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A chuckle slipped from my lips as I nodded. I knew as much. In the last week, I had done some research. Well,a lotof research. I hadn’t found much about the Kolas crew but god, there was so much fucking information about the Knight family that it was ridiculous. They were very well off and Rhys had been recruited by Hawk International which was owned by noneother than some secret sponsor in France. The funny part was the fact that Ada’s husband was the true face of the US plant,notAda. And yet, she controlled every little string.
I also knew that the real recruitment had come from Ada and her brother Liam. Their whole family was a bunch of twisted fucks, except for Rhys apparently.
I wondered if Rhys knew how twisted his siblings were or if he was in the dark, parading himself around with three beautiful men – I wasn’t blind. I had eyes and they were nothing short of gorgeous. However, I liked my partners a little less lethal.
“Sure, your daughter. And the program. Let’s not beat around the bush, Ada. We both knew we got duped.” It still irked me that Rhys had been smart enough to give us fakes. It must have taken him a while to do that but I had my own set of people who had been able to run through the program and point out sections in the code that wouldn’t work in any instance.
Ada leaned back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest. “Fine. Why did you call me out here? We don’t want the same things.”
“No? You want your daughter and the program. I want the program. I can help you get your daughter and in exchange, you give me the program.” Liam wanted the program but didn’t care about what happened to Rhys or Tia. That man was heartless through and through. Ada wanted Tia slightly more than the program, mostly because she didn’t like people stealing from her. Both siblings were bastards really.
She snorted. “This is a waste of my time.”
“Is it though?” A devious smile spread across my lips as I thought of the ace up my sleeve. If she didn’t give me the real program, I had something that might make her behave.
“Chester, while you’re setting up meetings, my daughter is out there, scared and alone and-”
It was my turn to laugh again because this woman was full of bullshit. “She’s not alone and she’s probably in better hands than she’s ever been before. I looked up your family. I know things. I know that Rhys is probably the sweetest boy in the entire world, thrown into a game he doesn’t understand. I know that he’s a fantastic uncle and that the crew he’s with are wonderful fathers. I know that your little girl, scared as she is, will be taken care of. And I know that you and Liam have been lying to your parents and friends ever since you brought the CEO of Hawk International home. What Idon’tknow is who you two work for.”
Ada blanched, gaze darting out into the street to avoid looking at me. Oh, I had caught her, hadn’t I? It had been a bit of a leap of faith but I firmly believed that she wasn’t just an innocent bystander turned CEO. There had to be something else driving her, someone else who wanted that program more than Hawk International wanted to protect it.
Someone who was more evil than me and a hell of a lot scarier than the company who had hired her ‘husband’.
“Just Hawk International.”
“Let’s not lie to each other, Ada. We’re professionals.”
She took a moment, gathering herself before looking me dead in the eye. “I can’t tell you. Just know that it’s someone who won’t hesitate to cut your balls off for asking so many questions.”
That wasn’t enough for me. “Is it someone close to you?” I tried to read her expression, wondering if it was Liam. That little shit was as sneaky as they came and a few weeks ago, I would have said he was all too relaxed to be running this show. Now? I had absolutely no idea. Looking into Liam had given me another information dump, including the fact that his husband had moved in with another man just recently.
I assumed a bad breakup rather than cheating but shit like that would drive someone like Liam off the ledge. There wasno telling what unpredictable chaos Liam would inflict now that nothing was tethering him to his sanity.
Add in the fact that Liam and Ada’s parents had taken Tia from her own mother and I had no idea what any of the Knights’ next steps were.
Their parents delivering Tia to Rhys this morning was a low blow but I liked to see the chaos play out rather than involve myself in it. Ada would think I was here on Liam’s dime and I’d get what I wanted, no one the wiser until it was too late. I mean, I had already been in France, looking for the best way to acquire what I wanted but I still made Liam reimburse me for the plane ticket.
Figuring out who could be controlling someone like Ada, someone who boasted such power and terror that it was hard not to cower in her presence would be a challenge. Mulling through the options a bit longer, something finally clicked – someone who might actually be in charge of all this shit. It was a long shot but it made sense.
“Alright, I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer them.”
Ada opened her mouth to fight me on that but I just shook my head, pulling out my phone and scrolling through my gallery till I found the right picture. When I showed her the screen, her face became a little more pale. “How did you-”
“Because I’m not stupid. I know you left this mess in the basement hoping that it’d blow back on the Kolas crew. Rookie moves. And now, I have this and the whereabouts of your daughter. Come on, Ada, let’s play.” Her eye twitched and I knew I had her right where I wanted her. “Ada, tell me. Who is Ernest to you?” She didn’t answer. “He’s the CEO of Hawk International, heading up a program for France’s division but if that were the case, he’d be right here with you, demanding whathe hired Rhys for. But he’s not. So, I’ll ask again. Who is Ernest to you?”
Her shoulders tensed as she sat up, her expression darkening. “He’s just the face of Hawk International, alright?”
“I gathered that you were the real queen but I need more.”
Ada shook her head. “You’re not understanding me, Chester. He’sjustthe face. A mouse. A puppet. I’m nothing more than a pawn when it really comes down to it. A queen was what I was promised. Lies is what I was dealt.” She released a bitter laugh before pushing away from the table and looking out at the street again. “Bring me my fucking daughter. Then we’ll talk.”
All of this shit was so heavily twisted it was making my head hurt and yet it was the best show I could ever think of paying for. “And maybe you didn’t understand me because I just figured out who’s really running the show, which isnot you.Whoever it is–that backstabbing, two-faced bastard is one step closer to your daughter, isn’t he? And yet you were going to bargain for her life in exchange for the program. I’d say that you were doing your best, but that’s a poor evaluation of the situation. Here’s how it’s going to work, Ada. I get you your daughter and you walk away. As payment, I take the program.”
Would she take the bait? A true mother would, regardless of the consequences. I wouldn’t be giving her shit, knowing full well that her kid was safest in someone else’s arms. Knowing what I knew about Ada and Liam and how awful they had been to their own flesh and blood, I decided to give Rhys a little happiness.
You know, after I was done extracting the information I needed. Was it my place to play god? Absolutely not. But I’d do it anyway and then sit back and cackle as the world went to shit.
She wrung her hands together. “We go together. I get my daughter. You can have the fucking program.”
