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Dmitri cursed. “Seriously? Fraser is Owen’s boss at Hawk International.”
I didn’t even have a response for that because that wasn’t fucking possible. I thought back to the personal phone call I had made about my program and the text that I received earlier today. The reason I recognized it was that it absolutely had been familiar. I rarely saved numbers in my phone because of the work that I did and I had never had a reason to call Ernest. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it very well could have been Ernest Fraser, the businessman that Ada had met, on the other side of that phone.
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway stole my attention as I peeked around one of the curtains covering the kitchen windows. I had really hoped that I wasn’t going to have to deal with that kind of revelation.Everyonehad lied to me. Well, maybe not my brother and my parents but Ada?
Her car stilled, the lights still on as I turned back to my men. Valentyn had already caught on, throwing his hand out to me. “I need you to trust me, 100%. Questions come later.” I nodded as I took his hand. “You can choose where you go afterward but if Ada is truly Hawk International’s plant in the U.S., you won’t be safe if you open that door.”
Valentyn dragged me toward Dmitri, the Frenchman pulling me to his chest as he dipped his lips to mine in a quick kiss. “Just remember one thing.Breathe.”
And then the lights went out, my body tugged down the hallway. We turned a few times down hallways that I didn’t remember existing, footsteps running up the stairs as Dmitri dragged me farther into the darkness before a door opened and we were running through the grass. I hadn’t been at their house long enough to even know that a backyard existed. I had questions,so many questions, but I knew that I’d have time to ask later.
Hopefully.
Dmitri turned around and picked me up before we kept moving toward a car hidden by a few trees just outside of their property. This felt all very high tech but I wasn’t complaining. He yanked the door open and deposited me on the seat, Gianni and Valentyn showing up a few minutes later with Paval who crawled onto my lap. Dmitri nodded to Valentyn as the door closed behind him, the car taking off at a crawl, the lights still off until we hit a cross street and sped off.
“How is running going to help anything? That’s my sister!” I finally blurted out, unable to hold my tongue anymore. We had left the second program on the table—mostly because I forgot—but I assumed that was by Valentyn’s design.
Valentyn sighed as I wrapped my arms around a sleepy Paval. He seemed rather unbothered by how fast his life had just been packed up and thrown away. “Sweetheart, she might be your sister but she’s also the head of one of the most dangerous companies on this side of the planet. Hawk International makes way more than just that one program. They hire lots of bright kids just like you, promising them international recognition but they’re trying to strongarm the world piece by piece. If your sister is tied up in that, we need to know how deep before we do anything else.”
That made sense but there were still loose ends. “What about Owen? He was still breathing and-”
Dmitri chuckled as he pressed his lips to my temple. “Breathe, Love. Ada won’t keep him alive. He’s failed his mission. And the house isn’t registered in our name. We keep everything on us in the event of something like this happening. They’ll find the house well lived in but won’t be able to tie it back to us.”
“And Paval?” I looked down at the sleeping kid in my arms. I wished I could be as unbothered as him.
Gianni sighed. “Unfortunately, he’s used to this.”
Silence fell between us as we sped on down the highway, Valentyn picking up the conversation again when the signs for the airport started popping up. “That program you made, Rhys. People are looking for it and to figure out what’s going on, we have to go to the source.”
“France?” I asked. That was very far away.
Gianni nodded. “We can set you up in a safe house or something but we have to finish this. You won’t be safe until we stop it completely.”
The thought of them leaving me in a foreign place was terrifying, not to mention that I had just found out I had the strength to hurt someone and that wasn’t something I wanted to figure out on my own. “No, I think I want to go with you. I made that program and if it gets into the wrong hands, it’s going to hurt a lot of people and if I can save someone else in the process from making the same mistake that I did? No, let’s go.”
My men gave me varying versions of tight smiles as we pulled into a small carport that looked very,veryillegal. They grabbed a host of different bags from the back and began walking to a small plane. The only thing I was carrying was Paval. “Wait… you have a plane?” I whisper-yelled.
Gianni chuckled. “Underground hitmen for lack of a better word pays pretty well.”
“Where’s the pilot?”
Gianni puffed out his chest. “You’re looking at him, Reeces.” My nose scrunched at the nickname, causing Gianni to laugh a little harder. “No? I kind of liked it. You’re sweet as candy and I fucking love the way you taste.” His eyes heated as he stole a kiss and then headed for the cockpit.
“Aye aye, captain,” I muttered. My life was about to turn upside down and while I wasn’t ready in the slightest, it made it easier to digest with these men surrounding me.
Chapter forty-eight
ADA
Rhys actually thought running was going to save him. I didn’t even care about my little brother—the program came first. That and my daughter, whom my father had conveniently kidnapped. Granted, the government wouldn’t look at it that way but waking up to an empty child’s room in my parents' house had told me all I needed to know.
Apparently, dear old dad had seen a few documents he wasn’t supposed to—courtesy of Ernest not cleaning up—and now, I not only needed to retrieve the goddamn program and hand it off, but I also had to go retrieve my daughter from a man that thought he was saving her from evil.
I wasn’t evil. Not entirely.
It was just that, some very important people wanted this program, and if I didn’t deliver, selling out my brother was going to be the least of my worries. I kicked at the limp body that I had untied a few seconds ago. Owen couldn’t fucking die on me without telling me what I needed to know.
Since he was stupid enough to throw his hat in someone else’s ring, I knew he was absolutely stupid enough to get himself strung up in the Kolas Crew’s basement. He probably had tried to touch Rhys right in front of the men who had ‘stolen’ his heart.
