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She glanced at her ankle propped on the side of the tub. She should be healed enough to walk down the aisle without her crutches. The dress she’d ordered had arrived yesterday, and it was gorgeous. Everything was going to be perfect.
Even with all the joy she’d experienced since her rescue, she couldn’t deny the deep well of sadness she still felt about Smith. His death had been so senseless and wrong. Kingsley needed to pay for that, along with all the other atrocities he’d committed, including his torture of Sean.
Even though she had been away from her work for OZ for the past few weeks, she kept in touch with them daily. Belle and the rest of her team were working nonstop to not only find Kingsley, but to gather as much intel as they could to destroy WREN.
She sank deeper into the warm, fragrant water, relishing the moment. She wasn’t sure how long she’d existed in those moments of peace before she heard Sean’s hurried steps. She opened her eyes, and the expression on his face reminded her that peace was often nebulous at best.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ash called. He needs me to come back.”
She heard the reluctance in his tone, and for a moment—just a moment—she wanted him to say that he’d told Ash no, that he couldn’t right now. Shame followed that thought. This was their job. This was who they were. Turning their back on their duties was not in their DNA.
“What’s happened?”
“They got a lead on Kingsley. Ash would’ve sent Eve and Gideon, but they were on their way out the door to escort that house manager from Tokyo to Sun Island. He thinks the guy will try to make a break for it, so he felt they both needed to go.”
“And Hawke can’t go with Olivia so close to her due date.”
“Right. And Liam, as well as Jules, are still up to their ears in interviews.”
“Jazz and Xavier?”
He settled on the edge of the tub and gently caressed her knee sticking out of the water. “That’s where it gets really interesting. Brody called Jazz. Wants to see her. Said they had some things to discuss. She and Xavier left this morning.”
“You should go,” she said. Even though she would worry, she knew this should be Sean’s mission. “You deserve to be the one to apprehend him after what he did to you.”
Sean shook his head. “No, my darling. As much as I revile him for what he did to me, what he put you through is the reason I want him.”
She swallowed past the lump gathering in her throat. “And for Smith.”
“Yes. For Smith. And for Brenda, too.”
“Is there anything I can do from here?”
“No. Your OZ team has it covered. You stay here, finish your recovery. Spend time with your family.”
She smiled up at him. “I can do that.”
Without a doubt, Belle Mercer was a godsend. The moment Sean had stepped onto the OZ plane, he’d begun to review the intel she’d gathered on Kingsley. Ash had told him that Belle had created so many programs and searches using every parameter imaginable that he was surprised there wasn’t smoke coming from OZ’s tech office. The programs worked 24/7, spitting out massive amounts of information.
Within that information, she had searched for new hires throughout the world. Knowing that Kingsley had a deep dependence on other people doing his bidding, it made sense that he would be looking for new employees. She’d then found a surprising number of new hires in domestic services who had been fired within a couple of days. They had all worked briefly for a man named Collin Kerr in Vail, Colorado. She’d said she’d almost dismissed the possibility that it was Kingsley, saying that only someone who was either stupid or had a massive ego would use the same initials for an alias.
Sean had had to laugh at that. There was no one more impressed with Colton Kingsley than Colton Kingsley himself. The man’s ego was massive.
From there, Belle had created a profile of a man who was not only having difficulty maintaining staff, but who was also losing his ability to live within a civilized society.
Serena had told them—and Sean had witnessed it himself—that Kingsley had impulse-control issues. When people didn’t jump to do his bidding, or things didn’t go as planned, he became irate. The world did not revolve around Colton Kingsley, and he was having difficulty facing that reality.
The tech millionaire Collin Kerr had moved on from Vail to Palm Beach, Florida, where he’d become Calvin Kaufman, who’d made his fortune in paper products. He’d lasted almost a whole week there and had managed to fire twice as many people as he had in Colorado. His last known location was Tuscany, where he had been Clark Keystone, a self-made millionaire. He had angered the staff of his villa so much that they had called the local Carabinieri on him. He had been gone before law enforcement could arrive.
In just over a month, Kingsley had burned through three different identities. The man was rapidly devolving. He was either going to lose himself completely and hurt someone, or someone bigger and stronger was going to take him out. Either one was not the scenario OZ wanted. Kingsley had intel they needed.
After he’d left Tuscany, he had gone completely off the grid. It was easy enough for Sean to guess his next move: He was going to come after him and Serena. To kill them or recapture them? Who knew? But he was likely wanting to get back into WREN’s good graces and regain his position.
Having been held prisoner by him for almost two months, Sean had gotten to know the narcissistic demon extremely well. Kingsley could not live in the real world—he likely never had. While it was sad that the man had probably been abused and conditioned into being the monster he’d become, he had to be stopped. It was up to OZ to make that happen.
Taking Kingsley without attracting attention would be best for everyone. He had an idea of how to get that done, but he wanted to run it by Serena before he presented it to the team.
