Page 97 of Double Shot
“I love you guys,” Kyle said, voice muffled, and I massaged his scalp, lightly scratching with my nails and he sighed out. I wrinkled my nose slightly at the cloud of gin vapor that wafted up to me.
“We love you too, mate,” Conan said genially, and his gaze met mine. We smiled.
That’s how we slept that night, Kyle in the middle, me cuddled tight against his chest, his arms around me, Conan at his back, an arm over Kyle so that he could palm my hip.
I think it may have been slightly awkward for them at first, but I honestly think that quickly fell away all things considered.
Once again, we could have lost so much… once again, we were just grateful to all be here, wrapped in each other’s arms.
I wondered faintly if this game of cat and mouse would ever be over, and I tried not to despair.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Roan…
Afghanistan had been cold at times, and there was no option to build shelters for bivouacking. Sleeping in the vehicles had been tagged as a negative since a couple of our trucks had been popped with RPGs. That would be a rough way to wake up. We would stop for the evening, break out the spades and picks and dig foxholes, like our brothers had done thousands of times before in places whose names were hallowed in military history: the Somme, Verdun, the Marne. Except that it was the twenty-first century, and while we were digging into the side of a hill that was just a number on the map, we would never be remembered. Everyone would only remember the jets screaming over, dropping bombs through the mouths of caves, and putting tons of ordnance down, blowing up camels, goat herders, and mud brick villages.
We learned that sitting by yourself was a long and bloody cold night. Best thing was to snug up next to one of your mates, back-to-back, and share body heat. Some of the lads had been averse to this, but a few nights in the Afghani highlands and they decided that having a bit of warmth was worth not being a rugged individual.
The only difference, when I woke up, was rather than being cold, I was close to being too hot. Lach was sawing out a light snore, but he was also flat on his back. Sadie had her face half buried in his neck, and a single tit popped out on his arm. She looked as soft and adorable as I had ever seen her. She was our angel, and I could barely imagine not having her, and thinking back to when she had been dropped in my lap, how could I have been cross?
Getting up was a slow process. I didn’t want to disturb either of them.
Once free of the tangle of sweaty limbs I took to downstairs. Coffee was started and then I availed myself the downstairs bathroom, a piss, a shower, and a morning shave. I felt like a new man when I pulled the robe closed and returned to the kitchen. It was going to be a busy day for me, plans had to be laid.
Kaijin had to be dealt with before too long.
Sadie had been adamant about nailing the woman, but she was in transit. We weren’tThe Fugitive, our resources were limited and we couldn’t intercept flights, couldn’t close roads, and setting up APBs would bring us up for local police scrutiny. That was not something that we needed to deal with.
The acquisition of the Cartel’s holding company had gone through, and now their assets were ours, including the house on John Laurens.
I put in a low-key call to acleaning servicethat would go in and remove the bodies, if the police hadn’t locked the place down as a gang war crime scene. They told me that I would receive updates via their encrypted network, and if I was interested, I could start the appraisal process for repairs.
I knew the guy who set that system up, good guy, had been in the same line of work as Lach and me, and decided to cash out and started his own very special service. Most of his work now came from celebrities and VIPs who had to deal with overdosed party guests, dead hookers, and some asshole snorting too much coke and shooting his mistress in the face in a paranoid fit.
There were a dozen financial pings. Almost all of them rejected by the system.
Kaijin had gone to BWI and had tried to grab a flight out of the US and back to France. None of the US accounts were active, I had already shut them down, so her attempts had been denied. I could only imagine the fury as she was rejected at the Air France ticket counter, then the concourse Starbucks, and then a refused query at an ATM must have sealed the deal there. It was the last pinged attempted transaction.
I found her location, she had managed to check into the Powhattan Hotel, north side of Indigo City, on a charge account billed overseas. I had closed all the local accounts, but she wasn’t completely shut out. That was good, that meant that we could pin her down in one place, and take care of business. Hotel hits were some of the most common work we had done in the past.
All of these compound assaults, running gunfights, and car chases, that was rubbish for the movies, not what we really did.
I sent a few emails and accessed a few systems. I wanted notifications if she did anything more than take a piss. If she ordered room service or requested more towels, I wanted to know. I needed to know where she was and how safe shethoughtshe was.
And how many she had with her. That was important. If she was alone, we could take our time. If she had bodyguards, that would make being quick and quiet more important than extracting maximum revenge from the job.
Sadie was the next to come down the stairs. “Any hot water left?”
“Yeah, the dark prince still asleep?” I asked.
“Mmm.” She nodded and helped herself to coffee.
“He’s going to be surprised to wake up by himself,” I said. She shrugged her good shoulder only.
“What are you doing up?” She walked over and gave me a peck on the cheek.
“Morning business.” I smiled.
