Chapter 28

28

Rogue

“ A ntwerp has a population of half a million people, but a harbor that’s close to one hundred and fifty square kilometers,” Agent Rahmer said, pausing for effect. Her thin lips pursed when she didn’t get the expected reaction. “That’s the largest in Europe.”

“I always thought of Antwerp as the diamond capital of the world,” Slate said. “Once, I—” The big man’s words died off, earning him a curious stare from everyone except his brother, Griffin, who pointedly looked in a different direction.

“It is,” Agent Roberts said. “That’s one of the many ways in which drug money is laundered. Thousands of tons of cocaine and heroine make their way through this harbor every year and find their way into Western Europe. It’s a market worth billions of dollars.”

Rogue ground his teeth together to stop himself from interrupting. The Interpol and DEA agent seemed to think this was a contest, to be won by the one who could spew the greatest number of facts in the shortest amount of time.

Across the table from him, Thorne took a sip of his dark coffee. The coffee was surprisingly good, taking into account the fact that the near-empty coffee shop they were sitting in wasn’t a real coffee shop. From the looks Agent Rahmer had exchanged with the barista, Rogue assumed he was also an Interpol agent.

On Thorne’s right sat Griffin, who stared at the DEA and Interpol agents coldly.

No love lost between them. Rogue knew the ex-CIA agent had worked a lot of dangerous missions over the years. There was a chance he’d come across either Rahmer or Roberts before. But if so, Griffin wasn’t talking about it.

Slate sat on Griffin’s right. Rogue allowed himself a small smile. A few months earlier, the two brothers wouldn’t have been caught dead in the same room, let alone sitting at the same table. Now, the entente cordiale between them had grown where they could at least spend thirty minutes together without wanting to kill each other.

“Where’s the girl?” Roberts asked.

Rogue’s jaw tightened at the reference to Bea as the girl . Before he could say anything Thorne, put his coffee down. “She’s safe. That’s all that matters.”

As usual, Thorne was the best-dressed person in the room, in a custom-made navy blue suit that looked like it cost a fortune. But Roberts wasn’t far behind. Both of them looked ready to dine with royalty.

“Are you saying you don’t fucking trust us, Thorne?” Roberts asked, his lips stretching into a tight line on his handsome face.

Thorne bared his teeth. “I wonder why that’s the first thing that comes to your mind, Roberts.”

“Fuck you, Thorne. I should arrest the lot of you.”

“Yeah. Because you have the authority to do that,” Thorne countered. Of the entire Chimera Force team, Thorne was the one Rogue knew least because the man had made a point of not to getting close to any of them. Now, Rogue felt he was seeing parts of Thorne he hadn’t seen before.

“Put them back in your pants, gentlemen,” Agent Rahmer said bluntly. Today, her hair was pulled back in the tightest ponytail Rogue had ever seen. She stared directly at Rogue as she asked her next question. “Are you sure the girl will testify against her uncle, when the time comes?”

Rogue nodded. “She will.”

“She’ll get full immunity,” Thorne immediately said. “And a passport. European or American. You get to choose which.” Rahmer and Roberts nodded, as if they’d been expecting this. “I need this in writing. From both of you, before we do anything else.”

“Do you also want the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?” Roberts growled. Thorne calmly picked up his coffee again. The more riled up the other man got, the more he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Rogue hoped the meeting would be over soon. They’d left Bea in the hotel with Dark and had then circled for nearly an hour to get here. If they did the same thing on the way back—which they would because there was no way Roberts and Rahmer wouldn’t try to follow them—it’d take them a long time to get back. And, though Rogue trusted Dark with his life, he’d found trusting his friend with Bea’s life was turning out to be a much bigger challenge.