A View to a Thrill (Masters and Mercenaries Book 7) (47 page)

A few things were falling into place. “There was never a package.”

“Of course there was. It just wasn’t what you suspected. After I realized you weren’t doing what I expected you to do, I had to figure out a new plan. Something that would get you to the place I needed. You see, I figured out where most of your hidey-holes are. I built a program to scour the web for any signs of you, your face, signature, any known aliases. It took me a while, but I found a little map of all the places you stayed at during your years on the run. I thought I would come and get you in Dallas and then I was going to suggest we hide out here. You fucked that strategy up when you ran for the Brit. So I came up with the ‘Save Al’ plan. I wasn’t particularly happy when you hung up on me.”

“I didn’t want to.” Simon had made her do it because he was smart.

Al’s lips curled up. “I should have known.”

“What’s in the package? Is it really at the post office?”

“Of course. I also have two men in the back of the post office. You know that the best illusion is something real. I needed to send you something so the receipt would make it to your apartment. I needed something real for you to find. This didn’t have to be so hard. If you had called me when you should have, your friend wouldn’t be involved at all and we could have been perfectly civilized.”

“You sent bombs to my house. I hadn’t talked to you in weeks, and even then it was casual. I ran to Simon because I knew he would protect me.”

His jaw tightened, and she knew he didn’t like her explanation. “You never mentioned you had taken a lover. And I wasn’t ever going to actually blow you up. You’re far too valuable to me. You’re The Broker. Do you know how long I looked for you?”

“Is this the part where I put my arms up?” Simon’s voice was perfectly calm as he lifted his arms but not before he thumbed the device in his ear.

Chelsea gasped and forced herself to stumble a little so Al’s eyes would be on her and not Simon. He held her firmly.

Simon had touched the earpiece that connected him to Jesse. Jesse would know something was wrong.

“Get your arms down,” the man named Bill said. “Unless you want me to force you.”

Simon moved his arms back to his side. “I don’t particularly think it’s fair for you to force a man to leave a perfectly good espresso behind. I was just assaulted by pigeons, man. I need something fortifying.”

He was trying to give Jesse clues about where to start the search. The piazza was known for pigeons and there was only one espresso café overlooking it. Maybe she should try to make it even clearer. She hoped Jesse could hear her because she couldn’t exactly shout. “What are you going to try to do, Al? Are you going to shoot us right here in Piazza San Marco? You might be able to pay off the officials and the mob, but I doubt you can keep all those tourists quiet.”

Simon’s hair curled slightly, covering the small device. Adam had been smart to select flesh-colored material because now she couldn’t see it at all.

“Gentlemen, if you wouldn’t mind escorting Mr. Weston to my boat, I would appreciate it. We’re going to take a little ride. I have a lovely place here, very quiet and private. I bought it after our time together. I think you’ll like it. I had it redone.”

He was acting like they were going on a romantic trip. So he wasn’t just a criminal, he was crazy, too. Lucky, lucky her. “I would really like to know where you’re taking my friend.”

Simon was being escorted from the shops. She watched, utterly helpless as the two thugs with him turned right toward the lagoon and what she expected was a dock with a boat. Boats were really the only way to get around Venice with prisoners in tow. Her stomach turned at the thought of being separated from him. Please let Jesse hear what was going on.

“Hold my hand like a good girl and know that I have more than one person watching us,” Al explained. “If you try anything, they’ll give the signal to my men to drop the pretty boy. British? Again, not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” She did as he asked, threading her fingers through his. His hand was oddly soft, so unlike Simon’s callused, masculine one.

“I expected you to behave the same way you have for years. I counted on it. My initial plan was to try to hire you quietly. I sent out a few feelers, but you never replied.”

She’d had three requests for contact on old Deep Web addresses she’d used when she was The Broker. She’d ignored them. They’d only been slightly tempting and then Ian had asked her to do the European op and she’d shoved all thoughts aside. At the time she’d thought it was because she was trying to stay out of trouble, but now she knew she’d wanted to be with Simon, wanted to prove to him that she could do good. Those little requests had been like shots for an alcoholic, but Simon was her wagon and she was fully on.

“I went legit, Al.”

He chuckled as he started to lead her out of the café, the same path Simon had been taken down. “You’re incapable of going legit, baby. That would be like Jeter quitting baseball at the height of his career because he wanted to teach poor children how to read. It’s ridiculous. You’re a singular talent.”

There was no point in arguing with him. “What do you want with me, Al? Is that really your name? See? How good could I possibly be if I don’t know your real name?”

“My real name is Albert Nieland.”

“You own Nieland Affiliates.” The very firm involved in the lawsuits that led to the deaths of lawyers and judges.

“So you put that together. I am the top one percent of the one percent. I have more money than God, but you know what I’ve never found?”

A soul? Some humanity? “What?”

“A woman interesting enough to be my queen. You see, I get bored easily. I have a genius-level IQ. There are very rarely problems I can’t solve. For fuck’s sake, I’m about to change the world by bringing quantum computing to the people. Well, the people with heaping scads of cash anyway. I’m the smartest man of my generation, but you’re better than me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Three years ago my company ran into trouble. We were negotiating a mineral deal with an African dictator.”

Oh, god. She remembered that deal. “You came to me for leverage. I sold you information that proved he was keeping pay from his army.”

He smiled. “And I used that information to fund a coup, and I got my mineral deal from the man I put in his place. They executed him, you know. I have the videotape. Took off his head in the middle of the street. Quite invigorating to know I’d done that, but I couldn’t have without you. I’d tried three other information brokers and several mercenary units. You were the only one with the magic touch. I knew then and there that I had to meet the man behind the mask. And then I became obsessed when I discovered the man was a woman. That was when I decided I wanted to meet you, but to do that I had to be in your world. I was already a brilliant programmer. I decided to become a hacker.”

Her stomach took a deep dive. This had been a long game, and she hadn’t even known she was playing. “And you called yourself Al Krum.”

“I was smart enough to put a construct in place. If you had checked up on me, you would have seen what I wanted you to see. I was a mild mannered but brilliant hacker, the type of man you could feel comfortable around, depend on. We had some fun times. I have to tell you Chelsea, it was freeing. I liked being Al Krum. Some of the work we did together was amazing.”

“I don’t do work like that anymore.”

He stopped, his eyes narrowing. “Why? Is it the pretty boy?”

“I only did it because we needed the money. My sister and I needed cash.”

“To run from your father’s syndicate. I know your story. You and your sister had your father killed. You know if you’d been men, you could have taken over. Your cousin did when his father was murdered. According to my information, you had a hand in that as well.”

That had been Ian, but she wasn’t about to point that out. She was kind of hoping he didn’t know much about Ian so when he came rushing in at some point, Al would be surprised to have his ass handed to him by Satan. “I’m not on the run from the syndicate anymore. My cousin called off the hit on me.”

“Yes, he’s very likely a good connection. The Brit is not. I checked him out. He’s got ties to Malone Oil. I don’t like David Malone. He and that son of his are very unreasonable.”

“Meaning you can’t buy them?”

“Meaning they work against their own best interests. I don’t understand them and I believe it’s best to destroy the things we don’t understand. It doesn’t matter. Eventually my group will weed them out and they’ll be replaced with more logical partners. My point is Simon Weston is a problem for me.”

And that was a definite problem for her. “No. He’s not going to cause trouble. He’s just my friend. He’s a lawyer. I got scared by the bombs and I didn’t know where else to go, so I ended up at his place.”

His hand tightened on hers. “Oh, Chelsea, I’ll teach you not to lie to me. I can’t prove it but I would bet he’s former MI6. Ian Taggart doesn’t hire lawyers. He hires ex-agents. And I figured out who took out my men at that rattrap motel he took you to. That was easy though. Even CIA agents can be bought. Actually, they can be bought for quite cheap.”

Her heart nearly stopped at the thought. “Ten?”

He chuckled. “Wouldn’t you like to know? We could make it a game. I think I’ve done a good job of making it impossible to prove, but you are the best. I would love to watch it. We can even bet on who the mole is.” He stopped as they reached the dock. “Were you serious about going legit?”

Chelsea could see a very lovely boat moored to the dock. All around her tourists were snapping pictures. The lagoon was full of sightseers enjoying the beauty of the Italian sky. A light breeze cooled her skin. A perfect day and Chelsea finally understood that Al was going to kill her if he didn’t get what he wanted. He would likely do it quickly or he would kill Simon in order to gain her compliance. He wouldn’t have mentioned the possibility that Ten could have turned if he meant to release her at some point.

He wanted a playmate. A deranged and criminal playmate to match his own personality, but a playmate.

And she had to give it to him.

She rolled her eyes a little. “Do you really think I would give everything up? I’ve had to play the game because big sister fell for an overgrown Boy Scout. You’ve checked out Taggart. You have to know he watches my every move. He threatened to turn me in to the Agency if I don’t play it straight. I’m biding my time until I can walk away. Once they get settled in and start having kids, they won’t give a shit about me anymore.”

She could see Simon’s head. He was turned away from her, but at least he was upright.

Al brought her hand to his lips. “Well then, I think I can help. I can make it look like you died. We’ll build a whole new identity for you and we can rule the world together. Like it should be. I just need you to do one tiny job for me.”

She followed him to the boat, praying all the while for the strength to do what she needed to do—to save Simon. He was all that mattered now. She just hoped he could forgive her for what she would have to do to make sure he was alive at the end of the day.

* * * *

Simon sat in between his captors, staring straight ahead, his arms cuffed in front of him. That had been a mistake because he could still work with his hands, but he supposed he looked more normal like this.

Of course, he couldn’t do a thing until he knew where Chelsea was. If the boat took off without her, he would risk it. He could see exactly how he would do it. He would get the one to his left with a quick header and then strangle the one to his right. They’d taken his SIG, but he could easily get one of their pieces. He would drop them both and then he would go after Chelsea.

The only reason he hadn’t was the very real possibility that there were eyes on them. He believed the little bugger. He’d planned this out, and Simon couldn’t risk getting Chelsea killed. Not when he had backup.

“Simon, it’s Jesse. I’ve gotten some weird feedback from your unit. I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

It could be difficult to hear outside conversations. The comm unit worked best in direct speech. Unfortunately, he couldn’t exactly explain the situation.

He kept silent and prayed Jesse figured it out. It was possible he would just think the unit had gone bad.

“Simon, I need you to cough if you’ve been compromised.”

Thank god.
Simon coughed discreetly.

“Understood. Can you give me an idea of how many?”

He coughed again. Three times. There were three of them for now. The two guarding him and the man driving the boat. “Does anyone want to tell me where we’re going?”

Jesse should be able to hear his side of the conversation easily.

The biggest of the two stared his way as the boat swayed. “That is not for you to know.”

Italian. His English was good, but thickly accented. Al was American. He had to wonder if this was a hired thug. The smaller of the men was American, likely working security in some form for Al’s company. Where the hell was Chelsea?

“Seems a bit rude, if you ask me. Can you tell me if the girl is coming with us?” He couldn’t be too overt or he might tip his hand. He needed Jesse to know that he was on the move and Chelsea wasn’t necessarily with him. It also wouldn’t hurt for him to know who’d taken them. “Will Mr. Krum be joining us?”

“Are you kidding me?” Jesse’s voice came in low. “The little fucker. We can make his death real. I’m on this, Si. Keep the comm line open as long as possible. I’m calling Ian to let him know and then I’ve got Adam on this. He’ll tie in to the security cams. Keep your face up so we can find you.”

Simon looked to his left and sure enough, there were cameras on the docks. He stared directly at one, giving Adam’s facial recognition software the best shot at identifying him. Even a starting place to look would help.

All the while, that one question was beating against his skull.
Where is Chelsea? Where is Chelsea? Where is Chelsea?