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“Two shoes enough? The black and the brown?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
They work in silence for a few minutes, but then Nathan realizes that Carter is standing with his hand on a garment bag, frozen as he stares at him, and Nathan pauses as well. “You… okay?”
“Yes. Yes, I – of course.” Carter turns back to the garment bag, fiddling with the zipper. He takes a deep breath like he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t. Then he takes another. And a third. Just as Nathan is turning back to what he’s doing, figuring whatever he wanted to say isn’t going to come out, he speaks. “How dangerous is this trip?”
Nathan sighs. “That’s a hard question. If all goes well, it’s a relatively safe trip. Almost like a CEO that just bought out another company. I’ll introduce myself. Explain what happened. What’s going to happen. What my plan is for them and the region. I’ll tell his men that anyone that wants to walk away is free to do so, but they’ll need to relocate to a different region and not participate in any competition against me. I’ll introduce Mica and explain his role. I’ll stick around for a few days, make sure it’s all settled in, make sure Mica is prepared to spoil the guys, and then I’ll head back here.”
“Mica?”
“I’m putting him in charge of the region. He’ll stay at Miller’s compound and run the operations from there. It’s what I’ve done with every region I’ve taken over. That way someone I know and trust remains there and I know none of the people whose boss I offed are planning to strike against me. I put a man I trust in the power position, I give him the freedom to cater to the people working there and spoil them, and things go alarmingly well. In the past, at least.”
“So, that’s if everything goes well.”
“Correct.”
“And… if things don’t go so well?” he asks. “Worst case scenario?”
Nathan laughs humorlessly. “Well, worst case scenario is that Vasco turns on me, I show up there, our men get in a shootout fight with Miller and Vasco’s men, I get a bullet to the head, they take over this region, and it’s a race between you calling Maison on the burner phone for an emergent extraction and someone using a battering ram to get into this room to take you and Casey.”
Carter’s hand squeezes the garment bag hard enough for his whole body to shake. “Oh.”
“But that’s not going to happen.”
“Right.” Carter nibbles on his bottom lip. “But, like, how do I know when to make that call to Maison?”
“I’ll be texting you updates on the burner from a burner phone of my own. If you go more than 6 hours without hearing from me, you need to call Maison.”
Carter frowns. “What about when I’m sleeping?”
“Every 6 hours, Carter. Set alarms.”
“Okay.”
“And never text me first. The line is secure, but I don’t want anyone knowing I even have an extra phone. I’ll only take it out of my pocket when I’m in a secure location.”
“Okay.”
“How many hours?”
Carter rolls his eyes. “6. I heard you.”
“It’s important, though. Roll your eyes and sass me all you want, but it’s important. You have to call Maison. Not even 6 hours and 1 minute. 6 hours and you’re making the call. Straight to his burner phone. Fuck protocol and code words and all that shit – just call his burner phone directly.”
“What about the operation?”
“If that happens, the operation is over, Carter. He’ll get you guys out safe and then do whatever he can to save others, but if I wind up dead or overthrown, it’s all over.”
Carter turns back to the garment bag, slowly zipping it up. Then he focuses on filling the next one with Nathan’s best blue suit. His hands shake as he works.
Nathan waits for him to speak again, but he doesn’t. They work in tense silence, even after Casey and Benny return from their little tour, their curious gazes on them heavy.
When he puts a final shirt in his suitcase and turns to find that Carter has all of his suits ready, Nathan sighs in relief. “This was great. Thank you, Carter.”
“Um, yeah. Sure. Of course.”
Nathan gathers the garment bags and drapes them over his arm, then grabs the suitcase with his free hand. He gives Carter a tight smile. “I’ll see you soon.”
