What did he do this time?”
“Nothing,” I muttered, motioning them all to sit down.
Cash looked a little worse for wear as he climbed the steps. Bruises covered his face and he limped slowly, grunting to me as he passed. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Any time. Although I’m not sure our plan will be as effective in the state you’re in.”
“I’ll be fine.” He gripped my shoulder gently, showing just how fucked up he was. “Good to see you.”
“Yeah, you too,” I muttered, though I couldn’t help but wonder if he was in any condition to do this. He looked like shit, but with a sharp look from Eva, I kept my trap shut. “Ready for this?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Knight nudged her ahead. “Just get us to the drop zone. We’ll handle the rest.”
I saluted him, rolling my eyes at his cool demeanor. When they were all in, I raised the stairs and secured the door. With any luck, this would be the easiest job I’d been on in a while.
If I was lucky.
After securing my own door and checking everything one last time, I pointed us toward the makeshift runway and picked up speed. The flight would be short, less than an hour, but the difficult part was making sure I got them to the drop zone in the window provided where the rest of the team would be waiting.
From there, they would split up, taking different routes to finish off the four men who this whole fucking war hinged upon.
No big deal.
We were in the air for a little over half an hour when I started to get that sick feeling twisting in my gut. It had to be something I ate. After all, we weren’t even in danger. Everything was completely fine.
Yet…
My stomach rumbled dangerously and I leaned forward, trying to push down the threat bubbling inside. When that didn’t quell the need to vomit, I knew what I had to do.
“Max.”
He didn’t respond.
“Max, I need you.”
Again, he didn’t say a word.
“Fucking hell. Max!”
He tipped his hat slightly. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”
“Take the controls.”
“Oh, no,” he chuckled. “No can do. I’ve been relegated to my chair, with strict instructions not to touch a thing.”
“Forget what I said. I need the head.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait.”
“It’s an emergency.”
“Well, perhaps you should have thought about it before you told me to sit here like a good little boy and…what was it? Pretend I’m on a beach somewhere?”
He pulled his hat back down and ignored me.
The churning in my stomach grew insistent. Fuck, this was bad. I put the plane on autopilot, hoping this wouldn’t take long. I was in the bathroom just moments later, spewing my guts.
Holy shit. This hadn’t happened in a long fucking time. What the fuck was wrong?
I didn’t have time to figure it out right now. I had a plane to fly. I headed back to the cockpit and just closed the door when something wrapped around my neck and was yanked back.
I tried to suck in air, but couldn’t do a damn thing as a taser was shoved into my side, zapping me with what felt like fifty thousand volts. My body wriggled, fighting for control as whatever was around my neck tightened.
I was losing hard, barely still awake, but had the forethought to use what little strength I had left to slam my elbow back into the fucker holding me.
Air rushed into my lungs momentarily and I escaped just long enough to cry out for my co-pilot. “Max!”
