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Declan said nothing, and when the doors opened, I walked out onto the sixteenth floor.
“Fedel should be there by now,” he said just as Fedel came out of another elevator, dressed in a suit. Apparently he’d decided to forgo the janitor’s disguise for this stage of the plan.
“You ready?” he asked me.
“Are you?” I responded before pulling the gun from my bag.
Nodding, we both walked through the double glass doors. The entire level was filled with computer drives and other electronic devices that littered the area. The single office in the back stood out and marked our destination.
“Do not kill her,” Declan stated.
Fedel stood to my side as I slid the badge through the electronic keyhole. The room smelled of sex and stale perfume. As we walked forward, the agent’s attention, the very agent I was copying, snapped from the man she was fucking, to us.
NEAL
“I’m really glad we did this,” Olivia said, as she placed her hand over my own.
Forcing a smile, I nodded. “We needed a good night out.”
“Where did you find this restaurant?” She looked out the window where she was able to see the capital.
“Liam and Mel just bought it. I think they’re planning on making this their new headquarters or some shit. They’re meeting here after their night at the White House,” I lied, as I sipped on my brandy.
She frowned for a quick moment, then smiled. “I should have known from the décor; it’s very Mel.”
“You two are never going to get along are you?” I fought hard to not roll my eyes.
She snorted before she drank her red wine. “How can anyone get along with Bitchy Mel? She is the most conceited and rude person I have ever met. She only cares about herself. I feel bad for Liam.”
“Liam is an ass, he deserves her. One day—” I stopped.
She grinned. “One day what?”
“Nothing. He just pisses me off. Karma’s a bitch, and everyone gets what’s coming to them someday.”
“Better him than you.”
“You could say that,” I snickered. “But I honestly think Avian might beat them—us. He’s been fucking over people like us for God knows how long. He sees all their plans from a mile away.”
“Their vanity and pride is going to be the end of them, Neal,” she whispered as she squeezed my hand. “We can save ourselves, we should just go. After this is all over, we can come back and pick up where we left off.”
“Olivia, don’t be ridiculous, Avian is coming after all of us. We don’t abandon family.”
“So they send us all to our deaths and we’re just supposed to accept it?” she snapped.
“What would you have me do, Olivia?” I frowned.
She glared at me as she got up. “Sometimes I don’t even know why I bother. I’ll be right back.”
I waved to the waiter for the check as I pulled out my phone. Olivia wasn’t aware of the fact that I knew about both phones, nor was she aware that I had bugged her phones while she slept. Putting my phone to my ear, I listened to her ongoing conversation.
“I want to hear the deal again.”
“I am not in the mood for games, Olivia,” an older man replied.
“This isn’t a fucking game, Avian, this is my life. You wanted information and I have it, but I need to know I’m not putting the nails in my own fucking coffin.”
“I am a man of my word. I swore that you, your husband, and the little one will make it out unscathed. I do not take kindly to having to repeat myself. So speak if you still wish to stay alive, because right now I am your only friend.”
“Mel and Liam own a new restaurant called the Blue Garden, they plan on meeting here after their night at the White House. I think it’s something big.”
“You think?”
“I don’t want to push Neal, everyone’s a little jumpy. Mel and Liam still think there’s a mole.”
“Do they know it’s you?”
“No. I’m just the annoying, jealous airhead. They don’t give me enough credit.”
“For your sake, you should be grateful.”
I waited for them to hang up before doing so as well. Downing my drink, I enjoyed the burn as it went down. She was going to save Ethan and me? What were we supposed to say, thank you? Thank you for wiping out our entire family, our legacy? If she knew me, she would have known that I was as good as dead without my family. My father? My mother? She didn’t give a fuck.
“Babe?” Olivia placed her hand on my shoulder and I flinched. “Are you okay?”
“No, sorry. King Liam needs us back home.”
“I can’t wait for this shit to be over.” She drank the rest of her wine.
“Me too,” I muttered as I took her arm.
You are a bitch, Olivia, a motherfucking bitch.
TWENTY-ONE
“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”
—Suzanne Collins
LIAM
“Look at Mommy go,” I whispered to Ethan, bouncing him on my knee as Mel swam through the pool. I could barely keep up with her, she was like a motherfucking mermaid.
“Gagba,” Ethan babbled, as he reached out for her.
“No swimming until you at least learn how to walk,” I snickered, not that he paid much attention to me. He was just as mesmerized by her as I was.
She said she swam to clear her mind. I just wished I knew what she was trying to focus on. In a few short hours, we’d be at the White House for this afternoon’s award ceremony where Avian would undoubtedly be in attendance.
There was a small part of me that thought it best to simply kill him and be done with it. Who cared if he got the glory or a bloody parade in his honor as long as he was dead. Somehow I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Avian had spent decades planning and plotting, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was some sort of contingency plan should he die. We needed to not only end him, but make sure our lives, our businesses, were safe.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I blinked a few times to find Mel out of the water, drying her face off with a white towel. My gaze followed the residual water beads as they rolled down her chest before I looked up to meet her brown eyes.
“Only a penny? You can do better than that, baby,” I winked at her. She rolled her eyes at me, but I could see the smirk that was slowly spreading across her face.
“The chlorine is starting to get to you,” she said as she bent over slightly and squeezed the water from her hair while she cooed at Ethan.
My eyes followed the lines of her body and I swallowed. “Believe me, it’s not the chlorine.”
She wrapped the towel around herself, causing me to pout. “Can you take him inside? If it’s not getting to you, it may be irritating him. I don’t want him getting high or something.”
“High off chlorine?” I laughed as I rose from my chair and pulled Ethan to my chest. “Seriously, love, have you ever known anyone who has gotten high off chlorine?”
She smacked my arm.
“Hey, baby on board.” And to prove my point, Ethan immediately grew fussy.
“I have no clue what babies can and cannot get high off of. They are usually not in my company, and I don’t want to take the chance, so go.”
