31. Thirty
The ride down to Louisville was nerve wracking. Even with my hood up and a ball cap on, I didn’t think I looked exactly like Xander. Anyone who knew the two of us well enough would’ve picked up on the switch right away. Thankfully, they sent me in an Escalade with Maxime and a couple of bodyguards that didn’t know me from a dog’s ass. I was just another asset for them to protect, a means to a paycheck.
Well, maybe not to Maxime. I hadn’t quite figured out what his game was. He worked for Algerone, but he seemed to be more than just an assistant. Maybe now that Xavier and Leo had hacked into his phone, we’d be able to get more information on what he was up to.
The hardest part about switching places had been giving up my collar. My neck felt naked without it, and it didn’t look right on Xander’s neck, but I didn’t have a choice. Not if we wanted to sell this.
Ever since I’d taken it off, though, the intrusive thoughts had gotten worse. The voices were being louder than ever, and it felt like someone had a fingernail scraping against the inside of my skull. I chalked it up to anxiety and did my best to ignore it.
Once we arrived at the hotel in Louisville that was supposed to be our base of operations, Maxime shuffled me up to a room on the fifth floor. I was worried I’d been found out when he closed the door and demanded I take off my hoodie, but he didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t Xander. He just wanted to affix a microphone to my chest.
“We’ll be able to hear everything from forward command,” he said, pressing the tiny microphone against my chest and carefully placing a strip of duct tape over it. “That’s where we are now. And you’ll be able to hear us through your earpiece. As long as you do exactly as you’re told, this job should be easy, even for you.”
Maxime clearly thought very little of us if he was going to make a dig like that. What would Xander say? Probably something smart and sassy, but that wasn’t my style.
“What’s your problem?” I growled. “What did I ever do to you?”
Maxime’s eyes met mine before he yanked the tape off.
“Fuck!” I shouted and grabbed my chest. There was a bright red welt where the tape had been, and a notably hairless strip of skin from where he’d yanked it all out. “What the hell?”
“My problem with you is how little respect you’ve shown,” he said, going back to affixing the microphone. “You boys want to act like Al and I are the villains in this story. We’re not. Your father is offering each of you a piece of a multi-billion-dollar inheritance. Do you know how many people would kill to have that opportunity? Yet you three have all turned your noses up at his offers.”
Xander and Xavier had turned him down too? I tried not to let my surprise show on my face. “What’s the matter, Max? Jealous you’re not getting a piece of the pie?”
Max seized my face with his long, delicate fingers and squeezed. Hard. “Listen here, you little brat. Let’s get one thing straight. I’ve been with Al since the beginning. I was there when he signed his first deal, there the first year he turned a profit, there when the economy crashed and he nearly lost everything, and I was there when that bitch, Imogen, threatened to ruin everything! If she would’ve just kept her mouth shut and taken the money, we—” He broke off, eyes widening as he released me.
I took a step back, rubbing my jaw and staring at him. “What did you just say?”
Fear flickered over Max’s features briefly before he got himself back under control. He paced away, pulling a bottle of liquor from inside his jacket and pouring some into one of the hotel’s paper cups, his back to me.
“I warned him to be more careful,” he said after throwing the drink back. “Women can’t be trusted. I told him she’d destroy him, but Al doesn’t fucking listen. When he wants something, he throws himself into it body and soul, and he wanted her. But all she wanted was his money. I knew when she disappeared there would be trouble, and I was right. Nine months later, she comes back with not one baby but three. I paid her off.”
I clenched my fists. “So he did know about us! From the beginning.”
“No,” Maxime growled, spinning around. “Your father wouldn’t know what day it was half the time if I didn’t tell him. Of course I kept it from him. Do you know what he would’ve done if he found out he had children? He would’ve married her! I couldn’t let that happen. She didn’t love him. She didn’t even know him!” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I thought if I just kept paying her off, she’d be quiet. But the money wasn’t enough to keep her quiet forever. She started talking to people about government cover-ups and conspiracies in interviews. Since it was all mixed in with her breakdown, most people ignored it, but I couldn’t risk her exposing us. She was too unpredictable.”
“So you killed her,” I said, suddenly glad I was there and not Xander. He probably would’ve strangled Maxime with his own necktie for killing our mother. I still wasn’t sure I wouldn’t.
“No, but it would’ve been kinder if I had.” He poured himself another drink and drank it before continuing. “I tried to talk to her. She became paranoid, convinced we were out to silence her, and she wasn’t entirely wrong, but I wasn’t going to kill her. Al never would’ve forgiven me. Besides, I didn’t have to. If she kept talking, the government would silence her for us. I told her that, hoping she’d be sensible and shut up. She took it as a threat. That’s when Annie got involved.” He paced over to the window, leaning on it and peering out through the curtains. “She hid you boys with Annie, only I didn’t know it at the time. I thought she might’ve killed you. Tragic, but that would’ve taken care of one problem at least. The inevitable happened shortly after.”
I took a step toward him. “Are you saying the government killed our mother to cover up their dirty little secret?”
Max turned away from the window. “And then I covered that up. In a way, it is true that she killed herself, even if she didn’t do it intentionally.”
“Or you killed her by keeping her and Algerone apart. If you’d just let her marry him with a prenup, none of this would’ve ever happened.”
“I couldn’t let that happen,” he said quietly. “I couldn’t let her have him. He deserved better than some money hungry B-movie starlet. She would’ve only held him back.”
“You’re in love with him,” I said, stunned. “You’re in love with Algerone. That’s why you kept them apart. You wanted him for yourself.”
He didn’t deny the accusations, instead crumpling the paper cup and tossing it into the trash. “The day I came into your father’s service, I gave him my vow to follow him, to push him to the top. It doesn’t matter what I want. It doesn’t matter what it costs. The only thing that matters is Algerone’s safety and success. I won’t allow anyone to compromise that. Not even you.”
I studied the man in front of me, seeing him in a new light. At first, I’d just taken him to be a greedy assistant, ready to push us out of the way to make more glory or money for himself. I thought he was jealous, and in a way, I was right, but not the way I thought. Maxime was my father’s most loyal servant. A guard dog, just like I was with Boone. I understood him in a way my brothers couldn’t, and I knew just how far he’d go to help the man he loved but could never have.
Max walked up to me, peering down his nose at me. “Al doesn’t know any of this. If he finds out what I’ve done—”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” I said. “Believe it or not, I understand.”
“I very much doubt that,” he said, scanning me with wary eyes. “But thank you.”
He stepped up to me and finished taping the microphone to my chest before handing me an earpiece. As I shrugged on the hoodie, he explained my role in the operation to me for the fortieth time.
“The park where you’re meeting is being strictly monitored by plainclothes security,” he said. “Everyone that’s in the area will be one of our people, so don’t be worried about civilians being targeted. We’ve already cleared the area. We’ll have a sniper ready and eyes on you at all times. They’ll be able to see you, but you won’t see them. Your job is to keep him talking. Keep him as still as possible, and once you get into position, do not move. If you move out of position, you’ll block the shot.”
“You’re not worried about taking this guy out in public? Won’t that cause a panic?” I smoothed a hand over my hair and slid on the ball cap.
Even with a silencer on and the area clear, the shot would be loud enough that someone would hear it.
“We have people monitoring the local police bands and any calls will be dealt with,” Maxime said. “This isn’t our first job, or even the most complex. We do this all the time.”
“And if shit hits the fan? What’s your plan to get me out of there alive?”
He stepped back, studying me. “That’s unlikely. Mr. Calcin has given no indications that he’s aware of our surveillance or the trap we’ve set for him. Records don’t show he owns any firearms, and we’ll be keeping most of his associates busy with the hack to take down the servers. Anyone and everyone involved with this website will be dead or arrested within forty-two minutes of our signal to begin.”
I frowned and shoved my hands into the pocket of my hoodie. “I’m not hearing a plan.”
Maxime sighed. “He’ll have a sniper rifle pointed at him and the area is surrounded by armed men. There’s no way out for him. Just make sure you maintain a good distance. It’s unlikely he’ll grab you and try to use you as a shield as long as he’s unaware he’s being targeted, but if he does… Well, our priority is taking out the target, so try not to get grabbed.”
That didn’t sound very reassuring, but I supposed given all the variables in the situation, it was the best I could hope for.
It was sunny and cold, but there wasn’t much wind. I didn’t know a lot about being a sniper, but I imagined those were ideal conditions. As I walked to the meeting spot at the center of a bridge in a public park, I scanned the area, hoping to spot Boone. I knew he was out there somewhere, watching me through a scope.
Except he didn’t know it was me. He thought I was Xander. I hoped that didn’t affect anything.
There was an outbuilding about two hundred yards away, single story with a sloping tiled roof. He wasn’t there, and he wasn’t perched in any of the trees that I could see. Beyond the borders of the park were quiet residential streets full of sleepy, average houses. He could’ve been in any of those, watching me through a window, and I’d never know which one.
What if he misses? He might shoot you instead.
This is a trick. They lured you out here to kill you just like they did your mother. You know too much.
I swallowed and tried not to flinch when a voice shouted next to my head, “Run, Xion!” There was no one there. It was all in my head. That didn’t stop it from being terrifying as fuck.
I licked my lips and tried to focus on my own voice against a sea of other noises. You can do this, Xion. You have to. It’s too late to back out now.
A woman walked by on a nearby path pushing a stroller. Unease churned in my gut as I watched her pass. Maxime had said everyone in the park was one of their people, but how could he know that for sure? What if that mother and her baby were about to witness a murder? What were his plans for that?
Yet as she turned and I got a good look at the stroller, I realized the baby inside wasn’t moving. It was a doll, and she was a decoy. An actor like the other five people moving around the park.
Christ, this setup was crazy. I felt like I was in one of Boone’s spy movies.
“Target is inbound,” came a voice in my earpiece, and I stiffened.
Don’t look around. Try to look normal.I blew out a breath, watching it cloud in the winter air.
“I don’t have him,” Boone said in my ear. “Tree cover is too dense until he hits the bridge.”
Run away. Run away. Run away. The voices were getting more insistent. With everyone else talking in my ear, I couldn’t focus. I wasn’t going to be able to talk to this guy if everybody didn’t shut the hell up, but the chatter kept coming.
“In position,” someone else said.
“Phase two is confirmed. Operation Blackhat, you are cleared—”
I popped the earpiece out with a sigh. Whatever they were saying didn’t really affect me. All I had to do was focus on keeping the guy busy and still long enough for Boone to take his shot. I couldn’t do that with a dozen more people than usual talking in my ear.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve asking to meet out here,” said a man behind me.
A chill ran through me as I realized it had to be Kevin Calcin.
Play along, I reminded myself and turned around slowly.
He was even more boring to look at in person. Kevin was wearing a faded black hoodie with a University of Kentucky logo on it. His hands were tucked in his pockets and his shoulders stiff as he stood there, eying me from the edge of the bridge.
My mind went blank with rage when I saw him. This was the man behind all the awful shit that’d happened to me while I was in the hospital. A man who was running a page that bought and sold access to people like commodities. A man who’d made his fortune by taking a cut of every single transaction on that website.
But I couldn’t focus on that. I had to remember my cover story. I wasn’t supposed to be Xion, the vengeful victim. I was Hal Burton, some hacker who was there to blackmail him.
“Safer to meet in person,” I said. “No paper trail. Besides, this way at least you know I’m serious.”
He smirked and stepped onto the bridge. Just a little closer. He needed to be at the center, closer to me, so Boone could get his shot. “You’re not going to go to the police, or you’d have done it already. Besides, you’d just be incriminating yourself.”
I didn’t know what to say. My head was throbbing. All I wanted was for him to take another step forward so Boone could splatter his brains over the pavement. The longer I stood there talking to him, the angrier I got. It wasn’t fair that this guy was about to die blissfully unaware that he’d been caught. I wanted him to suffer, not to go out thinking he’d fucking won.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?” I said.
His smile faded, expression becoming more guarded. “What?”
“I know all about you, Kevin.”
He flinched when I used his real name and then sneered. “Who the fuck are you?”
I stepped toward him, and he shrank back. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. There’s a sniper with his gun pointed at you. Make one more move, and he’ll blow your fucking brains out.”
Kevin’s eyes darted around as if he could spot Boone, but he didn’t have any more luck than me. When his gaze settled back on me, he licked his lips. “What do you want? Money?”
“I want you to suffer like I suffered,” I said through clenched teeth. “But fortunately for you, I’m more stable than I used to be. Otherwise, I’d have hunted you down myself and pried your eyeballs out of your head with a dull spoon.”
“Fuck you, man. I don’t even know you.”
“But I know you. I know you run a website on the dark web that sells access to people. Helpless people.”
He shrugged, glancing around. He was still scanning the trees one more time, still trying to find the gunman. “Yeah? Big fucking deal. I just run the website and take my cut. It’s not like I’m a sicko. It’s not my fault there’s demand. All I do is provide the supply. That’s capitalism, baby. Be mad at the guy who invented that, not at me for using it to turn a buck.” He thumbed his nose and took a step forward. “Come off it, man. How much do you want?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I pulled my hood down, letting the fucker see my face. “Look at me. Look at my face. I want you to die knowing that because of you and your website, I was drugged and raped for five years.”
“Fuck, man. I don’t want to hear this shit. Fuck you. I’m out.” He spun on his heel as if he were going to walk away.
“You’re going to fucking listen to what I have to say!” I lunged forward to grab him and yanked him backwards, forcing him to spin around.
He tried to fight me, but he was smaller than me and weaker. I was strong from working on cars and wrestling with dogs every day. His eyes flared wide as my hand closed around his throat.
“Take a good, long look,” I said, squeezing tight. “I want my face to be the last thing you see. I want it burned into your soul, so that when you go to Hell, you remember who it was that sent you.”
He flailed and opened his mouth, trying to scream. Blunt fingernails scratched at my arms. He even tried to kick me as his face started going from red to purple, but I held on, watching him fight. Watching him suffer, losing myself in his pain. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a distant part of me was screaming to let him go. If I killed him, he would take a part of my soul to the grave with him, a part of me I’d never get back, and yet I couldn’t make myself let him go. It was as if I were possessed and something else had taken control over my body.
And then Kevin’s head exploded into a red mist. The force of the bullet hitting him tore him out of my hands, and he fell a twitching lifeless mess at my feet. My ears throbbed, but it wasn’t with noise. For the first time all day, there was blessed silence.