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“How’s your daughter?” she asks, grabbing a towel and handing me one as well. I take it and head below deck to change while they talk.
“She is great, my grand-baby will be here in less than a month.”
Evie squeals. “Is it a girl like we thought?”
I don’t hear his response as I shut the door behind me, but I hear Evie squeal again, and assume Angelo is about to have a granddaughter. It’s funny to me that people were so harsh to Evie in the beginning. Sure, she was a closed-off bitch who gave serious ‘fuck off’ vibes, but even a blind man could see she had a heart of gold.
“Akio, you’re in charge of making sure Evie gets to Angelo safely.” Damien says as we sit around the table. We are making final plans and going through all scenarios. Evie and I have four ways we can get out of the chopper, and whatever number I signal is going to be the path we take.
One finger means she needs to grab a parachute from below the seat because we are too high up. Two means we will jump into the water after I toss her a gun and I will shoot the dash to enable the blades from hitting us as we push away from the machine. Three means I’ll throw her a blade to cut herself out of the seat if they try to lock her in it. Four means we aren’t getting the laptop and will each take down one of the guys to get it from them. If I show her five fingers, she is to leave me behind and jump as a last ditch effort.
Other things could pop up, but this is a solid plan. We can communicate in other ways if needed, but at least with these numbers, we have a foundation.
“I should be fine getting myself out of most restraints, but if Rostya uses the trigger word to send me spiraling, then youneed to know the safe word to make it stop and find a way to occupy them until I can get free.”
I nod because I understand her just fine, I just don’t like to stutter with my poor English in front of others. Thankfully, being a man of few to no words doesn’t bother Evie.
“You’ll meet up with Angelo who will bring you back to the island. Once you hit the docks, you need to move to the airstrip to set up for the next phase.” Lev brings up a display on his computer as he speaks, then puts it up on the projector for us all to see.
“We will set the fires to lure everyone to the area of our choosing. Once you enter the ring, Evie, phase two begins.”
The reason I convinced my father to help the kings get Evie back, was because I could see her will to fight for those she loves since the day she helped me learn to throw knives. I’m nowhere near as good as she is, but she was passionate about it and is a very good teacher. She never made me talk, and we enjoyed the silence together when Laney wasn’t there to fill it for us.
Evie is an asset this world needs. Not just because of her deadly skills in assassination or her underworld connections, but because of who she is to our people. In just a single year, she became someone to fight for because of her integrity.
A lot of the girls used to ask why people were so obsessed with Evie. Why all three of the kings wanted her, but to me, it was obvious. Evie is the leader we have been in search of for for a long time. She has a yearning for unity and strength that she uses to defend those who fight for what’s right in this world.
Not that money laundering or selling drugs is right. But hey, morally gray isn’t black so we have to be doing some good.
I change into dry clothes and emerge from the room to give Evie a turn when I see a black boat coming right for us. Before Evie notices, they have guns out.
I launch myself at her, our bodies colliding as shots fire all around and a scream tears through the air.
Chapter 54
The twenty high-tech drones circling the island give us the perfect view of the battle from above. One drone is following Evie on her ride back to the island and four are stationed around the main battlefield on the airstrip. Others are being used by the snipers and sharp-shooters to take out the boats of men arriving on the beach.
The largest drone was following the helicopter and waiting for the opportunity to grab the laptop. It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. Evie knew Adrik wouldn’t leave until he saw everyone go down, and that meant he would need surveillance and a means of communication.
We knew we needed his computer in order to hack into the system with all of our names being submitted to different mercenary coalitions around the world. As soon as one attempt comes back as failed, it gets put back into the system to try again. Three other attempts were made, but they clearly didn’t expect us to have such a large and organized backing because they all failed miserably.
Unfortunately, only one of them had any information worth sharing, and they all ended up at the bottom of the Volga River. The great thing about owning a warehouse district next to a massive body of water is being able to use the murky depths as a graveyard for the bodies.
“Lev, look at camera three,” Laney says from the desk beside mine. There are fifteen of us in here as the control center, but Laney will leave when phase two is started.
“Fuck,” I say as I watch a boat fly by Angelo, shooting at everyone on board. Evie pushes Angelo down just as Akio covers her body with his own. All I see is blood and I have no idea whose it is.
“I will have drones following you guys the whole way. They won’t have firepower, but they will tell us where to send people should anyone need help.” I hold the large drone in my hand, showing everyone what it’s capable of.
The one immense advantage of these mercenaries coming after us is them sharing the information about their drones. They weren’t all as unhinged as LD, who Damien mourns almost daily. He is still slightly pissed with Alexi about her death. Some of them said they would share information about the military-grade equipment if we promised them a swift death.
As much as Damien and Evie both enjoy torture, I think we are all ready to accept something different this time. Laney was even there for most of it which is rare.
“They will also help us manage the fire so it doesn’t spread to any of the buildings. The point of the flames will be to prevent the teams Adrik sends in from getting to places they shouldn’t go.”
Since Boris has been gone, Evie found out all sorts of information about the island, including its irrigation lines. With the help of some of the gardeners employed by The Society, we were able to re-route them to help us manage the flames.
“What do we do if someone gets hurt in the middle of a phase?” Laney asks.
