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Chapter seven
VALENTYN
It was a relief seeing Rhys break out of the shell he had fallen into over the last week. I hadn’t let the other two know but I was worried we had made the wrong decision by bringing him along. His and Paval’s safety was my first priority but I couldn’t very well fight the demons in his head for him. And with the building discussions between us and Hawk International, I didn’t see this going anywhere but sideways.
I froze, staring at the string of numbers on the screen. It couldn’t be that fucking easy, could it? Gianni leaned over my shoulder as he strung his arms around my chest. “What did you find?”
“A number.”
“That’s what we’ve been looking for, right?”
“Yeah, and it’s the same one that’s popped up on Rhys’ phone a few times.” I compared the numbers on the screen and Rhys’ phone again. There was no doubt in my mind that it wassomeone from headquarters, but could it be that easy? Every other job included a lot more bloodshed and close calls. Ada had been a surprise but we were still very much in our own skin, new city or not.
Something felt off but we didn’t have a choice if we wanted to get to the bottom of this. I quickly dialed the number and held Rhys’ phone up to my ear, not at all shocked to hear a deep, sultry voice that seemed to draw me in.
“Rhys Knight? We’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”
“We would like to meet.”
“And you’re not Rhys. I’m afraid that’s impossible. We hired Mr. Knight to develop a program for us and it has yet to be delivered due to… unforeseeable circumstances. We can have someone meet Mr. Knight to retrieve the program.”
I swallowed nervously, every terrible version of that idea running through my head. If they sent someone to our location, there was no telling what we’d be up against. “That won’t be necessary. We’ll come to you.”
“I shall be expecting you.”
The call ended and every other call I had had over the past week ended similarly. They wanted Rhys or nothing at all. It made me suspicious but there weren’t any other options.
I migrated into the kitchen as I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the messages. I had been fielding anything from Rhys’ device to mine to ensure we didn’t miss anything. There were a few lingering texts from Ada and Liam, their words making me laugh. Did they really think Rhys was stupid enough to believe any of this shit?
Three days ago
Liam
Hey, heard from a little birdie you were in France. What’s going on?
Two days ago
Liam
Are you alright? You don’t usually go this long without returning my texts.
5 mins ago
Liam
Are you with Mom and Dad?
I frowned at the last message, reading it over and over again. Why would Rhys have been with his parents? I scrolled through another text, even more confused when it was from their sister.
Ada
Tell me where Dad took Tia.
“What the fuck?” I mumbled, dialing one of my contacts who also happened to be on our clean-up crew. “Reggie, you got an update for me?” Reggie was a short, stocky young kid who had gotten into this business way too early but was damn good at what he did and the others respected the hell out of him.
I rarely spoke to him, knowing that he’d complete the job to perfection. It was safernotcalling him after every job but this time I had questions. A whole host of them, but the pressing one was where the fuck Rhys’ parents had taken Tia.And why.
“Run it down for me, kid,” I said again, a little impatient.
