Chapter Twelve
Megan found Julia in her tiny office, which was positioned behind the front desk in the entrance area of the building. At some point the team would hire a receptionist. For now, with the building still being modified and the business not officially open yet, Julia was watching the desk. This entailed keeping the front door locked and speaking to everyone via the intercom. Julia had issues, bless her wee heart.
“Hey.” Megan plopped down in the lavender-coloured chair on the other side of the desk from her flatmate. “I just kissed Dimitri. Again.” Yep, those words had really come out of her mouth.
Julia stopped sticking post-it notes all over a wall-sized whiteboard and turned slowly to stare at Megan. “Are you crazy?”
“I’m beginning to think so.” She took out her ponytail holder and ran her fingers through her hair. “One minute he’s making me madder than hell, the next I’m playing tonsil hockey with the man. There must be some medication I can take to stop this from happening. Do you think valium would work?”
“No.” Julia gave her the same look Megan had received from her older brother over the years. It was somewhere between disbelief and horror.
“It’s probably just the stress of the situation,” Megan said hopefully. “People kiss each other all the time when they’re stressed. Right?”
“I don’t.”
Julia was not helping and there was no point calling Claire—she’d only ask for details. Sometimes her twin acted like a little devil on Megan’s shoulder. So no, she wouldn’t be calling Claire. It looked like, for this situation, she was on her own.
“Maybe I should go for a run, work off my stress. If I’m exhausted I’ll be less likely to jump Dimitri’s bones if the situation arises.”
“You don’t run,” Julia helpfully pointed out.
“I can learn. Seriously, how hard can it be? It’s like walking, only faster.” She pointed at the wall which was neatly covered in Julia’s project management timetable. “They have spreadsheets for that.”
Julia shook her head as though coming out of a daze. “I know, but they don’t have screens this big. I like being able to see every detail of the project in one glance.” She gave Megan a shy smile. “The renovations are ahead of schedule. The team will start on our flat at the beginning of next week.”
“Fab.” Megan helped herself to a chocolate mint from the bowl Julia kept on her desk. “Are you still keeping two flats on the top floor?”
That was the set up now, but there had been some talk of changing it. Megan had no doubt that whatever was decided the newly renovated space would look amazing. Julia had great taste in décor. Once the building was finished it would be a subtle melding of blue, lavender, cream and silver. The furniture was functional, but modern and stylish. She’d even managed to weave in a little bit of accent pattern throughout the place. Overall it gave the feeling of a discreet, upscale, professional business. She doubted the guys who owned the business would notice how classy it was, but Megan was sure their clients would.
“No. We’ll have one self-contained flat—the one we’re in—and the rest of the floor will be converted to hotel style en suite rooms. That way operatives will have somewhere to stay overnight, or short term if need be, while retaining a unit for those of us who are between accommodation and need to stay a bit longer. If the people in the rooms need to use a kitchen, they can come down and use the one on the office floor.”
“Operatives.” Megan grinned. “I’m an operative. How cool is that? Maybe I should get it on a T-shirt.”
“Maybe.” Julia smiled at her before sitting at her desk.
She had two computer monitors and three open notepads, all perfectly aligned on her desk. Even her pens and sticky notes were colour coordinated. She was the same way in the flat they shared. The first time Megan had opened a kitchen cupboard and seen the colour coordinated labels on the containers, she almost ran. She knew from experience there was no way she could be as neat as Julia expected. Fortunately, Julia had patience. Lots of patience.
“I suppose we should find another place to live, at some point.” Megan sighed. “I don’t want to move. I like living here. It’s close to everything and I don’t need to get up early for work.”
The house was situated on a stately street in Westminster, near Victoria train station. It was close to the shops, the London attractions and the river Thames. There was no way Megan could afford to live in this area unless the company provided the accommodation.
“I spoke with Callum and he said he’s in no hurry for us to move.”
“Does that mean we can stay indefinitely?”
“I don’t think he meant that.” But Julia’s tone said she hoped otherwise. Megan knew that for Julia, being in the building where she worked, in an environment she controlled, was reassuring for her.
“I bet if we live quietly, he won’t even notice we’re here.”
Julia laughed and shook her head. “This place is so big I doubt anyone would notice if we hung around.”
She had a point. The Regency era townhouse was set up like the Tardis—much bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. It was tall, narrow and deep. The basement was the biggest floor, housing more than enough space for the gun range, training room, gym, swimming pool, changing areas and a couple of seriously illegal holding cells.
The ground floor held reception, the conference room, two interview rooms, a bathroom, the kitchen and the office they were currently sitting in. There was also a lovely courtyard outside the kitchen, with another building at the end of the garden. That part used to be the old carriage house, but was now a separate house where Callum lived. One that Julia was not allowed to renovate. Callum insisted on taking care of the planning and work on his own.
The first floor held offices—in the process of being renovated. The second floor would hold the computer division once it was finished. And the third, and last, floor was for accommodation. With its huge windows and grand proportions, the building had a stately feel to it that would have been intimidating if the place wasn’t full of rough and tough mercenaries.
“Day dreaming again?” A deep voice jarred her back to the present.
Megan looked up to find Joe standing in the doorway, a folder in hand. He flashed those dimples of his that would have made her weak at the knees, if she wasn’t a teeny little bit wrapped up in a man who refused to take her seriously.
“Hiding,” Megan said. “I’m worried if I show my face, Dimitri will have more training sessions for me.”
“Training? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
“Har-de-har-har.” Megan threw one of Julia’s mints at this head.
He snatched it out of the air, unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. All while smiling knowingly. Men.
“What are you up to?” she asked him.
“Meeting with Callum.”
“I didn’t see him come back in,” Julia said, more to her desk than anyone else. “Can you take a message to him? It’s from Tessa Sharp and sounded important.”
Joe cast an anxious glance at Megan. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. “Where is it?”
Julia pulled a piece of paper out of a tray marked with Callum’s name, but instead of handing it over she read it. “I think he needs to call her back urgently. She said…”
“Thanks.” Joe snatched the piece of paper, making Julia’s eyes snap up to him.
Megan sat up straight. She definitely didn’t miss the “oh shit” look Joe flashed in her direction this time.
“Joe, I was going to say her message may have an impact on Friday’s meeting with Rudi. She says the timeline for picking him up might move forward.”
The hairs on Megan’s neck stood to attention. “What timeline? What’s this got to do with Rudi?”
Joe looked at the ceiling for guidance. A bad sign. A very bad sign that Megan wasn’t going to like what she heard. “Callum had a meeting with the Special Inv
estigations Commander at the Met and she wants to hold off on taking Rudi down until she has everything in place with her sister organisations.”
“Oh,” Julia whimpered as her hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes shot to Megan and she had that look people get when they know they’ve given something away they shouldn’t have.
Megan felt everything within her still. “How long?” she said to Joe. “How long before Rudi is arrested?”
“It makes sense to take down the whole operation at the same time, you know…” Joe started.
Slowly, Megan got to her feet. She stepped into his space and poked him in the chest. “How long before that asshole is behind bars? How long before Claire is safe?”
His shoulders fell in defeat. “A few months.” He glanced at Julia who was watching them both. “Maybe less, going by this message.”
Megan didn’t say a word. She couldn’t speak. She was too damn angry. They’d been planning this behind her back. Scheming about things that concerned her and her sister, without so much as a word of consultation. Not only that, but they were shirking their end of the deal. The deal where Megan used her face to get them access to Rudi and in return he was removed from Claire’s life. A white hot flame of fury engulfed her. She couldn’t hear whatever Joe and Julia were telling her. She didn’t care about anything else they had to say anyway. She’d heard enough. There was only one person she wanted to deal with.
Without a word, she turned on her heel and stormed to Callum’s office.
Chapter Thirteen
Dimitri had his head together with Callum, going over the plans for Friday, when his office door slammed open to reveal a livid Megan.
“Months.” Megan bit out the word.
Dimitri cast a worried glance at his boss. There was no need to guess what this was about.
“Months.” Megan stormed towards them, her face flushed and her fists clenched at her side. “Months until Rudi is put in jail. Months that my pregnant sister will have to hide, afraid he’ll get her. Months.” She strode across the room, slapped both palms on the desk and glared at Callum. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Calm down.” Callum used the words no man should ever say to an angry woman, proving once and for all that there was a very valid reason the guy was still single.
“Calm down?” It was barely a whisper. Megan’s hand shot out and she grabbed a glass paperweight on the corner of Callum’s desk. An instant later it was flying at his head. Only Callum’s quick reflexes saved him.
“What the hell?” the man roared.
Dimitri rushed around the desk and grasped Megan in a bear hug, before she could throw anything else.
“Calm down,” she shouted. “You’re telling me to calm down.” She struggled in his hold, kicking her heels against his shins. Damn, that stung. He was going to have bruises. He squeezed her to get her to stop. She didn’t spare him a glance, instead she stilled long enough to fume at Callum.
“You promised me. You said we’d deal with the threat to Claire. That it would be over as soon as we got to Rudi.”
“Things change,” Callum said.
“Not helping,” Dimitri told the man.
Megan roared, punching at Dimitri’s arms to get him to release her. He held tight as Joe rushed into the room. His face paled when he saw Megan.
“She was in Julia’s office when a message came through from Tessa. Looks like it might take less time to get everything in place to pull Rudi in.”
“It’s still months.” Megan went ballistic in Dimitri’s arms. He understood her reaction—they’d told her the problem would be dealt with during the meeting Friday. If they’d done that to him, he’d have thrown things at Callum too.
She was going to make herself sick getting this worked up. Dimitri tightened his grip and put his lips to her ear. “Stop it,” he snapped.
“Go to hell,” she shouted.
He squeezed her. “Stop it before you hurt yourself. Listen to what we have to say. There are good reasons for the delay.”
She froze in his arms. She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “You knew?”
Oh hell. “Yeah. I knew.”
Wow, he could have sworn her eyes actually flashed. “So, what? Your sister is more important than mine? It’s okay to save Katrina but not okay to protect Claire?”
He felt his own fury build. “That is out of order and you know it.”
“As out of order as hanging my sister out to dry and not even having the courtesy to tell me?” Her eyes went wide. “You didn’t want me to pull out of the meeting on Friday. That’s why you didn’t include me in this new plan.”
She went crazy in his arms again, cursing him at the top of her voice. Dimitri spotted Rachel, Ryan and Julia appear outside the door. Callum caught his eyes as he held Megan tight.
“Conference room,” Callum said.
“Let me go, you lying son of a bitch. Let me go right now.” Megan tugged at his arms.
She was too mad to think things through. The Megan he’d seen in action in the alley would have had him disabled by now. Callum ordered everyone to the conference room and Dimitri followed, carrying Megan.
Ryan pulled out a chair for Dimitri and he sat in it, holding Megan on his lap, securing her in place with his arms and legs.
“Isn’t that overkill?” Rachel raised an eyebrow at him.
“I value my balls.” And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Megan loose to get at them.
“From what I heard, you value them more than the Donaldson sisters,” Rachel said, making him glare at her.
“Not helping.”
“But truthful.”
“Enough,” Callum barked.
Megan’s eyes were on Callum. He could feel the fury hum throughout her body.
“There are reasons for this decision. Good reasons. And your behaviour right now is exactly why you don’t know about them.” Callum turned to Joe. “Educate her.” He thumped down into a chair.
“Jules,” Joe said. “Put up the photo of Rudi’s top men.”
The lights dimmed and a photo of three men filled the wall behind Callum. It was obvious Rudi hadn’t picked them for their looks.
“As we all know,” Joe said, “Rudi keeps his business close to his chest. There are three guys who work closely with him. They each deal with a different level of the flesh trade. One of them is in charge of shipping women to brothels run by customers who put an order in for new merchandise.”
“Women,” the indoor plant corrected. “Girls. Not merchandise, Joe.”
Joe nodded his agreement at Julia’s gentle reprimand. “The middle guy is in charge of running the in-house escort business. It’s more high-end than the brothels they ship the women off to. The last guy deals with private sales.” His dark eyes looked at each of them in turn. “Personal slaves.”
The impact of those words made Dimitri want to vomit, but he kept his focus on the furious woman in his arms. This was about her. Not about him.
Joe continued, disgust clear on his face. “Rudi deals with special customers personally. By special customers I mean rich guys with a public reputation who don’t want it sullied by anybody finding out about their sick hobbies. I tried to get some names but nobody was talking. All I could find out was that Rudi made a lot of trips to Dubai, Monaco, Indonesia and the US. Apart from his special customers, he’s hands-on with all areas of his business. Nothing happens that he doesn’t know about.”
He looked at Megan as he pointed to the screen. “These guys are the reason you can’t take Rudi out of the equation on Friday. If we chop of the head of the organisation, another will rise to take its place. They’ll just start over, building on the contacts they already have and continuing the work Rudi started. If we want to stop future women being sold, raped and tortured, we need to take down the whole organisation in one fell swoop. Not only that, if we don’t hit it all at once, we risk a chance that parts of the organisation will scatter and we’ll lose the women who need to
be saved.” He dragged his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. “That’s why we need to wait for the police to do their thing. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but this is way bigger than eliminating the threat to Claire. It’s about finding Katrina and ripping apart the whole damn operation. And that can’t happen until all the appropriate players are in place, in all the different countries Rudi’s organisation touches.”
There was a moment’s silence before the image disappeared and the lights went back on.
Callum’s dark gaze pinned Megan. “It isn’t just about your sister. It’s about all those other women who are trapped in hell right now. It’s about stopping it from happening again. This organisation has connections in too many countries to take it out in a piecemeal fashion. We need to hit the whole thing in one go and we need to hit it hard. That’s why we have to wait before Rudi is arrested, we can’t risk them running to ground. We can’t risk the lives of all those women.”
“And what about Claire?” Megan’s voice was husky, strained from shouting. She seemed calmer, but Dimitri didn’t dare loosen his hold. If there were two things he knew about Megan it was that she was unpredictable and volatile.
“We’ll protect Claire until this is over,” Joe said.
“But you can’t guarantee her safety, or the safety of her baby.” It wasn’t a question. Megan knew as well as anyone in the room that there were no guarantees.
“There may be another option.” A hesitant voice came from the plant. “I-I’m sorry, but there’s a story in Rudi’s file. Two, in fact. Twice he was targeted personally and both times he backed off.”
Joe grinned proudly at the plant, making Dimitri wonder all over again just what the hell was going on between those two.
The men started to shake their heads but Rachel spoke up. “The bully principle. Hit him harder. Make sure he stays down. It could work.”
“No.” Callum folded his arms over his black shirt. “Too risky. We stick with the original plan.”
Megan relaxed in Dimitri’s arms. The rage leached from her eyes leaving behind hopeless dejection. He didn’t relax his hold on her, although now it was for a different reason than self-preservation—he was offering her comfort.
Reckless (Benson's Boys Book 1) Page 10