Dethroning the King

by Jennifer Loren

  Chapter 4

  Dace

  Austin finally falls asleep, and I can stop trying to avoid talking about going back to the States to deal with Michael. This issue is only going to get harder to avoid now that Austin and Antony are proving they are more than capable of taking care of themselves. I have done my best to track down every possible solution to launching a perfect attack on Michael. Even though Aaron knows his sister and I are alive, we have to be careful contacting him. Michael has people everywhere, and I’m certain they are watching him, making sure the man doesn’t do anything to get in his way. Aaron’s hands are tied … mostly. We have devised one method of contact. It’s complicated and not exactly the best way to get a quick response, but it works. It also happens to be safe for everyone involved. I have finally received some information back from him that I have been long waiting for. Opening the message, my hands begin to shake as I hold it out in front of me. My eyes scan over it in haste, and in a matter of a few, brief seconds, all of my suspicions are confirmed. I might just have a way in—a way to get Michael for good. All I need to do is find a way to contact my in and hope he doesn’t turn me down for help. I have become quite wary of using my computer around the crew. I am not sure why. Maybe I am overly sensitive about this mission since it concerns the lives of the people I love the most. My skills come in handy when trying to track down people, and luckily, I know where this particular person works. The only thing standing in my way is gaining access to get the message to him, so I decide to ask for help from a crew member who has some contacts that may be beneficial. Trust is not easy for me, but if I am going to trust anyone, it’s Peter. I knock on his door with a deep breath.

  When the door opens, he looks surprised. “What are you doing up so early? We don’t have anywhere to be today. Take a break for once.” Peter swears at me but still invites me in.

  “Sorry. I was up working on something, and I didn’t realize it was still early, at least for you.” Peter would sleep until noon and stay up all night if he could. He hates mornings with a passion; I think it comes from all the night missions during his military days. His schedule has never quite gotten back on a normal track. “So, you finally are coming to me to ask for help? About damn time.”

  I laugh to myself as this man is the only one who cares enough to pay attention to what I need. “Yeah I need help. I need help getting some contact information for someone. I only have a name and an old address, but he does, or at least he used to, work for the FBI. So, I thought with your contacts there, you might be able to help me.”

  Peter nods as he makes himself some coffee. “I can, but let me ask you this first. Are you sure you want this information?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because once you have it, what’s stopping your small family from pushing you to go back and go after your brother that will stop at nothing to kill you all? Maybe it’s best to make a new life, get a fresh start. Whether here with us or some small place away from it all. Hell, stay here with us for a little while. You all can make enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your lives. I tell you what, Ghost. If you stay, especially with Austin and Antony by your side, we will make you a partner in all this and get you a bigger portion of the profits. Think about it. You will never have to worry about anyone coming after any of you. We can even make Antony’s identity disappear. Michael will forget all about him.”

  “Antony’s not happy here, and neither is Austin. It’s nice temporarily, but not long term.”

  “Are you happy here?” Peter asks.

  Surprisingly, I don’t even have to think about it. “No. My home is with them, and I can’t be happy if they’re not. I really don’t care about anything else other than my family. If my father … Dominic, taught me nothing else, he taught me that family is everything. It’s all that matters.”

  “Alright then, tell me what you need, and it’s yours.” We shake hands, and he agrees to have something for me by the end of the week. In typical Peter fashion, it didn’t even take that long.

  Holding the contact information I need in my hand, I have to take a step back before starting my message. How do you say something to someone you don’t really know anymore? I take a minute and then proceed, typing as fast as my fingers can go and then sending it off. I have no idea how long it will take to reach him, or if he will ever respond. All I can do is wait.

  .Until I can get things back in order in the States, I need to keep Austin and Antony busy and distracted from asking me anything. I don’t want to get their hopes up or give Antony any reason to believe he is safe to go home and see Preston, who he never stops talking about. Peter helps me out at first by having us jump from one project to another, but when things slow down, I volunteer to go on every fact finding project we have, anything to keep from having to talk about going after Michael. I still have not received a word back, and I am starting to get worried that I never will.

  “Dace, where are you going?” Austin yells, running after me before I can get into the car to the airport.

  “I have a job, Sweetheart. I will be back in a few days.” I give her a quick kiss and try to turn around and avoid her glare.

  “Don’t you turn away from me. You haven’t been around hardly at all lately, and I’m starting to think you’re avoiding me on purpose,” she snaps, stomping her foot.

  “Never. I just want to catch up on the work owed while I was healing from Michael’s brotherly love. Not a lot of work right now, so I want to help out where I can.” Her crossed arms and deep huff mean she doesn’t care what I have to say right now. “I’ll be back, and we can talk then,” I promise.

  A new potential client. We aren’t certain what they want until we get there, but I immediately notice an eerie familiarity.

  “Hello,” he says simply, shaking mine and Peter’s hands.

  “Sir …” Peter starts.

  “Please, my name is Samuel, and my brother is Mateo Luis. You helped him find his family some time ago.”

  “Honestly Sir, we didn’t help him get what he wanted,” I sigh, embarrassed to admit it out loud.

  “My partner is right, Sir. We didn’t succeed in getting his family away from Guzman. His youngest died, and his oldest was taken hostage, as was he. I’m afraid our meeting here isn’t going to be what you had hoped.”

  The man’s head falls to his chest. “At least he is still alive and Nidia too. That makes our meeting here worth my time. I would like to hire you to rescue my brother and his daughter. We need him back here. Our mother is very ill and doesn’t have much time left.”

  “But Sir …” Peter pleads.

  “Samuel. Please.”

  “Samuel, we weren’t successful the first time. What makes you think we could be successful a second?” I watch as the man digs into a bag and pulls out some papers.

  “Because, I received this in the mail.” Samuel hands Peter a letter.

  My Dearest Brother,

  I beg of you to find KRT and tell them there is a time when the compound will be vulnerable. Guzman will be taking a trip with most of his men on the seventeenth of our month. Take the money from my safe and pay them to make one last attempt to return my Nidia and me home.

  - Mateo

  “I have the money for you. Please, you have been there before so you know … you know how to help him better than any other. If you cannot rescue them, then, I ask that you find a way to kill them and stop their misery. I know my brother would never want to live like this.” Samuel struggles to finish his final request without shedding tears. He clearly loves his brother and wants him back, but to go back to a job that we failed at once before is not something we can consider easily. We all nearly died there, and to risk lives again is a tough decision. I would do it in a heartbeat, but I know Peter, and he doesn’t make decisions based on emotion. He makes them based on probability and risk, and the stakes are too high for this one for him to agree to it.

  “We’ll do it,” Peter says to my immediat
e surprise. Samuel thanks him with exuberance while I stand back and wait for an explanation. On our way back, Peter sits silent, as if he is trying to come up with a reason for what he did. Surely he has an answer better than, just because. “I know what you’re thinking, Ghost, but you and I both know this one left a bad taste in our mouths. There is something about this one I can’t live with.”

  “I’m surprised it bothered you that much. You never seem to let any job bother you at all.”

  “Usually I can let it go, but that little girl was so innocent, and I just can’t figure out why Nidia would go back to that house. We missed something.” Peter sits back with little more to say on the matter.

  When we return, Peter is so withdrawn that I end up being the one to organize a crew for the job. Antony and Austin both want to go, but I refuse. Like last time, we still believe smaller is better, and we need our best on this one. Not to mention, I know firsthand how dangerous it is, and I am not about to put them in the middle of it.

  There is some preliminary work we need to do before we can move in on Guzman’s compound, but we have to use other sources this go around. Guzman learned from our attack last time and found ways to protect himself and prevent another attempt, thus eliminating the sources we utilized our first time. Nate, Le, and I go through our same routine over and over again, and still, we all feel we are missing something. We make one last trip to verify everything, and for some reason, the new guy, David, asks to go and learn from us. He seems eager and fun to work with, and it is actually nice to have a fresh pair of eyes on things. He makes us feel better about our information and ideas to free Mateo and Nidia. Like Peter, I still feel like we are missing something, but no matter how I feel, it seems we have every intel we can possibly get on the compound and on Guzman, himself. Now, all we have to do is return to our hotel-home and wait for the right time to conclude this mission one way or another, once and for all. Before we go back, I take the time to check into my other, more personal, mission. It’s all I can do not to scream out in joy when I receive notice of a response. The message is short but filled with all the information I need. The man I have waited to speak to for years is now going to help us with all the tools of the FBI that he can get. He says he has been waiting for this since my mother was killed. He wants me to give him some time to get set up and says he will let me know when it’s safe to take Michael down for good. He closes with, “I can’t wait to catch up with you and Antony. We have so much lost time to make up for.” It’s overwhelming, but I can’t stop smiling for anything right now.

  Our trip back to hotel-home is a happy one for me, and I laugh with the others and let go of my fears for the first time in a long time. “You look happy,” David says.

  “I guess I am. How about you? Are you happy with your new family here?” I ask.

  “Oh, yeah. I love this work, and learning from you guys is awesome. In fact, while I have your full attention, you’ve been doing this for a while, so do you have any expert advice for me?”

  “On the job or life?”

  “Both, to be honest.”

  I think for only a second. “Always watch your back. It’s your blind spot that always gets you into trouble,” I say honestly.

  David nods. “That’s good. Yeah, I guess that’s good advice for both work and life. Keeping that in mind, it must be real nice having your brother and your girl here to help watch your back?”

  “Yeah it makes it easier in some ways, not so much in others. I worry about them too much.”

  “Yeah, I would worry too, especially Austin. She is a very … well, hard to ignore when it’s mostly men we live with. Leandra is okay. I mean, we have enjoyed a few nights, which is great, but she sticks to her favorites. And Tina follows Peter around like a lost puppy. That’s about it on the female front, not much left for anyone else. At least the females have plenty to choose from though. And no worries on you and Leandra. We only fuck; it’s nothing more than that.” I nod, not understanding what he is talking about. “Yep, close quarters makes for a difficult time to stay true to people. I mean, guys can be close like brothers, but sometimes you sense that gorgeous body nearby and you just can’t help but take a peek,” he says as if he is trying to tell me something. I stare at him hard, waiting for him to explain himself, but he doesn’t.

  “What are you saying? Is someone after Austin?” I have to ask.

  “I don’t want to cause issues man. I’m just saying to never get too close to a woman in an atmosphere like this. It never works out.” He laughs it off. “I mean, don’t worry man. You guys don’t seem like you’re thinking about forever anyway. Leandra said you and her have hooked up many times, so you can’t blame Austin for getting a little side action too while you’re away.”

  Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows our situation. We try not to talk about our future plans too much so information can’t be used against us. “David, Le and I hooked up before I met Austin, not after. Never after,” I emphasize.

  He looks up at me as if he is trying to figure out how to get his foot out of his mouth. “Oh shit! Don’t listen to me. I am a terrible judge of people. I just assumed when I heard you and Leandra hooked up and leaving on all those trips together that you guys were going at it, and with Austin always working out in the gym, showing off that body to all the guys, letting them help her with this and that, touching each other for this reason or another. Hell, she is a very outgoing person, so of course, one could assume something is going on behind closed doors. It could be nothing more than being friendly. Plus, like I said, I don’t read people well, so I am sure I am way off.” He slaps me on the back. “Sorry man, I’m an idiot. Don’t listen to me. I think I have been watching too many pornos. And life is no porno, right?” He laughs, moving away from me to start a conversation with someone else.

  I nod, but my fears suddenly rise back to the surface. My good mood comes to an abrupt stop. I don’t know why I thought I could suddenly feel good about our future. No matter what David says, I must be insane to believe this situation here could work out so perfectly.

  Chapter 5

  Austin

  As soon as I bring up going home to Dace, he is off with his old friends to “do a job”. Peter won’t send me anywhere without Dace’s approval, and with him gone so much lately, no approval has been given for anything. The most Antony and I have been able to do is go help buy groceries and supplies. We both proved ourselves, yet he still holds us here like hostages. I’m not sure what he expects for me to do here while I wait for him. Take up sewing, maybe? Be the sweet little housewife quietly waiting for her man to get home and show him some attention? Or maybe have a couple of kids to take up my free time while he runs around the world risking his life for strangers? I haven’t seen him in weeks. WEEKS! And now I bet he will come to me with his suave smile and “I missed you baby” bullshit. Well, not this time. This time, he is going to shut up and listen to what I have to say. The moment I hear he is back, I jump up to go find him. I have had enough of this, and he damn well better not say a word before I do. Stomping my way towards the garage, I find everyone unloading their bags and smacking hands in celebration of their successful trip. Dace in the middle¸ completely oblivious to my anger.

  “Uh –oh woman on a warpath! Lookout Dace! It looks like your woman needs some dick to settle her down!” Leandra yells out with a laugh.

  “Fuck you, Le!” I hate that woman.

  “Oooh,” she taunts with a ready-to-fight smile. “Sorry, Honey. I didn’t realize it had been that long for you two.”

  Before my hand can grasp her neck, Dace wraps his arm around my waist and carries me away. “Austin, I just had a fight with my brother. I am really not in the mood to fight with you too, so if you would get to the point quickly, please, so I can go finish what I was doing.” He has the nerve to say hovering over me like he’s concerned about me.

  “Get off of me.” I push him away and turn my back to him.

  He’s silent while he
waits for me to say something, but I am so angry that the words bubble just below the surface. “Are you going to talk to me?” I stay silent. “Alright, I’m going to get back to work then.”

  I wait for a long while, trying to decide what my real issues are, other than being bored out of my mind. I miss my brother. I miss my friend. I miss my life. I have nothing here, not even Dace as of late. I love him, but I am not sure what is going on. He’s always gone, and when he gets back, he shares a bond with his friends that I can’t. He won’t even talk about it with me. I am only the woman he comes back to and shares a bed with while he makes up for all the sleep he didn’t get while he was gone. And I’m sick to death of Leandra and her snide comments, always making sure I’m aware of her bond with Dace. Always wanting to compare notes on how he likes to fuck. He’s completely clueless to my misery, and I know she thrives on it.

  By the time I pull myself together and go look for him again, he’s on his way out with the boys. “Dace, where are you going now?”

  “I was going to have a beer with the guys. Since you’re not talking to me, I thought I would be around some people that will,” he says, waving his hand at me as if I’m the crazy one.

  “I think it would be best if we have a talk right now,” I say, and he rolls his eyes. “You know what? Never mind, let’s go.” I walk out ahead of them all and climb into the car. Dace doesn’t say a word; he simply gets in the car with me. He and I, along with the rest of the crew, head off to the local bar. Dace sits next to me. He tries to put his hand on mine, but I pull away, entitling him, in his mind, to ignore me. He involves himself in conversations around me, all while Leandra enjoys every miserable minute. After my second drink, I have had enough. I get up and go off on my own, deciding it will be more fun to enjoy the music and dance. My moves, while not overly impressive, are good enough to attract just about every male eye in the bar, including Dace’s. David, one of the newest crew members, takes it upon himself to approach me and try to fend off the trouble aimed at me.