Page 58 of Royal Salvation

Her voice was clear and louder than needed, but he expected she was talking louder for his benefit.

“Lucía, have you seen these strangers in the village? I thought you should know in case they’re paparazzi.”

“Yes, I had heard. I’m going to lie low for a day or so until they leave.”

“Yes, well, you do look a little tired, my dear. Can I get you anything? Food supplies, some of Mrs Jonson’s soup and cookies?”

“That sounds lovely, but can we leave it until tomorrow? The flight has exhausted me, and I think I might get an early night.”

Mr Jonson nodded, but Reaper was watching her hand. She was trying to sign something with one hand.

“Shit. I had no idea she knew ASL, and I can’t understand what she’s saying.”

“I can,” Bishop responded beside him. “She’s saying Playboy is dead and one man inside.”

“Fuck. That means Chess killed him.”

“Yep, and that ain’t good because he’s coming up on his end game.”

They continued to watch until Mr Jonson walked away and Lucía disappeared behind the closed door.

A bleep came through the comm, and he pressed the button on his wristwatch, expecting Jack or Bás but it was neither.

“Okay, I’ve been digging, and I found bank accounts for Micah Rawlings aka Chess in the Cayman Islands. There’s two million dollars in there.”

“Okay.” Reaper wasn’t sure how significant or time-sensitive this was but kept listening, knowing Watchdog wouldn’t call unless it was important.

“Yeah, here’s the kicker. The payments have been ten equal lump sums over the last eighteen months from a shell corporation called Styles Inc. That means nothing on its own, but after digging further I found that Joel Hansen is on the board of directors.”

Reaper looked at Bishop and Hurricane, knowing this was big. They’d been after Hansen for a long time now and this was a huge lead.

“So, I guess you don’t want this fucker dead, Bás?”

“Affirmative, we need him alive, but Lucía’s safety comes first.”

“Roger that.”

“I’ll keep digging.”

“Yeah. Look into Cradle. This is linked to that.”

“Will do.”

The line went dead, and Reaper waited, each second feeling like hours when in fact it was no more than two minutes since he’d seen the woman he loved in the flesh.

“Boss man in position. On my go.”

Reaper felt his muscles bunch in readiness, the adrenalin already flooding his body as he prepared to infiltrate the place that had become a second home to him. He heard the rest of the team check-in from their various positions then silence before, “Execute, execute, execute.”

He, Bishop, and Hurricane were on their feet moving swiftly around the side of the hedge, where they split. He and Hurricane moved toward the back to clear the men patrolling, and Bishop went towards the side, where a door led to the garden.

The deep brambled hedges gave them cover as Hurricane took out the first man clean and he dropped the second one. Their surprise now gone, they began to take fire and had to pull back slightly.

As a unit with one mind, he and Hurricane pushed forward again, taking careful, well-placed shots instead of raining the countryside in bullets, the heads of the late-blooming Dahlia’s Lucía loved exploding from gunfire. The early sunset was helping as the low light gave them more cover.

“Sit rep, Bish?”

The silence that greeted him filled his gut with dread.