More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (11 page)

I sat back in the chair
at my desk and looked at Coleman and Mace. We’d only just come back to Dallas and I was seriously behind with the work that needed to be done, but this was more important. 

“So far, I haven’t picked up on anything suspicious here,” Baz said over the secure line from Singapore.  

“My men and I have been looking at every avenue,” Mace said. He had gone to ground with his buddies from the Marines and the months of shit that he’d, no doubt, had to wade through showed with his messy hair and the beard that was growing. “So far, we have the description of a tall, thin man buying some chemicals and a beige car which he apparently got into. Neither description gives us much to go on, though, but we’re still trying.” 

Coleman shifted in his seat and looked at me and I just knew from the look on his face that I wasn’t going to like what he said. He was a big guy with tattoos that were mostly covered by his suits, when he wore one, but were highly visible when he was dressed casually. He and Mace knew each other from the Marines, but Coleman had been in there longer and had got out a year before Mace had. He had set up Swift, his security company, which then anchored itself to me and the rest was history. They did do some private jobs with a team that he kept specifically for them, but the bulk of his team worked for me, especially at the moment.  

“We’ve been looking into who might have an issue with both your family and the Montgomery’s. I’m sorry to say that the two don’t look like they are connected; which is what we had thought to begin with. With regards to your family, we looked into previous business dealings to see if we found someone that might be holding a grudge,” shifting again he cleared his throat. “Brett, there were quite a few people who might be to blame. Now that we have a possible description of the suspect though, we’re including that in one of our searches.” 

“Why do you think that this is business and not personal?” I didn’t know what difference it would make, but I needed to know the answer to this. 

“We don’t,” Coleman replied in his normal brusque way. “This adds even more suspects onto the list, so Tanner is analyzing the information that we’ve found and ruling people out.” 

“Why is someone going after the Montgomery’s then?” 

“More than likely for the same reasons,” Mace spoke up. “They’ve won a lot of contracts recently and that’s bound to have got them some enemies. Or maybe it’s personal, like with your family; we just don’t know at this stage.” The ticking of his jaw was the only thing that showed that the shrug he gave wasn’t as blasé as it looked. “I hate to interrupt,” Baz said, still on speakerphone. “But have you ever thought that perhaps someone is orchestrating this?” 

We all murmured in agreement with him on that, but what Mace said next shot my frustration levels through the roof. 

“If that’s the case, then this is going to be even more difficult. Looking for a bomb expert with a description is one thing, looking for two people who are basically acting as hit men and saboteurs is another thing. But who do we look at who has a grudge against one family and who knows someone who has a grudge against another family and who can get everything synced up to this magnitude with all of those parties involved? That’s power on another level and people with that power often make sure that there are no loose ends and that they’re squeaky clean.” 

“That fucker almost killed one of my men, one of my brothers! I don’t give a flying fuck who they are and what power they have; I’m going to fucking kill them,” Coleman ground out. He was always so calm and rational, but this was pissing everyone off. 

“A buddy of mine runs Seal Security in Kansas City, and they’re shit hot at shit like this. So I made the call, and me and Coleman spoke to the boss Neil this morning,” Mace said. “They’re going to help us out and see what they can find on the fucks doing this.” 

Mulling this over, I squeezed the stress ball that I kept in my top drawer for moments when all I wanted to do was beat the shit out of something and couldn’t. Well, people would talk if I started doing that mid meeting or in my office, so I had to go for the next best thing - the ball buster as my little bro Tom called it. 

A thought hit me. “Everyone fucks up at some point; no one can organize something like this and have everything linking it to them hidden. Something is going to come out and when it does we’ll catch it, and then they’re mine.” I’d started thinking about what I would do to the bastard responsible after Luke and Maya’s accident. Then my one that followed it, and the plans had grown since then.  

“You got a concealed permit?” Mace asked, knowing full well that all the men in my family had them. Shit, even Mom and Gran had them, and I gave him a brusque nod in return. Then his lips twitched, “Did you hear that Ren is teaching Maya how to shoot?” 

I couldn’t help it, I threw my head back and roared. Maya jumped whenever we went out shooting cans, so the mental image of her shooting…that sobered me up.  

“Is he insane?” 

Mace was still laughing. “Thank fuck I’m not around for it man. Apparently, she missed Lars by four inches last week.” Coleman shifted in his chair looking slightly amused, which was unbelievable, considering that it was one of his guys who’d almost got the ick. “Said his blinking distracted her!” 

That made me laugh again, Maya was a spitfire; a hilarious spitfire. She would try and talk her way out of any situation with the funniest excuses, and the pranks she played on Cole beat any that we’d done as kids, hands down. Ren had his hands full there. The fact that she had to learn to shoot and that people were taking their lives into their own hands teaching her, pissed me off. I’d sworn it before, but I’d swear it again - they were all going to pay and I was going to make it as painful as possible. 

Chapter

NINE

? 

S
miling, I gave the fuck
praise even though no one had been killed. 

“I love what you did. It’s unfortunate that no one was killed though!” I wouldn’t give him too much, he’d still failed. So far he’d had multiple opportunities and not one had given us a body bag. 

“There were…extenuating circumstances that I couldn’t have changed.” 

All I ever heard from people was excuse after excuse and it was really starting to fucking get to me.  

“You were the best in your unit, no?” I already knew he had been and that’s the only reason he had got this job. 

“Yes, Sir!” 

“
THEN FUCKING GET ME SOME FUCKING BODIES!”
I roared. “From now on, we attack until they don’t know what direction we’re coming from!” 

I switched off the burner phone and threw it in the fire that was going beside me. I’d open a new one later. Tightening my tie and smoothing down my suit jacket, I walked back to my desk and looked at the screen to double check the time. Ironically, George Montgomery and I had a meeting in an hour about a new contract. Maybe I could have used this to deal with my issue once and for all, but why dirty my hands when I had someone else to do it for me. Besides, a cat plays with his mouse before that final strike, and I still had quite a few mice to play with… 

“?” 

Throwing the piece of shit
burner phone into the corner of the room, I started pacing. Once I got this shit done, I was going to kill that psychotic fucker, and I’d make sure that it was done slowly and painfully.  

I couldn’t have known that it wouldn’t be Luke Montgomery that went to his house and tripped the bomb. I also couldn’t have known that Cole Townsend would be the one to turn on the ignition on the chick’s car, and remotely, too. When a bomb is set, I could control how it exploded, how big the explosion was, where it exploded, but I couldn’t control factors like who exploded it. Both of those bombs would have worked if it wasn’t for that unforeseen bullshit, so who the fuck did he think he was talking to? 

It also pissed me off that I hadn’t known that Luke Montgomery wasn’t in the country. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that he’d gone to Singapore to his little slut. His plane's manifest had been muddled around, though, so I was waiting to hear back from a contact of mine where it had finally landed. Once I knew that, I could look at taking him out of the equation. The little bitch, though, she might be fun! 

I felt guilty thinking like that because of Red. I hadn’t seen her today and I needed to get my fix. Today, I’d change my routine. I was going to go and see her and smell her; the thought of it made me hard. Then, I’d let her do her nightly performance for me, that always helped me come up with the best plans. 

Chapter

TEN

I
sla
 

T
he breeze making the white
gauze that hung in front of the windows blow towards me was one of the most beautiful things to wake up to. The most beautiful was the man who was pressed against my back while he slept with his arm around me.