Slade stood when he heard the car come up the drive. He pushed the curtain aside just enough to look out to see Tristan and Hunter coming up. He didn’t recognize the car.
Good. That meant they gave Liv theirs to get out of town with. Hunter’s car was clean. It shouldn’t draw the attention of any state troopers, and Thurrond wouldn’t know she was driving it.
He hated that she wasn’t here. He hated that he hadn’t been there to say good-bye. She wouldn’t have wanted to leave. She was so strong and stubborn. Being told what to do was never going to be an ideal situation for her.
But he needed her to be away from the house. He had played his cards and now he was waiting for Thurrond to come to him. Which meant Liv needed to be as far away from him as possible.
Tristan and Hunter reached the porch and he moved to pull open the door. “Did anyone see you?” he asked as they walked in.
“It’s a small town,” said Hunter. “Everyone saw us.”
“Good.”
“Your definition of good and mine are very different.” Toni walked out from the hallway, rubbing her neck. Scott followed and Slade noticed him fixing his shirt.
Fuck, he didn’t want to think about the two of them fucking in the back room. He supposed everyone had their own way of pregaming. Maybe the adrenaline got the both of them off somehow.
Considering how wound up Hart could be sometimes, he supposed the more sex he got, the better. “Once again,” said Slade, “you agreed to this plan.”
“Oh yeah, it’s a good plan. But that still doesn’t make me happy that a bunch of rent-a-thugs are on their way here loaded up with illegal weapons.”
Hunter snorted. “Please. I could take on at least ten of those guys at once. I’m surprised Slade made it out of this shit show with any skills at all.”
Slade narrowed his eyes and Tristan stepped in. “We all respect what you’re capable of. But you have to admit that the guys here aren’t exactly... professionals.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” he warned. “These guys think that if they fail Thurrond, they’re going to get a bullet in their head. They think he’s the ticket to having a nice house and a family. They see this life as their ticket to a white picket fence.”
“Funny. I haven’t seen a single white picket fence since we got here,” said Toni.
“Maybe once we get Thurrond’s influence flushed out, they can start putting some up,” said Hart.
“One step at a time. Thurrond could get here any minute, but I’m going to guess he’s going to wait until nightfall. Toni, you’re on the perimeter duty. Hunter, help her set up everything.”
“What about your little mission?” asked Hunter. “Did you take care of it?”
“The cash is ash now,” said Toni.
“He still has a lot in actual accounts,” warned Hart.
“Doesn’t matter. He has people fighting for him who are going to die tonight. When they start to see the casualties and think Thurrond doesn’t even have a way to pay them, they’ll run. We don’t need to take all of his cash. Just need to plant the seed. All of these guys are on edge since I got here. Your laser show the other night, the car bomb, the safe—we’ve come in like a steamroller. Thurrond doesn’t need to be afraid of us, but his guys do. Because once his guys abandon him, it won’t matter if he’s afraid. I’ll still put a bullet in his head.”
Toni frowned. “Do you think you’ll be able to do it?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“I’m just saying.... I went on my own revenge vendetta recently. It’s easier to talk a good game.”
He walked over to Toni and saw Hart stiffen as he approached. He didn’t have to worry; he wasn’t going to hurt Hart’s beloved. “I’ve killed before for a lot less,” he warned. “And if I remember correctly, Sterling ended up six feet under at the end of your vendetta, didn’t he?”
“Either way, I’m with you,” she said, not seeming too concerned with how close he was. Not much really concerned Toni. She was always cool and seemed as if she had fifteen backup plans if she needed them. And the fact that Hart was head over heels in love with her and would probably shoot Slade before he ever had a chance to touch Toni helped.
But Toni stepped back, defusing the situation. “Hunter, let’s go set some explosions.”
She and Hunter reached the door when Hunter stopped and looked over his shoulder. “How attached are you to this house?” he asked.
“Very. But I’m more attached to my family. Plan accordingly.”
Hunter gave him a nod. Slade never had to give his team much instruction. They’d worked together long enough that they knew how one another thought. It was handy in tense situations where communication was next to impossible.
Toni and Hunter left and he looked to Tristan. “How are our eyes coming on?”
“I have the cameras set up, but need to get them working. Toni would be faster.”
“Toni is busy. You’ll be fast enough.”
He nodded. “I’m on it.” Tristan went to a back room and he and Hart were alone. He didn’t know what he could have Hart do. The man was smart enough and more than capable, but he wasn’t a part of the team. Slade didn’t know the strengths and weaknesses he could use.
“You should get the weapons ready.”
Hart nodded, not seemingly offended by the busy work. “They’re in the back of your car?”
“They’re in the back room. I had a buddy make a special delivery while we were out.”
“Handy.”
“I know the right people.”
“That helps.”
There were a few quiet moments. Slade wasn’t into emotional shit, but he forced the words out. “I appreciate you being here.”
“Yeah, everything is easier with Toni around.”
“Both of you. It means a lot that you’re putting yourself on the line for my problems.”
“It's just a favor, Slade.”
“Yeah, but you don’t owe me anything. I wasn’t a lot of help with Sterling. I’d spent my entire life following his orders.”
“You followed his orders to protect the ones you love. There’s no shame in that.”
“I’m not ashamed of anything. I own it all, every single dirty deed—no matter how much of it wrote my ticket to hell. But none of that is a reason for you to help me.”
“That’s the thing, Slade. You know the right people. I like to know the right people too. Don’t consider this a favor. This is the two of us building a relationship. A relationship I hope to go on in the future.”
Slade looked over at the man and tried to figure out where he was going with this. “I don’t do the favor-for-a-favor thing.”
“I’m not looking for favors. I’m looking for guys I can trust. I inherited all of Sterling’s operations and he had his men stationed all over the world. I’ll be trying to rein everyone in and I can’t be everywhere at once.”
“You want me to investigate the new people with you? Sterling had a lot of guys and some of them were fucking sleazeballs. I lucked out with my team.”
“No. Toni and I are going to take care of that. But if we start taking jobs, I only want to have guys I trust working them. Your guys. I want you to lead the first operational unit of Hart Securities. Doing jobs without me and taking care of business. It’s not easy for me to delegate, but I think you understand how to get a job done without any innocent lives being taken in the process.”
Slade was flattered while at the same time uncomfortable with the high praise. It was a sort of promotion and sort of his dream job. Using his skills to help people. Be the kind of man Josh and Liv could be proud of. “Things are different now. I have a son to raise.”
“You have to manage the jobs. Only go out in the field when you need to. And the salary will be... competitive.”
He could imagine that Toni took more than just the operational parts from Sterling before she took him down. “Can I think about it?”
“I don�
��t want to sound cocky here, but it’s a pretty damn good offer. What is there to think about?”
“For fuck’s sake, Hart, I just need to—” The phone rang behind them and each turned.
“I guess that’s for you,” said Hart.
Slade crossed to the phone and stared at it for a moment. But it didn’t go to a voicemail. It just kept ringing. Finally he picked up the receiver and brought it to his ear. He didn’t say anything. Just waited for the caller to reveal themselves.
“Slade?” said the soft female voice.
The tension shot through him and he motioned for Hart to come closer. “Liv? Liv, where are you?”
“I’m sor—”
“Peter,” said Thurrond over the line, cutting off Liv.
“Tiger, I swear to fuck, if you hurt one hair on her head—”
“A hair? Peter, I’m going to hurt so much more than her hair. This little game you’ve been playing isn’t funny anymore. I’m ready to end it.”
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing.”
“I’m going to send some guys to your house and you’re going to voluntarily come with them.”
Hart shook his head, but Slade was already there. “You’ll bring Liv here and once I have visual confirmation that she’s alive and well, I will turn myself over.”
“You’re not in a place to negotiate.”
“I’m not in a place to exchange my life for a dead girl, Thurrond. You’re taking one hell of a gamble that I want Liv alive more than I want you dead. You want to see where I fall on this?”
“You’re gambling that I won’t shoot her just because you’re annoying me right now.”
Slade put the phone down and tried to pull back his rage. If he had any hope of getting Liv back, he was going to have to stay calm and keep at the same level as Thurrond. It was the same game he was playing with Thurrond. Angry people made mistakes.
And Thurrond might not know it yet, but taking Liv was the biggest mistake he’d ever made. He brought the phone back to his ear. “That’s a gamble I’m taking.” And then he did the hardest thing he ever had to do. He hung up.
Liv held her breath as Tiger Thurrond threw the phone across the room. “Son of a bitch!” he screamed. Each word sent a different tremor of fear through her.
Though the fear was probably a good thing in this case. After his guys had started shooting, she had reacted badly. She was sure Slade could’ve driven right into the shooters and ended the conflict right there, but she’d just panicked and jerked the steering wheel to the side, causing the SUV to screech around and come perilously close to falling over. She didn’t remember everything after that because her head had slammed into the driver’s side window hard enough to send her in and out of consciousness for the past few minutes—or hours.
The guys had taken her to Antonio’s. She’d never been inside, but she could recognize the gaudy decor from descriptions. She was in the lion’s den and she wasn’t even thinking straight. Fantastic. And thanks to her hands and feet being bound, she was only able to inch away toward the wall as Thurrond exploded.
“Hung up on me.... No one hangs up on me!” he screamed.
All of the guys around her took a step back in fear. Liv tried to make herself as small and invisible as possible. Because if Thurrond was going to take his anger out on anyone, it was probably going to be on her.
Thurrond turned around, and just like she feared, his eyes landed right on her. “You think you know Peter? Your boyfriend just gave up on you. How does that make you feel?”
Liv swallowed and forced her gaze up until she met his eyes. “I think Slade isn’t the type to give up,” she said honestly. And she believed it. No matter where their relationship was going, they’d formed a bond and that meant something to him. If he wasn’t already on his way to her, he had a plan. She might not make it out of this alive, but it sure as hell wouldn’t be because of Slade’s lack of trying.
She had to bite back her fear. Logically, she knew Slade would know how to get to her. Antonio’s wasn’t exactly the most subtle hideout for Thurrond. They were each playing the same game: Slade was reinforcing the house while Thurrond was reinforcing the restaurant.
The only problem with Slade’s plan was her. She would be the reason for him to come to Thurrond’s trap instead of keeping with the plan he’d concocted. She could be the reason Slade was killed.
Liv squeezed her eyes shut and started to suck in deep breaths as the panic set in. It was the same feeling she’d had when she’d thrown herself in front of that ridiculous van when Josh was being taken. The feeling of utter helplessness as her world fell apart.
Thurrond was using her as bait, and all she could do was sit here on this floor that seemed a tad too dusty for a restaurant and feel sorry for herself.
The door opened and she looked up to see Trevor striding through the tables. Great. Not only did she have to die in a mass of shame, but she got to do it while her ex-boyfriend watched.
She swallowed back her fear and channeled it to anger as she glared at him. Damn it, if she died, she wanted the guilt to haunt Trevor for the rest of his miserable, good-for-nothing existence.
When he saw her, she could tell he was shocked. He seemed to miss a step and stumbled to regain his strut. “What— What is she doing here?”
“I’m bait,” she said before Thurrond could try to answer for himself. “They’re going to get Slade here and if they don’t, they’re going to kill me. Think they’re going to make you do the deed? It would be a good way to prove loyalty.”
Trevor just stared at her. He seemed to be struck speechless, which was a rarity for him.
Thurrond, however, had plenty to say. “She’s a means to an end, Trevor. And Olivia, you can shut your whore mouth or I swear I will give you something to talk about. You don’t know anything about this man. He came into your house and destroyed your little family unit. You should want him gone as much as I do before he takes everything from you, like he took from me.”
“If I remember correctly, you’re the one who caused Lacey to die.”
She knew the words were a mistake as soon as she said them but couldn’t deny the satisfaction as the shock showed in his face. But the satisfaction turned to fear as Thurrond crossed over to her and slammed his foot into her stomach. The pain was sudden and all-consuming, knocking the wind out of her and causing her vision to go black. Before she could even see anything again, she felt another blow to her stomach and wondered briefly whether she’d gone and done it. She’d pissed off the most dangerous man in town, and now he was going to kill her. Not with a bullet to the head, but with a slow beating. What a terrible way to die.
“I expect you to treat me with a little more respect.” Thurrond backed away. “Trevor is loyal to me. I’ve treated him better than you ever did and he knows that.”
Liv sucked in a breath, but everything hurt—her head, her lungs, her hands where they were bound in front of her. But she still needed to breathe, so she kept on sucking in air despite the pain. Something touched her back and she jumped at the contact. She reared up, the fear overriding any pain as she saw Trevor crouching over her. He’d been touching her as though to... comfort her? Didn’t he see that he was involved in all this? Liv looked at him and she wasn’t angry or scared. Just betrayed. They’d never been friends, especially after the break-up. But this guy she used to trust with all of her deepest secrets was going to kill her. Because if Thurrond ordered him to, Trevor would follow through. Thurrond was right. He’d already proved his loyalty a thousand times over and it sure as hell wasn’t for her.
Liv pulled away from Trevor and inched back to the wall. “Don’t,” she warned. “The next time you touch me, it had better be to let me go or kill me.”
Slade looked at his watch and back at the crowd around him. Everyone was regrouping and replanning. Toni, Hart, Tristan, and Hunter were all waiting for his command, and for once, he didn’t know what to say. He needed to be smart about this, but for th
e life of him, he couldn’t get his brain working.
He wanted Liv back. He wanted to take all the explosions and firepower to wherever Thurrond had her and take it down brick by brick.
“What’s the angle?” asked Hart.
“There is no angle. Get Liv back. Kill Thurrond. End of story.”
“Okay....” said Hart, not as convinced. “I’m there for all of that. I am. But we had a plan here. We had a method. But we can’t change everything last minute and stage a full-scale rescue. That’s what Thurrond wants, and in my experience, you don’t give someone who wants to kill you what they want.”
“You think we should let Liv die and stick with the original plan?” said Toni in a shocked voice. “She’s one of us. We’re not letting her go down.”
“I didn’t say that,” said Hart, turning to face his girlfriend. “I want to save her—I just want to be smart about it.”
“Everyone was supposed to be coming here, right?” said Hunter. “We were going to take out the bulk of Thurrond’s army here, on home turf, and convince the others that he wasn’t worth fighting for and couldn’t pay them. That means that where Liv is, she’s probably not heavily guarded.”
“What are you saying?” asked Toni.
“He’s saying we wouldn’t need a full-scale assault to break her free.” Slade tried to formulate all the ways this could go wrong. All the ways Liv could end up dead.
“Send in one guy. We’re all qualified. Five or four of us could handle the house. We can lose one member.”
“I’ll go,” said Tristan.
Slade inhaled and exhaled. He didn’t want Tristan to put himself in the line of fire. He was a better talker than fighter, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t handle a gun. But he knew he was the only one he’d trust to get Liv out alive. “I’ll go.”
“No,” said Hart. “You’re the leader of this unit. You need to be here to strategize.”
“My guys are smart enough to pull this off without me.”
“Then let Tristan go,” insisted Hart.
“He’s right,” said Tristan. “I’m not very useful here.”
The Vengeful Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 5) Page 14