Chance

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “I needed that,” she said sleepily beside me.

  “You should have just said so. I’ll fuck you hard and fast anytime you need it.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Just one thing.”

  “What’s that?” I could hear the smile in her voice and it fucking lit me up inside.

  “Don’t ever bring a fucking spatula into the bedroom.”

  She sat up suddenly, her eyes comically wide. “How did you-”

  “I ran into Derek and Claire. She said something about a plunger. Do I want to know what that’s about?”

  She bit her lip, laughing to herself, but she wouldn’t tell me.

  “Now I have to know.” I straddled her, tickling her stomach. I would find out one way or another.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “We’ve still got nothing,” Cap said to all of us. “We need to figure out a way to draw this fucker out.”

  “What about Cash?” Cazzo asked. “Has he heard anything in his area?”

  “He’s got nothing. They have bigger problems out there anyway. There’s a serial killer taking out people at random. No connections. He’s one of the many security teams that have been hired by anyone able to pay for it.”

  “Maybe we need to consider-”

  Ice was cut off by Cap’s phone ringing. He pulled it out and frowned when he saw the screen. There were only a handful of people that had access to that number and the majority of them were in this room.

  “Reed.”

  Cap’s eyes flicked to me and then he set his phone on the table and Mark’s voice came over the line.

  “I want to make a deal with you.”

  “I don’t make deals with men like you.”

  There was silence and then a sigh. “I can give you what you want. Meet me at Rudy’s bar, Kansas City. Tomorrow night at 8:00. Don’t be late or I’ll walk away.”

  He hung up before Cap could answer. I stared at Cap, wondering what he was going to do. Cap didn’t trust anyone and even though Mark had helped me escape, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t leading us into a trap.

  “We have to go,” I said firmly. “This is our chance.”

  “He works for this guy. We can’t pretend that this isn’t shady as fuck,” Ice growled. “If this is a setup, we’ll be leaving our women and children defenseless.”

  “I don’t think it is. This guy helped me off the island, and while I don’t think he’s some saint, I know he had serious issues with what was happening.”

  “Your instincts are compromised,” Knight said. “You were held captive on an island, tortured for a fucking year. This guy came in and saved the day. You see him more as your savior than the threat that he is.”

  I stood, slamming my chair back with force. I stomped around to Knight’s side of the table and hauled him out of his chair by his collar. He didn’t even try to fight me. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. He may have contacted Cap, but I’m the one that planned for a fucking year to get off the island. I’m the one that killed Hughes and his men. I’m the one that carried Payton and got Morgan to the chopper. That was all fucking me,” I shouted at him. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me that my instincts are compromised.”

  Knight watched me and then gripped my wrists, pulling me off him. I allowed it because I felt like I could explode at any moment. It wouldn’t do any good to take out a teammate.

  “He’s good,” he nodded to Cap.

  “We leave first thing tomorrow morning and scope out the area as soon as we get there. I want that place under heavy surveillance until we know for sure what this fucker is planning.”

  “That’s it?” I stared at Cap incredulously. “Knight says that I’m okay and you take his word for it?”

  Cap shrugged. “Knight reads people well. It’s one of the reasons he’s on our side.”

  “Un-fucking-believable.”

  Knight clasped my shoulder and glared at me, but his mouth twitched in a semi-smile. “It could be worse. He could have made you go see a psychiatrist.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, you’re so much better.”

  “I’m no psychiatrist. I’ve just seen enough shit to know when someone’s off their fucking rocker.” He slapped my arm in a friendly gesture. I wanted to snap his fucking hand off. “It’s a compliment coming from me, vouching for you, I mean.”

  “Knight, there’s no such thing as a compliment and you fitting in the same sentence.”

  He shrugged it off. “Compliment might be an overstatement. Maybe just be happy that I’ve calmed down since I’ve joined Reed Security. I used to shoot first and ask questions later.”

  Hunter walked up with a smirk on his face, wrapping an arm around Knight’s shoulders. “Don’t let him fool you. He’s still the same asshole he was when I knew him in the military. The only difference is that now he actually has to behave himself.”

  Knight turned to Hunter and glared at his arm around his shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “See?” Hunter grinned. “Still the same asshole.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “What’s he doing?” I asked Gabe as I watched Mark from across the street. He had walked into the bar just a moment ago and then he walked out the back door into the alley. We had the whole place covered from all angles.

  “I’m on his six,” Alec said over coms.

  “Cazzo, your team stays on the front entrance and Ice, your team stays on the back until we know what the fuck he’s doing,” Cap responded. “Everyone else, move out and follow from a distance. I want everyone spread out in a perimeter around him.”

  We followed him for a mile and a half before he turned and walked down a heavily populated street where there was a parade going on. We would have lost him if we weren’t fanned out all around him. He didn’t even look around as he walked into an old bookstore. I headed into the store next to it, shocked when I saw that there were a string of shops all connected with open doorways.

  “At least four of these shops are connected. I’m following into the bookshop.”

  I stepped through the doorway just in time to see him heading down the back hallway. He stopped and looked at me for just a moment and then proceeded through the door. I followed, hesitantly opening the door. I didn’t know what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn’t another long hallway.

  “Back hallway, right side door. There’s another hallway.”

  I heard some of the guys follow me through the door. We walked probably the length of the strip mall before Mark went into the last door on the right. I conveyed the information and followed into the room. It was large and set up like a meeting room.

  “You look a lot better,” Mark said from across the room. I eyed him warily, but he took off his jacket, showing he only wore a t-shirt. He lifted his shirt and his pant legs. There were no guns hidden. Cap walked in behind me, catching the tail end of Mark showing he was clean. Cap headed over and scanned him for any electronics or mics.

  Cap stepped aside and told the guys how to get to us. I walked closer to Mark, feeling like I should say something now that we were both off that island. I held out my hand and was surprised when he didn’t even hesitate to shake my hand.

  “Thank you. I owe you my life.”

  “No, you don’t. You never should have been there to begin with. No one should have.”

  “Still, I might not have gotten Payton out if it weren’t for you. And not just calling Cap. The extra food, the medicine; I would have died in there without your help.”

  “Well, now you can return the favor.”

  I nodded, sure that I would find out exactly what he meant as soon as everyone showed up. When we were all gathered, I turned to my teammates and introduced them to Mark.

  “This is pretty much everyone from Reed Security. Guys, this is Mark. He saved my life on that island. He’s off limits unless he does something fucking stupid.”

  None of them even attempted to argue with me. In fact, Gabe, Jackson, a
nd Cap stepped forward and shook his hand. Everyone else just kind of gave chin lifts or nodded in his direction.

  “So, you said you could give us what we wanted,” Cap said, starting things off.

  “You want the leader of the trafficking ring.”

  “And what do you want?” I asked.

  “I want my father dead. I started working with him when I was just out of high school. I was a dumb kid and I didn’t know any better. I looked up to my old man because of who he was, but as the years went by, I realized how fucking filthy he was. The kids were the last straw for me. I can’t be part of that anymore and the only way for me to break away from him without getting myself killed is for him to die.”

  “Are you sure that’s what you want?” Cap asked. “He could be prosecuted. He would spend the rest of his life in jail paying for his crimes.”

  “He’s got too many friends in power. He’ll never go to jail.”

  “Is he a senator or something?” Gabe asked.

  “Worse.” He looked at me, a strange expression crossing his face. “He’s military. A well respected SEAL.”

  “Military men are prosecuted all the time for their crimes,” Cap continued.

  “Most are, but he has government connections, people helping him commit crimes, and he has a well-respected career. All he has to do is threaten anyone that’s helped him and any case against him would be thrown out.”

  My gut churned, but the longer I stared at him, the more clear it became. “Fuck, no…” I started pacing. This was so fucked up, I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what was really happening. “You look just like him.”

  “Like who?” Cap asked.

  “I knew you looked familiar, but it didn’t click until you said something.”

  “Chance, who?” Cap repeated.

  “Chief,” I sighed. “He’s Chief’s son.”

  Cap walked over to me, stood right in front of me, waiting for me to explain. “Start talking.”

  “I didn’t even know he had a kid. He never said anything. Remember I said that Mark looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him? That’s why. And that voice on the plane when I was taken. I knew it was familiar, I knew it was someone I knew, but I never would have thought…. Fuck!”

  “This is too much of a coincidence,” Ice said, stepping toward me. “Remember what I fucking said.”

  “No, this is no coincidence.” I looked to Mark. “I’m guessing he came to me for a reason.”

  “You visited his club when he least expected. It was a bad night for you to be there. And then you took to Morgan and fucked her. Chief saw the whole thing. He knew all along why Morgan was working in his club. Someone had directed Morgan to his club to speak with the Broker, Hughes. When Chief found out, he and Hughes asked around until they found out where she got the intel from. The guy that owns the bar is dead now. If she had never walked into that strip club, she never would have met either of them.”

  “She also would have never found her daughter,” I added.

  “It all went downhill from there. When he saw that you were going back for more with her, he decided to use you to his advantage. He thought that either you would join his business or he would use you to distract Morgan. When he told you that he was working with agents to take down the ring, he was testing you, trying to see where your loyalties lay.”

  “And I obviously disappointed him based on my reaction.”

  “It was all for show. He found a vulnerable agent and set him up to take the fall for the prostitution ring being run out of the club.”

  “But that agent was shot,” Cazzo said. “He was taken out so he couldn’t say anything. And then they came after us in the alley.”

  “All set up by my father. If he took out the agent in front of you, it made him look guilty. But that wasn’t the only reason he visited you.”

  “He wanted a look at our security system,” Cap surmised.

  “How the fuck did he do it?” Knight asked.

  Mark shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I know he had an IT guy working with him, and I’m assuming he got what he needed when he was visiting you.”

  “He couldn’t have gotten everything he needed from that one visit,” Knight said frustratedly. “There were too many variables.”

  “He has enough money to hire the best. If you want details, you’ll have to ask him.”

  “But why did he set all this up to begin with? Why pretend that an agent was involved and concoct this crazy story? It’s so far-fetched to think he did it just to see if I would be a useful asset.”

  “It wasn’t just about you, don’t you see?” Mark said in frustration. “It was the whole company that was valuable. All former military, all trained to kill. If he could get the whole company on his side, imagine how much more he could be involved in? Hired bodyguards off the street aren’t nearly as deadly, which I’m sure you saw on the island. He was power hungry and he needed the very best to protect him. He knew that Morgan was suspicious and digging around. As long as she didn’t know anything, she wasn’t a threat. But then Hughes took an interest in her and everything started to fall apart. You knew what was happening and started digging. You got too close. He needed to move his business and that meant clearing out the club.”

  “How are Hughes and Chief connected?” Cap asked.

  “Hughes is an information man. That’s all he deals in. Chief contacted him when he set up his prostitution ring. He didn’t want to snatch women off the street. He needed to find women that could easily disappear, but weren’t already hookers. When Hughes came through for him, he decided to use him again to get his side project off the ground.”

  “The Russian spy project,” Cap said.

  “Right. His job was to locate children that had one parent and no family. They were specifically looking for women that wouldn’t have any resources to keep digging into the disappearance of their kids. After the kids had been missing for a few months, the parents went missing too. Most were women, but there were a few men also. They were taken into his prostitution ring. With no one around to question the disappearances, the cases would eventually slip through the cracks.”

  “But why go through all the trouble?” I questioned. “There are a ton of missing persons cases that never get solved.”

  “He got a child for his project and the parent for the prostitution ring. No familial ties means no one’s looking for either of them. The cases go dry and he doesn’t have to worry about anyone pushing harder for more investigations. The idea was to do a trial run and see how it worked. Obviously, I fucked that up for him.”

  “And that’s why you need our help,” Cap surmised.

  Mark shook his head. “The last time I saw him, he wasn’t suspicious. But he’s not stupid. Hughes was heavily guarded and very cautious. He’s going to dig and try to find out how Sebastian could have come in contact with Hughes.”

  “And now you want us to save your ass,” Hunter jeered.

  “Now, I want to take him down. His project is ruined and he’ll try to start over. It’ll take him a while to find a new location and build what he needs, but he will start again. I want to stop him before he starts kidnapping more kids.”

  I was still in shock over everything. I had so many questions and my mind was spinning out of control. I still couldn’t believe that a man that I served with could do something like this.

  “Why?”

  Mark looked at me almost sympathetically. “Because it’s just the kind of man he is. He’s always been money hungry.”

  “But he was a SEAL. It’s tough as hell to become one in the first place, and it’s not like you get rich. You don’t do it for the money. I would have seen some sign over the years that he just wanted money.”

  “I think he went into the SEALs with the same idealism as everyone else, but after a few years, it was the rush. He would go home on leave and he just couldn’t adjust. My mom said that he was never the same man.”

  “No one is when i
t comes to war,” Burg replied. “No man walks away unscathed.”

  “This was more than an adjustment period. I remember her dreading him coming home.”

  “He always seemed fine, completely normal. He joked around with us. He was the chief when he needed to be, but he was also like family.”

  I needed him to explain. None of this made sense.

  “He got involved in some shady shit a few years before he got out. I don’t know the specifics, but he made a shit ton of money. After that, all he could talk about was how he was going to get out of the military and make it big.”

  “Why didn’t he ever mention that he had a family?”

  “He wasn’t exactly a family man. I don’t have a single memory of my father actually being a father. The day he came to me and told me he wanted me to join his business, I thought he was finally trying to be part of my life.” Mark seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. I could see the pain on his face, like he was upset with himself for something that happened.

  “What happened?” I asked when he didn’t continue.

  “He was using me. He knew I craved his attention and he used it against me. I would have been loyal to him until the day I died if he hadn’t assigned me to that island. That was a real eye-opener for me. At first, I didn’t know why the kids were there, but after you arrived on the island and then Hughes showed up, I found out what he was doing. You know, he didn’t know what to do with you. He wanted you out of the picture because he knew that you would never stop searching for Payton or Morgan, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill you either. I guess you meant more to him than he wanted to acknowledge.”

  “If you were in charge there, why did I only ever see you when you brought me food? Why did you have to hide what you were doing? You let the guards beat me and- If you felt so strongly about it, why didn’t you stop it?”

  “Because those guards weren’t loyal to me. If they knew that I was helping you or trying to go easy on you, they would have told my father. I wouldn’t have been able to help you or those girls. I didn’t want to let that shit happen, but I had to watch my step. Trust me, you don’t know him like I do.”