Vendetta (9 page)

“Then you might want to look over the schematics before we go,” Valencia pointed to the device she had brought with her.

“And then we really should get moving. JJ drove to Washington, but I am certain once he gets there it won’t take him long to figure out that I was just trying to get him out of my hair. Once he does he’s going to head back and I don’t want to be in Texas when he does or I’ll have to take him to Florida with us. He’ll just ruin all the fun,” she grinned and shook her head. “JJ is probably the only person I know who gets off on kicking the snot out of enemies and then killing them. The man needs some therapy for sure.” This coming from a government assassin…Gavin shook his head. He was glad she was on their team because he would hate to have her family pissed off at him.

“What about Alaina?” Thomas chimed in. “She’s very pregnant.”

“I know. She’s due soon. She’ll be fine. She told me I shouldn’t feel guilty about this. She knew when she married me that I promised to help you and she wanted me to be able to uphold that promise. She’ll be fine. My mother is with her. And you all remember the general that my mom always wanted to give a piece of her mind? Well, she did it one day. He tried to hold his own…that’s a huge complication with my mother. She has the temper of a warhorse. She won, of course, but I think they both realized that verbally sparring with each other was a lot of fun. They liked it so much that she and the general are now rather close,” he shook his head. “He moved into her home on our property once he retired. I don’t mind telling you it’s a little traumatic for me,” he said so seriously that it was hard not to laugh. “I’m serious. The man still thinks he’s commanding one of my special ops.” The general wasn’t Navy, but he had commanded some of the ops Sully had been on. Actually, he had been over some of the special ops they had all been involved in…the man was a force to be reckoned with.

“And he let you leave without backup?” Mike laughed. “I don’t believe it.”

“I didn’t tell him where I was going. Alaina’s going to tell them later in the morning. She’ll be fine. If he pitches a fit she’ll just tell him the baby’s kicking and he’ll cave. He’s a softie when it comes to the kids. Teagan’s already calling him grandpa.” He laughed. “When this is over you all are going to have to come out. Bring your family and enjoy some good times. I have a feeling we’re all going to need the downtime.”

They all agreed.

“You too, Valencia.”

“I think Harrison is going to want me back in Hawaii so we can start planning our wedding. He wasn’t thrilled about me leaving.” She laughed. “The man gives a woman a ring and he thinks he owns her.”

“That sounds like my brother-in-law,” Drake laughed. “I trust you set him straight.

“Absolutely.”

“I want you to meet my sisters too.” Thomas assured her. She hadn’t yet met Alyssa and Eve. She knew of them, but she hadn’t met them in person.

“Use the house in Hawaii and take Thena and Eve with you, Thomas. They could both use a break…especially Eve.”

“Oh, speaking of sisters,” Valencia said. “I put a couple of my guys with Eve. I didn’t think she should be over in Afghanistan alone right now.”

“Where!” Gavin and Thomas barked at the same time.

“You didn’t know?”

“No; we didn’t know! What is she doing over there?” Thomas paced the floor angrily. He could tell the other men weren’t happy about it either, but right now he and Thomas were the most livid…maybe Thomas more than any of them.

“I thought you knew. She was the one who called me and gave me some of the information that helped my source get these two locations pinned down. I put two of my guys with her. I told her she didn’t have a choice and she didn’t fight me on it. She didn’t tell me you didn’t know. I just assumed you did.”

“I would have gone over there and brought her home.” Thomas barked. “Is she trying to kill herself?”

“She wanted to help you. I also know she’s still hurting over Adam’s death. I don’t think she thought much about the threat to her own life. Don’t worry, Thomas. My guys are good. They won’t let anything happen to her. In fact, I talked to them this morning and they’re pulling out. She should be back to the States before the end of next week. They’re going to go into Germany first and then transfer while they work their way back here.”

“I can’t believe she…I told her not to get involved in this and she did it anyway. I thought she was doing it from some place safe and she goes over there!”

“Thomas. Keep your head in the here and now,” Valencia reminded him. “She’ll be home. Trust me. Trust me that I know what I’m doing here. But if she comes home to you not being alive because you lost focus on this because of her she’s going to never recover.”

They all knew she was right. It didn’t make it any easier. Their baby sister was in danger and they wanted to get to her. But they couldn’t…by the time they got there she would have left anyway. They were going to have to settle on lecturing her once she got back. Maybe then they could lock her in one of their houses and make sure she never left again.

“I trust you.”

“And you know one of the guys I sent anyway. Blaine Ashworth.”

“Hell…you know him? I know of him, but I’ve never had the privilege of meeting him in person.” Drake said and they all concurred. Blaine was on the elite Strike Force One team. “How do you know Blaine?”

“I didn’t kill him.” She said so evenly as if killing was just as natural for her as breathing. “He walked into one of my kills and got in my way. He almost lost some vital body parts while he was trying to play the hero and rescue the “damsel in distress,” until he realized I wasn’t a damsel. Anybody else and he would have been dead before he could blink. I kept him from getting shot and now we stay in touch. He doesn’t know my cover, but he knows me and he does favors for me every now and then.” Gavin gathered those favors included looking out for friends when Valencia asked. “Feel at least a little better now?”

“A little,” Thomas admitted. “But I’ll feel a lot better once I know she’s out of Afghanistan.”

“I know,” she winked. “She’ll be fine. Blaine is built like a fortress, has extraordinary skills, never leaves a man behind, and if he thinks he’s rescuing a damsel he’s that much more lethal.”

“Eve is stubborn. She’s definitely not the damsel in distress type.” Thomas reminded her.

“I know. I told her not to pull anything with these guys. I told her you were getting ready to go in for the attack and she needed to get home. She agreed. She gave me the McGregor promise and I believed her.”

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, McGregor’s keep their word once they give it.” He exhaled slowly. “Okay. I’m good. Let’s do this.”

Part Two ~ The Hunt

Chapter Eight

T
hey were coming after him. He knew the moment he received the call from the senator that things were about to hit the fan. He had tried. He had worked hard to keep them distracted and if Thena Davis had just taken the build he had set up then it would have worked. With all the unfortunate accidents she would have encountered in the destitute part of town she would have been working in, Thomas would have been too distracted thinking about keeping his woman safe that he wouldn’t have had time to get in the way of their plans. They were almost to heaven with this deal. Sabian knew all he needed was a few more weeks of uninterrupted play time and the money would be in the bank, the secrets would be in the right hands and he could go retire in the Cayman’s or anywhere else he wanted to. His part of this deal was almost over. The rest of their plot was somebody else’s problem.

He had made a few mistakes on this mission. All of those mistakes centered around one Thomas McGregor. His first mistake was picking the team that man was on to make the delivery. He had wanted to send in another team, one with less clout and less experience…one without a McGregor on it because he knew the McGregor family. He also knew their connection to Drake Daniels and that was not a man he had wanted to do battle with. But he couldn’t keep insisting on a different team because the orders had come from above. While he had friends in high places he couldn’t afford suspicion either. He knew those same friends would throw him under the steam roller if he put the ultimate mission in any jeopardy. So, as he should have, he went with the team selected.

His second mistake was in not making sure all of the team members had died. He had told those bastards to be sure to terminate all human life, and somehow they had come up short. Somebody dropped the ball and it wasn’t him, but he felt responsible because he should have made sure. He should have insisted on proof of death. By the time he knew Thomas was still alive it was too late to do anything. The man was guarded like a fortress and there was no way he could get to him in the hospital or anywhere else. Then he had been told that his memory was weak and he didn’t have solid recovery of anything regarding the attack. Sabian thought he was in the clear until the bastard started getting total recall. His people had stonewalled Gavin’s requests for information, Thomas’ request, and even Drake’s requests, but Sabian knew it wouldn’t work forever. As one man he could handle Thomas, but the entire group was proving to be difficult.

His third mistake was going after Eve McGregor. Hell, he thought that was a sure win, but his guy had the wrong apartment building and she survived. The cops had chalked it up to the Palm Coast arsonist. Had Eve not been alive to keep investigating then the truth of who the arsonist was would have never come out. Thomas and Gavin would have mourned the loss of one of their sisters and been determined to hunt the arsonist down and kill him. It wouldn’t have taken them forever, but it would have slowed them down. He just needed to stall them for as long as he could. Once he finished his part of the job he would be completely covered, not just from his relatively legal ties, but also from the not so legal ties. He was going to be protected—but he had to deliver first.

He couldn’t afford any more of their interference. The last few times had crippled his unit, not destroyed, but crippled, and he couldn’t take another blow. He also couldn’t afford any more mistakes. The next time he went after one of them he was going to have to make sure the blow was deep enough to shatter their assault plans. He was going to have to make sure somebody died. He was through playing games. He had to end this, end them, or he was going to find himself on the unlucky end of an assassin’s bullet. He knew what happened to people who screwed up in this game. The ultimate goal was bigger than any one person. If they thought getting rid of him would solve their problems and let their work run smoothly, they would have him killed in a heartbeat. They had promised him up front if he betrayed them or jeopardized their goal in any way he would meet the Angel of Death. He didn’t think the Angel was still in the game, but he wasn’t sure of it and he didn’t want to take the chance. He knew the reputation. He knew the kill list. He knew if he went on it there was no place he could hide to avoid being assassinated. He was not going out like that. He had come too far and made too much money to get himself assassinated. “Victor Sabian won’t die,” he said looking at the muscles of his clean shaven chest. “Not like this,” he promised himself. He could hunt too. The difference was he didn’t have to play fair. He was going to hit them where it hurt—one at a time they would all lose enough to keep them out of his hair while he finished his mission.

“Darling, come back to bed. I’m cold,” Jenna Andrews purred like a kitten. He liked bedding Jenna more than the other women he had used to satisfy his needs. Jenna was a wildcat in bed, would do anything he wanted, and never once complained. Too bad he was going to have to get rid of her. He had already cleared out the rest of the women in his sexual history, but he had waited with Jenna. He wasn’t ready to terminate her just yet. He knew he would have to. She knew more about him than any of the others had and he had taken care of them within in a couple months of knowing them. Jenna didn’t know what he was up to, but she was still a liability. He couldn’t risk leaving her alive just in case; or could he? Maybe he could take her with him. “How do you feel about the Cayman Islands,” he said as he walked back into her bedroom. She sat there on the bed, the burgundy satin sheets pulled over her naked breasts, her long red hair flowing in tussled curls down her back.

“I’ve never been.”

“How would you like to go with me?”

“Like a vacation?” She smiled at him. “We’ve never done that before.”

“No baby. I’m thinking more permanent. I want you to move there with me.”

She gasped, shocked by his admission. Either she would say yes and live or she would say no and he would snap her neck now. There was no need to keep prolonging things. He was almost done here and he couldn’t wait to leave once he finished. He wouldn’t have time to come back and take care of the loose end.

“What about my job?”

“You hate your job.” She worked as a first grade teacher at a local school and she hated it. She often told him how horrible the children were, how much she hated the fact that parents did nothing to raise responsible and respectful children.

“True,” she admitted. “Okay, what about this place?”

“Sell it.” He didn’t care what she did with it. They wouldn’t be coming back to that condo…at least he wouldn’t be coming back. She might not ever leave it…well, maybe in a body bag.