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You’d think they coordinated wardrobes.
“Bryce.”
“Liam.”
No bro hugs.
No backslapping.
Not even a hand shake.
They greet each other by staring each other down.
There’s nothing Hallmark-like about this reunion.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Liam shifts his gaze towards me. “Sofia. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry about this ordeal you’re going through.” He extends a hand.
I shake it. “It’s a pleasure, Liam. It’s been a rough road.”
“I can imagine,” he says. “Come inside my office. Let’s sit and talk.”
His expansive office is as impressive as what I’ve seen of the house so far.
My eyes land on a wall-to-wall bookcase with a sliding ladder.
Nice.
Liam takes a seat behind his desk, and the three of us sit across from him—Bryce acting as a buffer between me and his ex-wife.
“Coffee, tea, soft drink, Perrier?” Liam asks.
Sibyl gets up. “I’ll go get the French pastries I bought—”
“No, thank you,” I say at the same time as Bryce says, “Let’s get right to it.”
Sibyl primly sits down.
“You’re right.” Liam put his glasses on. “This isn’t a social visit.”
If I thought the tension between these three was off the chart, it’s nothing compared to what is like now.
“Your team is amazing—”
“I hire the best.”
“Of course, you would,” Liam says. “Your dream team provided me with information on Brad Hyler. I’ve already made some calls to the US Embassy in Croatia.”
That was quick.
“Time is of the essence,” Liam says, as if reading my mind. “It’s too easy in Europe to move from one country to the other. We don’t want this to turn into a continental man chase. We want this to be an in and out job. Basically, we send the right people in to extract Brad Hyler and return him to the United States.”
“There won’t be any problems because of his dual citizenship?” Bryce asks.
“This is another reason we don’t want to rest on our laurels. We don’t want him to smarten up and seek refuge with the Canadian embassy. It’ll be more delays and more paperwork.”
Bryce nods. “I’ve never had to deal with them. I don’t know how fast they work or if we’ll get tripped up in layers of bullshit bureaucracy.”
“Never dealt with them either,” Liam says.
