Sins of the Father (32 page)

“
Hi, Larry,
it’s wonderful…” The expression on her face was comical. It seemed
to scream, ‘something’s wrong with this picture’. “You’re not
Larry, you’re-”

Her body crumpled to the
ground before she could finish the rest. Paul looked up at Joe
Wood, the bear posing as a member of the security team. It had
taken seconds for him to disable Alicia’s assistant. No dramatic
blow to the head for Joe. He’d barely moved – just a flick of the
wrist and she was out for the count.

“
Impressive,”
Paul said, looking down at Sarah with a sneer. “Get her out of
here, we need to get moving.”

Joe nodded once, but Paul
couldn’t tell if that was in response to his request or to summon
his partner, Duncan. Within seconds, the smaller man was stepping
into position and helping to lift Sarah off the ground.

He didn’t see where they
took her, but wherever it was they were back in less than a
minute.

Paul moved towards the
front door, flanked now by his very own personal
protection.

“
Give me a
minute,” he said under his breath. The men stilled at once, used to
following orders.

He closed his eyes,
concentrating now on becoming the man he needed to be. It took only
a moment to centre his energy, giving him the strength to push open
the door and walk onto his stage.

“
Alicia,
darling…where are you, lovely girl?”

Where she was, was having
coffee with JJ in the kitchen. Somehow, she managed to prevent the
mouthful from choking her, or worse showering JJ. She couldn’t
quite hide the surprise.

The voice was pretty
good, but it wasn’t Larry Edwards. She knew that without having to
look. Despite the accent, which was almost perfect, the tone was
off. More importantly, Larry would never speak to her that way. He
was here. It was time to face the music.

It was difficult to
control her shaking legs, but picturing Stuart gave her the
motivation she needed to get to her feet. It was also what stopped
her from running in the opposite direction.

Working up a smile and
straightening her shoulders, she walked towards her worst
nightmare. With each step, she prayed Sarah wouldn’t come jogging
down the stairs. Her friend was somewhere dealing with last minute
preparations.

Paul watched her approach
with a mixture of repulsion and loathing. He still managed a little
admiration for the way she was holding it together. He was also
acutely aware of the man behind her. He recognised him as Jonathan
Jukes, or JJ as he preferred. His eyes were as keen as a
hawk.

For the first time Paul
felt a trickle of fear. He knew things could turn upside down in a
heartbeat, despite his meticulous planning. It was why he had a
backup plan.

“
Larry, it’s
been a long time,” Alicia said, having difficulty making her arms
work to shake his hand. He saved her the trouble by giving her a
rough hug that was just a little bit too tight. “Sarah will just be
a minute. She’s dealing with a phone call.”

JJ watched the exchange
with a frown. Something was bothering Alicia, he could see the
tension in her shoulders. But it wasn’t just that. There was
something off about the situation. He’d heard stories about Larry’s
legendary crew, and whether they were true or not, it was unusual
for him to arrive alone. He was suddenly glad of the additional
security in the house.

‘
What am I
missing?’ he thought as he tapped his two-way.

He didn’t have time to
puzzle it out, because Larry was moving with Alicia towards the
sitting room.

JJ felt
rather than heard the two guards falling into position behind him.
Their presence should have made him feel supported but he couldn’t
dismiss what the team affectionately called his
spidey
sense. It was on full alert.

It occurred to him, as he
felt the short, sharp pain in his skull, that he had turned his
back on the very people who should have been protecting it.
Darkness came quickly, pulling him in, but not before he’d called
out to Alicia. His last thought as he saw her move towards him was
of failure.

Alicia screamed when she
heard the crack, turning instantly at the sound of her name. She
didn’t see the gun one of the guards was still holding as she
rushed instinctively to JJ’s aid. The adrenalin was the only thing
that prevented them both from falling to the floor as she caught
him. The anger pumped through her blood as she lowered him
down.

“
How could
you do that? You’re supposed to be the good guys?” She screeched at
the guards; men she thought she could trust. “And you, you son of a
bitch. What have you done to Stuart?”

Paul laughed at her
display, enjoying himself immensely. “You were marvellous, my dear.
Bravo.”

“
Go to hell.”
Alicia jumped to her feet and would have rushed towards him with
her teeth bared if the treacherous lapdog hadn’t held her
back.

“
Now don’t
overdo it, you’ll ruin the scene.” He nodded at the two men. “Come
now, I may need some of that passion to get us out of
here.”

The fear seeped its way
back into her body now that the adrenalin was on its way out. The
guards were far from gentle as they escorted her to the door. She
only had time to glance at JJ’s unconscious form and hope there was
no permanent damage, before one of the goons dragged her out, and
dumped her unceremoniously into a waiting vehicle.

Paul jumped in beside
her, his smile triumphant. If it wasn’t for Stuart she knew she’d
be doing everything in her power to wipe that smug look off his
face.

It was easy to see what
put it there. Everything was going like clockwork – all because two
men on the team had betrayed the very network they were supposed to
be a part of.

She watched as they
pulled in front of Paul’s car, positioning themselves so they were
the head vehicle to arrive at the gate, and it only added insult to
injury, that their car belonged to Morgan and Fairchild.

Alicia wasn’t surprised
when the gate began to swing open. The men on duty realised at the
last minute that something was wrong. But it was too
late.

She tuned out the
commotion they left behind. She had no doubt Paul had an escape
planned.

“
Where are
you keeping Stuart? I want to see him,” she said. Praying her
friend wasn’t already dead.

The laugh that boomed
around the car surprised her, it sounded almost normal.

“
I almost
forgot about that.” He pulled off the road to where another vehicle
was waiting. “Al, don’t,” he said on a whisper, distorting Stuart’s
voice enough in anguish that she understood her mistake. The
realisation that he’d fooled her by imitating a member of her own
family was like a physical blow.

“
I suppose I
should thank you. If you hadn’t fallen for the bluff, my plan
wouldn’t have worked out this well.”

“
What?” Her
mind reeled from the notion she could have prevented everything
that had happened.

“
I’m a lot
like you really, I’ve had no formal training, but when it comes
right down to it – we’re pretty good.” He laughed again as she
choked out a string of profanities.

“
You son of a
bitch.”

“
You’ve used
that line.”

He reached over to snatch
her phone out of her top pocket. “We need to get moving,” he said,
already breaking the phone apart.

Alicia looked around them
helplessly. There was nowhere to run. If she tried, he would
probably kill her now. She couldn’t decide if that was better than
what he had in store.

As she followed him to
the other car, it was hard not to think about his plans. She knew
Brad and his team would find her eventually - that was a certainty.
What she didn’t know was whether they’d be too late.

Chapter
23

Brad felt the blow in
every part of his arm. The vibration travelled up his shoulder,
making his head ring. He didn’t know how long he’d been punching
the bag, he just knew he couldn’t stop or the rage would destroy
him.

Kelvin found him an hour
later, hugging the bag - his body spent from the exertion. “JJ
wants to see us.”

Brad managed to stand
upright, with some effort, and turn towards Kel. “Give me five
minutes to clean up.”

“
I’ll wait.”
He hesitated for just a moment, trying to gauge his mood. “You need
to talk to him. He’s shouldering the responsibility for what
happened, and that’s not right.”

“
I know who’s
responsible,” Brad snapped. When Kelvin didn’t bite, he paused
before pushing into the shower room. “Okay, I’ll talk to
him.”

Kelvin watched the door
swing to and fro, allowing the rhythmic beat to steady his own
pulse rate. It was no surprise to him that Brad was willing to take
everything on those broad shoulders. They’d been friends a long
time so he also knew he wouldn’t listen to reason; not until he
stopped thinking with his heart.

They all felt the
betrayal – extended or not, they were a team. They had become
accustomed to standing beside colleagues who would go down fighting
to save one of their own. It was part of the job, the real
possibility that things could go wrong. But they’d never lost
anyone before. It stung.

“
Okay, let’s
go,” Brad said, coming back through the swinging door. He’d been
less than three minutes.

“
Feel any
better?”

The slight curve of
Brad’s mouth almost passed for a smile. “I still feel like hitting
something, only now I don’t have the energy.”

“
The day I
believe that is the day I roll over, but I’ll take your word for
it. I can, and will, send you down here again.”

Brad jabbed him lightly
on the arm. “It helped to work off some steam. Relax, my friend.
I’m fine.”

Kelvin grunted as they
took the lift to the office. “That I don’t believe, but we’ll drop
it for now.”

Brad stopped before JJ’s
office. “How bad is it?”

“
Pretty bad –
our Mr Fix It has failed in a fundamental way. He only sees the
mistake and can’t get past it. At least that’s where he’s at right
now.”

He pushed open the door
so that Brad had a clear picture of JJ glued to his computer
screen. His hair was matted with dried blood from a head wound.
He’d refused to go to a hospital to get it checked out; even his
makeshift bandage had been discarded.

Despite the tense line of
his shoulders, JJ looked as much like a soldier as the first day
they met. Brad decided to use it to his advantage.

It wasn’t until he fully
entered the room that he noticed Ellen curled up on JJ’s couch.
She’d pulled an all nighter, but being as stubborn as JJ, she’d
refused to go home. It didn’t surprise either of them to find her
there. She was JJ’s self-proclaimed protector – she wouldn’t leave
him when he needed her the most.

JJ glanced across at them
but didn’t make eye contact. “Hi guys, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve
been working with Abe and-”

“
JJ, look at
me,” Brad said, forcing a patience he didn’t feel. When JJ’s
fingers skimmed over the keyboard as though Brad hadn’t spoken, he
took another step forward. “I said, look at me,
soldier.”

JJ’s head snapped up in
response. The intensity in Brad’s eyes defied him to break the
contact.

“
Do you
remember the day we met?” Brad asked, seeing it clearly in his own
mind.

“
Of course,
we were in Basra.”

“
And do you
remember what you said to me?”

JJ shook his head but
didn’t turn away. “I said, ‘I’ve got your back, sir’ or something
along those lines, and you said, ‘same goes.’”

“
Exactly,
and, JJ, that will never change. I’m only going to say this once
and then we’re going to move past it. It wasn’t your fault. We
weren’t prepared for a betrayal of that magnitude because we’d
never expect it of one of our own.”

“
They’re not
our own, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.” The guilt that had
been there a moment ago was replaced with anger. “But it doesn’t
matter. I knew something was off. I didn’t do anything about
it.”

“
We think he
called and used some sort of leverage to buy her silence,” Kelvin
said, feeling the blow all over again. “We were monitoring activity
on her phone, we just didn’t account for people on the
inside.”

Brad was staring hard at
JJ. “I felt it too, so I’m just as guilty for ignoring my own
instincts. You can’t shoulder the blame for what
happened.”

“
I know that
in principle, I’m just so damn mad, and sick, for allowing myself
to be fooled that way.”

“
We were all
fooled.” He waited a beat to let that sink in. “Are we good
here?”

“
When we get
her back, then we’ll be good.”

Brad couldn’t help
smiling. They were alike in so many ways. “Agreed. So tell us what
you’ve got.”