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Locke grinned. “That’s what makes itexciting.”
Cole’s expression was unreadable. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Cole wasn’t a fan of Locke’s devil-may-careattitude.
Damian couldn’t blame him. Cole’s number one job was preventing Damian’s death. They had managed it so far through strategic planning and cold hardcalculation.
Damian didn’t mind admitting it was disconcerting to move to a game of roulette when you were used to playingchess.
But Anastos and Gatti were playing their own game of chance. Playing chess with them would be like trying to engage a professional gambler as a codebreaker.
They were not the sameanimal.
Damian didn’t like it, but they had to meet Anastos and Gatti where they were — in the storm of their chaos, on the crest of their roguewave.
“Locke is right,” Damian said. “This is the only way. We’ve tried everything else. We’ll play offense, take them off guard by fanning out across the city, throwing around a lot ofcash.”
“And if we run into trouble?” Coleasked.
Damian looked at him. “We’ll deal with it. Won’t be the firsttime.”
Cole nodded, his eyes straying briefly to Derek, who had been silent through most of dinner. Damian understood — trusting Locke was one thing, but what did they know about Derek? His bio from Locke had been brief — an ex-private contractor for Blackwater who’d defected when things got bad in Iraq, an expert marksman, proficient in four types of martial arts, frequently off the grid to surf around theworld.
None of it told Damian what he really wanted to know: could he trust Derek with hislife?
WithAria’s?
He fucking hoped so, because he didn’t have achoice.
He hated not having achoice.
They went over a few more details, paid the bill, and headed for the car that had brought them into the little village on the island. It was too far for Aria to walk, a detail that gave Damian comfort when he thought about her on the island without him while he searched for Anastos. Cole would be with her, but Aria was strong-willed; Damian wouldn’t put it past her to make an escape to town when she got cabin fever and Cole was looking the otherway.
Locke had set up his house exactly the way Damian would have done. It was private, fronted on one side by the water, far enough from town that getting there or back required acar.
The water didn’t save you inCapri…
The words lingered at the back of his mind. He pushed them away. He couldn’t afford to relive Capri — to relive his failings there — everyday.
He’d never had anything to lose, had never had anything to protect, until Aria. He knew better now, knew why Farrell and Nico and the others kept houses all over the world, stored vast quantities of moneyoffshore.
As soon as Damian eliminated Gatti and Anastos, he would follow suit, start building his own network of hideaways, places Aria would be safe and anonymous if anything went south again. He would make sure alternate passports were at the ready, that he had an exit plan to get Aria out of New York in under an hour should the occasion call for it, that his money and other holdings were set up to revert to Aria in the event of hisdeath.
He kissed her head as she leaned against his shoulder in the backseat and the car started up the network of winding hills that led to thehouse.
All that mattered now washer.
