Page 44 of Secret Redemption

He then quickly explained the meeting with Zin, leaving out the part about Roz being his sister. That was not his secret to tell and held no relevance to the mission.

“I fucking knew it!” Lucy said. “I knew Zin was no traitor. He is a loyal man and a good man,” she stated vehemently.

“I know,” he said softly and watched as Sly grabbed her hand.

“Now, we have an inside man let’s make use of him. I’ll be the contact, and he’s only staying dark for a short time, or until we have the main players nailed down. We also have the intel that came in from Dane’s contact about Sir Walter Hamilton. A lot of us know this man and have had some contact with him through our careers. I need to get close to him and see if we can put a bug on him and his vehicles. I want to know who he speaks to, when he shits, and what time he goes to sleep. I want every fucking detail. We have the perfect opportunity this weekend as there’s a ball at the Beauregard Polo Club. I have four tickets, and Will has found me four more. Ava and I, Lucy and Sly, Drew and one of Roz’s girls, and lastly, Kanan and Roz will be going.”

“What about us?” Dane asked.

“I don’t want you away from Lauren with the twin’s due soon. Plus, I have another job for the rest of you, provided you all agree.”

Zack again outlined his plan for Cunningham Estate, and surprisingly all were on board. The only frown was with Kanan being in charge.

“Why him?” Nate asked and thrust his head at K.

“Because nobody knows the Cunningham Estate better than him, even me.”

Nate nodded, “Fair enough.”

“Listen, I know there is still a lot of doubt about K, and he has asked for it, but all I ask is you trust me and give him a chance. I have never let you down and don’t plan to now.”

“So, everyone gets moved, while we cause a distraction with the ball?” Lucy said.

“Yes, exactly. We make a big pantomime out of it; everyone dresses up, limo’s, the works, then while everyone is watching us, the rest of the team goes in and moves everyone.”

“That doesn’t give us much time to get security sorted,” Nate stated.

“No. That’s why you, Drew, Liam, and Kanan will be working on it together. Will can handle the technical stuff from here.” Zack saw Nate grimace but said nothing. “Do we have any leads on who the intended victim was at the hospital? Was it Celeste or Lauren?” he asked the table at large.

“Nothing yet, but I’m running vigorous background checks on the doctors, and running everything on Lauren and Celeste again in case we missed something.”

“What about the Phial I gave you, Dane? Has it been verified?”

“No, but it’s looking like it might be a fake.”

“Really? So, someone beat us to it.” Zack sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, as he thought about it. The only person who might have known about it would be Julian. He needed to talk to him.

“Okay, well carry on with that, and I’ll talk to a contact of mine. So, if that’s all grab a coffee while we wait for everyone else to arrive, and remember the Zin thing is not to be mentioned.”

Everyone stood and headed for the coffee and the pastries that Lucy had brought in. The woman could bake like a dream one minute and kill you in a hundred different ways the next.

Zack sat for a minute thinking about how many different angles he had to play. His priority was keeping his family and friend’s safe at all costs. Thinking of his family, he opened his phone and called Ava. It rang for a minute and then she picked up.

“Hey,” she breathed, and Zack felt his body go hard at the soft, feminine sound.

“Hey, Green Eyes,” he replied with a smile on his face. “How is Riley?”

“Still not keeping anything down, but he’s sleeping at least. I’m just sitting on the bed next to him, doing some reading on the Phial.”

“Babe, you don’t have to work, just look after our boy and your mum. How is she anyway?”

“She’s sleeping too. It’s weird, she hasn’t been sick, and Riley has no headache. They seem like different bugs to me.”

“Do you want the doctor to come back out?” he asked, noticing the concern in her voice.

“No, he is probably right. Let’s see how it goes.”

“Okay, well call if you need me. Love you,” he said and smiled when she said it back.