Chapter 2

TWO

ANDAMAN OCEAN, OFF THE COAST OF THAILAND

The water was relatively calm, but Harry Harrigan kept the boat under ten knots. The old fifteen-foot fishing boat was built for open water, but he didn't want to risk drawing attention to themselves. They'd bargained for the sale at the marina, paid in cash, and hit the water before seven in the morning.

The weather was warm; the sun and humidity already biting.

Funny how moderate the temperatures were that Harry had gotten used to. He used to be able to handle the baking heat of the Sahara or the sauna conditions of the tropics.

Not anymore. He'd grown soft these last two years.

He kept his eyes ahead on the water, all while watching Asher intently.

Asher sat at the bow, the wind to his face, staring out across the blue horizon.

Harry had never seen Asher so . . . scared .

Asher had always been confident, cocky, even. Sure of his skills, sure of his ability to read a situation, read people, and he'd never taken a backward step.

But that all changed two days ago.

Yunho had gone silent.

No messages, no phone calls, no contact.

And Yunho never went silent.

He was always awake, always online, always one heartbeat away.

Asher had sent him a message for Memorial Day, July 27th. Yunho had served in Korea's military, after all. And while Yunho didn't have fond memories of that time, he appreciated Asher remembering. They'd expected Asher's phone to ring at any moment, because that's what Yunho did.

The call never came.

Then Asher sent him a text, then another and another. All went unanswered. Harry had hoped when they'd woken the next day there'd be an explanation... but no. Asher already wanted to get on the next plane to see Yunho.

But then Shaw and Porter turned up with news of three men, at least one who was Croatian, asking about access that bordered on their property.

And they knew then that something was definitely wrong.

It was also a very blunt reminder of how reliant they'd become on Yunho's intel.

He had ears and eyes on everything. Including on Shaw and Porter. Harry and Asher would normally get a quick heads-up phone call to alert them that the town's good policemen were on their way.

So it was a complete surprise when it was Porter who'd alerted them this time, and not Yunho. And the horror of hearing of a possible enemy threat from Shaw made Harry feel very uneasy.

Yunho should have seen them coming. The fact he didn't meant something was very wrong.

So they'd boarded the first flight to Bangkok and were on their way to Yunho's island.

Harry was scared of what they'd find.

Scared of what it would do to Asher.

Yunho was like an older brother to Asher, or a father. The only family he had. He'd saved Asher's life all those years ago, and in turn, Asher had saved his. They'd been working ops together ever since.

Yunho was the eyes and ears of their team; Asher was the feet on the ground. They were unbeatable. Untraceable.

Until now.

The island came into view and Asher got to his feet, ready. Harry brought the boat around, slowed right down, and edged into the private dock like he'd done a dozen times in the last two years.

He hadn't even cut the engine or tied the boat off before Asher was up on the dock, running toward the main house.

Goddammit.

"Asher, wait!" Harry called, but it was useless. He was gone.

Harry hooked the mooring line around the bollard and chased after him. They had no guns, no weapons, and Asher ran in there without any intel whatsoever.

And Harry could see as he cut across the manicured lawn to the house that something was wrong.

The glass sliding door had been left open, sheer curtains blowing in the wind. Lights were on, a lamp knocked over, and it was far, far too quiet.

Yunho had never not met them on the dock, so that in itself wasn't good. But when Harry ran inside, it was pretty apparent as to why.

Narong, one of the men who worked for Yunho, was on the floor, dead. A dark pool of dried blood radiated from his head like a macabre halo.

Harry didn't need to check to see how cold he was. He could easily determine he'd been dead for over forty-eight hours. Maybe sixty hours.

Too long.

Asher came running down the stairs. "No one. Nothing," he said, not even stopping before he ran toward the back of the room. Harry knew where he was going, and he was quick to follow.

The basement was a secure room. Fingerprint-coded entry, plated safe room, undetectable on radar. It was Yunho's office, his control centre, filled with screens and state-of-the-art tech that allowed Yunho to keep satellite eyes and ears all over the world. Harry used to call it the war room .

It'd put Homeland security to shame.

The door was blown open, sheared off its hinges, half of it hanging to the frame, the other half in smithereens all over the floor. Every screen was black, the room silent minus the hum of hard drives and mainframes. In the mainframe cabinet, one box in particular was missing, a hole and cords in its place. The door to the weapons vault was open but otherwise untouched.

Except there on the floor was Aranya, the woman who had worked with Yunho, with a bullet hole between her surprised eyes. As if she'd stood up from her desk when the door imploded and was shot point blank.

Such a shame.

Harry had liked her. He could almost hear the echo of her laughter...

Until Asher let out a strangled cry before he pulled a screen off the desk and launched it at the wall with a scream.

Harry went to him, but Asher pulled his arm free. "The other buildings," he said, racing back up the stairs.

Harry chased after him, following him out into the sun and across the lawn. Into the open space and broad daylight, for fuck's sake.

There were maintenance sheds and gardening sheds. A pool house and a boat shed.

All empty. No signs of any struggles, no damage. Nothing out of place.

Being an island, they had no need for a garage or cars, and given that Yunho was a chronic agoraphobic, the only form of transport they had was a boat that Lucas used to go to the mainland when necessary.

Not that he left the island often. They had everything delivered. All maintenance and cleaners came once or twice a week, by boat.

Aranya and Narong would stay in the main house—it was a mansion, after all—and go home on the weekends or for vacations.

This island was a refuge, a secure and off the map haven where Yunho could live without risk of being found.

Given his inability to step foot off the island also meant he was a sitting duck, should someone ever find him.

And someone had clearly found him .

Professionals. Well-armed, well-informed, and well-trained.

This wasn't good.

Harry didn't need to point that out, because Asher understood it all too well.

Upon finding the boat shed empty—Lucas's boat was still there, but no one was hiding in the hull, alive or dead—Asher jumped back onto the deck and spun on his heels, exasperated, frustrated, frightened. He let out a whine, his hands on his head.

Harry had never seen him so distraught.

"Hey," Harry said, taking hold of his hands, then his arms, and when Asher still wasn't focusing, Harry gave him a gentle shake. "Hey!"

Asher's eyes cut to his. "Where is he? What happened here?"

"I don't know?—"

He strung together some biting words in Croatian, his frustration giving way to anger. "Who took him? He cannot leave. Taking him off this island will kill him. I swear to every god, Harry. I will find who did this and?—"

"We will find them. You and me. But first we need to take a minute to assess the situation."

"What isn't clear to you, Harry?" He threw his hand back toward the house. "Whoever did this knew exactly what this place was and where to find him. They executed Aranya and Narong. They weren't tortured or interrogated, they were executed. Which means whoever did this did not need information or access. Which means they have Yunho and Lucas."

"Exactly," Harry countered. "Which is why we need a plan. You running out into the open like that was stupid. You could have been shot. "

"I don't care!" Asher yelled at him. "I had?—"

"I do!" Harry yelled back at him. "I care! You cannot die, you hear me?"

Harry wanted to pull his hair out. He wanted to shake some sense into Asher or punch the living shit out of something. But he knew Asher wasn't thinking clearly out of the panic and concern for Yunho.

So Harry tried again, more gently this time. "I need you, Asher. Yunho and Lucas need you. We need to think and work out a plan of what we do next. We cannot stay here. We cannot be seen here. We need to move."

Asher blinked a few times, then squinted his eyes shut. When he looked at Harry, his eyes were focused.

Murderous.

"We will find who did this," Harry promised. "And we will find Yunho and Lucas. We know they're alive." Because they weren't dead on the floor, not that Harry needed to say that. "Likely taken. For information or money, I don't know. But we will find them. We just need to think, and we need to be smart. We can't find them if we're dead."

Asher nodded. "Yes. We need to find them." He swallowed hard, his jaw clenching. "I'm going to kill every last one of them, Harry."

Harry almost smiled. "And I will help you. Plan first. Now, let's think. Who knew about this place? Who knew about the war room?"

"His other staff. Groundskeepers, cleaners."

Harry nodded. This was good. Progress. "Yes. And the doctor who came out when you were injured. I don't know if she knew about the war room though."

Asher nodded. "That wasn't her first time here."

"Okay, so she goes on the list. "

"We should see if there's any footage," Asher said, looking back at the house.

"Not sure there's anything left working down there," Harry said. "But we can try." He checked his watch. "Thirty minutes, tops. Then we leave."

Asher gave a hard nod, and they ran back to the house. Harry assumed Asher would head straight for the war room, but he didn't. He ran up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked, taking the stairs two at a time behind him. "The security cameras are downstairs."

"The system has a built-in kill switch," Asher said, going into Yunho and Lucas's bedroom. It was a huge room, probably the same size as Harry and Asher's entire house. There was a massive bed, made and untouched, a sofa setting, a huge desk and chair. There were doors open, to walk in robes and a bathroom that Harry could see was empty. Asher had obviously checked when he'd run up here before.

This time he went straight for the desk, opening drawers, searching for something.

"Yunho can voice-activate the kill function from his phone, but it will also shut down if he doesn't log in every few hours. The entire system downstairs will be dead. No one but him can access it now."

And as soon as Yunho knew they were in trouble, he would have activated the kill switch. Voice activated on his phone, though? That was some James Bond shit, right there, Harry thought.

"So what are you looking for?" he asked.

Asher rummaged through the drawers, and not finding what he was after, he went for the bedside table. He pulled open the drawer and found a tablet. "This. "

"An iPad?"

Asher scoffed at that. "As if Yunho would ever own an Apple product. Do you know how many people Yunho has tracked through their iPhone?" He shrugged. "But this is like an iPad though, yes. A tablet, no account necessary. Lucas insisted he leave the war room and come to bed at least for a few hours, so he'd lay in bed and still watch everything. He called it a compromise."

The screen came to life but required a passcode. Because of course it did.

Asher didn't even try. He sighed and looked around. "Look for their laptops," he said. "I doubt we'll find anything."

Harry checked his watch. Twenty minutes.

He went into the wardrobe, rifling through drawers and anything that looked like it moved. Their wardrobe was so well organised, so neat, and so damn expensive, it looked like a department store.

Asher soon joined him, tossing expensive watches out of the top drawer, looking for something underneath... like a false bottom. There wasn't one.

Yunho was hardly about to have a false-bottom drawer in his wardrobe when he had an entire security war room in his basement.

Asher grumbled, pocketing a few watches.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked. It wasn't like they were short on funds.

"We can use these instead of cash. Less traceable," he replied, heading toward Lucas's shoe collection next. It was going to look like a robbery gone wrong, but Harry figured it didn't much matter at this point.

"Let's go back downstairs," Harry suggested .

Asher gave a nod, and with the tablet in his hand, he followed Harry back to the war room.

Whoever had done this hadn't taken anything. Well, except for Yunho and Lucas. But the computers were all there, even the vault of weapons. Asher's baby, his MAC 50...

Asher searched the desks, stepping over Aranya as if she wasn't even there. Then, clearly deducing they were wasting time, he went into the vault.

Asher upended a rifle carry bag, dumping the contents on the floor: a scope and a bag strap. He grabbed pistols and two rifles, boxes of ammunition, and shoved them into the bag. He threw in the tablet before handing the bag to Harry, then took his MAC 50 off the rack. When he turned to face Harry, he had a different expression on his face.

Blank. Not in a devoid way, but in a ready-to-watch-the-world-burn kind of way.

Harry understood. He gave a nod. "Let's go."

They left the house as they'd found it, crossed the lawn to the dock, stepped onto the boat, and a few minutes later were heading back to the mainland.

"Where to first?" Harry asked over the roar of the engine, though he was fairly sure he knew.

"We track down his staff," Asher replied. "Those who worked on the island, who had access."

Yep. Just what Harry thought.