AllFreeNovel
Share Us
However, the silence was getting to me because I had been tasked with giving Rhys the rest of the information we had gleaned from the hospital. I didn’t want to – as all this shit justgot worse but someone had to do it and I’d rather not push it off any longer.
“Reeses,” I began and he shuffled to the side, looking over at me. Fuck, I hated when he did that, when he looked at us, just waiting for the shoe to drop. I couldn’t wait until there was a time when I called his name and there was nothing fucking wrong. “We found out who owns the France HQ and well, it’s Ernest’s father. He wants your program.”
Rhys didn’t even move. It was like he’d gone catatonic. I thought about dragging him into my lap but I’d never finish.
“Val of course shot that down but there’s only one other thing he wants – Ada.” Still, Rhys didn’t move. He twitched but I couldn’t tell what it meant. “I know she’s your sister, but-”
“Hand her over.”
I swallowed, sure I had heard that wrong. “What?”
His eyes darkened, his jaw tightening. “I don’t want her. I don’t want anything to do with her. She put Tia in danger,mein danger. I would have never met Owen if it wasn’t for her!” Rhys was shaking but not from fear, from rage, from all the terrible things Ada had put him through. “And the fact that she tried to make me think that Owen was good? Fuck her.”
I bit back another laugh, Dmitri’s sweet melodic words in the background this entire time. This entire situation was weird. “And what about Tia?” There were many different options but I needed to see where Rhys’ head was because at a moment’s notice, we might have to run and I really didn’t want that little girl to be in the midst of this if she didn’t have to.
“Tia is safe with us.” I nodded, reaching over to place a firm hand on his thigh, trying to give him a little more comfort. I didn’t expect the way his lip curled up, his eyes reflecting the sort of mischievousness that reminded me of when I stepped into this life. “But one meeting.”
“One meeting for what, Rhys?”
“I want Ada to meet Tia one more time and explain to her what happened and then,” He choked on a breath, almost as if he was uneasy with the darkness inside of him, “And then I want her to eat shit.”
I couldn’t help it, Dmitri even laughing in the earpiece as I finally dragged Rhys closer and attacked his lips, “You’ve never said sweeter words.” Ada was going to suffer at our hands, I knew that much. I knew that Ernest’s father wanted her to seal the deal but that’s not how we worked. People that wronged us and our family were always dealt withby us.
I just hoped when the time came, that Rhys would be okay with that.
Chapter thirty-five
VALENTYN
This two-part mission was going to get us fucking killed. Scrapping everything into one barrel wasn’t the smartest idea we ever had but we were running out of time and Umar wasn’t dumb. He knew we knew where Ada was, even more so, we had leverage. If anything went south, we weren’t going to make it home to Gianni and the others. I just prayed that Gianni was strong enough to leave us the fuck behind and take them to safety.
I left Dmitri in the car as we had planned, the man driving around the block to meet up with Ada while I spoke with Umar. Risky didn’t even begin to cover what we were doing and the guns we had strapped to our bodies were going to do fuck all if Umar or Ada had brought backup.
It was one of the few reasons I told Umar that I wasn’t going to meet him at HQ. He opted for a small restaurant, déjà vu sittingat the back of my mind as I tried to keep my thoughts on the task in front of me.
Umar was a petite older man, a silver fox of sorts, and the sly grin permanently on his lips made me want to wring him a new one. However, despite his small stature, I’m pretty sure we’d be evenly matched in a fight. He had laid out his timeline, the plan for us to deliver Ada, and then a plan for us to still deliver the program or at the very least, the blueprints to it.
“You can’t run from this, Valentyn. It’s going to happen.”
I resisted the urge to laugh at him. “I’m not giving you that fucking program. You get Ada. That’s what you said you’d take instead and I want your word that if we complete that task, you leave Rhys alone.” Lying through my teeth came easier than it should have because Ada was going to die by my hands.
Umar mulled his options, the ease of this meeting a little too good to be true. “So long as I never hear about the program, we have a deal.” Code for – he’d find someone else to do what Rhys had done and as much as I hated that, at least Rhys would be safe.
Call me selfish but I was protectingmyfamily. “Deal.”
“Great. Bring me the woman, dead or alive. I don’t much care. Points for style. You’re ruthless. Make it count.” He winked up at me before placing a 100-dollar bill on the table for the coffee he’d ordered. I hadn’t expected him to give me permission to kill Ada. It didn’t sit right with me, almost as if I brought her dead, he’d have something on me.
We’d have to tread carefully, no matter how eager we were to get rid of her.
Seeing as how my ride was still a few streets over, I waved the waitress down and placed an order. Might as well make good use of the man’s money.
***
DMITRI
I parked in the lot, waiting for the old movie trick of a woman dressed in black to slide into my car. I half expected Ada to have a gun when she did rather than the worried expression on her face as she slammed my door shut and fully turned toward me. In some respects, I guessed she really was a mother. “Where’s Tia? You told me Tia would be here.”
I laughed, “Seriously?” I pulled out the earpiece, knowing it was fucking risky but I didn’t need Rhys to hear this part. With the heavy breathing sounds on the other side, I knew they hadn’t been listening anyway but now my cock was hard and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. “We’re not bringing a little girl into a firefight.”
