It was Gabrielle’s turn to assess her before angling her head. “What is your type? High-powered businesswomen?”
Zoe smirked. “Sometimes! Don’t let the look fool you. I’m what we call a geek or a nerd. Dork is another good one. I’m a bookworm, with a big brain, and Spiderman underwear.”
Zoe found it highly amusing to watch Gabrielle trying to wrap her mind around what she had said, trying to figure out if she was making fun of her, or not.
Gabrielle stuttered a little, probably not something she did often. “Really? That’s a joke, right?”
Beatrice sighed. “If only. Can we get back to business? Unless you want to stay here, Zoe?”
“God, no! Where am I going?”
Gabrielle blinked. “Would it be more relevant to know what you will be required to do first?”
Zoe sat at the meeting table followed by the other two women. “I will be required to wear a business suit and not camo. It can’t be that dangerous or different from what I’m doing here. Right?”
Gabrielle lifted her hands. “Don’t look at me, I just got in. I’m in the same position as you are, meaning totally in the dark. I don’t even know what the mission is yet, or what your skill set is.”
Beatrice put a file in front of her. “I’m sorry about keeping my cards close to my vest, Gabrielle, but I only had a few hours to turn things around. To bring you up to date, one of my dear friends, Lazarus King, is trying to bring his father down, who’s a dangerous psycho in my opinion, with too much money and power for his own good.”
Zoe pursed her lips. “We all have family problems. Who’s the villain?”
“Jamieson Finch.”
It was Zoe’s turn to be speechless for a moment or two. “The big ass businessman plastered in the papers every other week? Really?”
Beatrice nodded. “Businessman alright, but with megalomaniac tendencies to boot. And a darker side too. A couple of months ago, he tried to overtake the entire Chicago syndicates.”
Whistling, Zoe leaned back in her chair. She only knew what was published in newspapers or on the Internet. Finch appeared polished and clean, a family man with political aspirations.
“It may sound stupid, but the two men don’t have the same last name.”
Beatrice looked at Gabrielle before focusing back on her. “To put it diplomatically, Finch has many illegitimate children. Many.”
Zoe replaced her glasses, hiding a grin. “Pray continue, I’m falling in love with this adorable womanizer already.”
“Wait, it gets even better. Finch isn’t too keen on his illegitimate offspring, especially Lazarus since he has made it his personal mission to stop his dear daddy.”
Gabrielle snorted. “Yeah, and as Oz is smart and cunning, it makes him a difficult target for retaliation. Not directly at least.”
It didn’t take a genius to understand Finch’s next step. “And let me guess, if Finch can’t get little Ozzie, he will target his other kids. That’s sick.”
“Family is Lazarus’s Achilles’ heel. And as Finch tried to get to his son, Aleksei Voronov, one of Oz’s half-brothers, and failed, he decided to target another one.”
Gabrielle scowled. “What do you mean another target?”
Instead of answering, Beatrice opened the file on the table and Zoe, curious, leaned forward. There, in front of her was the picture of a man in a three-piece black suit, coming out of a building. For the first time, Zoe was speechless, no smartass remark at the ready. She’d always disliked men in suits, maybe because she was surrounded by them and they were a pain in the ass most of the time. But there, in the picture, appeared a force of nature. The line of his powerful jaw was set with determination. The image was static, but she could imagine him moving. No nonsense, purposeful. His dark hair seemed ruffled a bit by the wind, and his eyes were an amazing gray. Like a pond reflecting a clouded sky. Something swirled in them, a mystery.
Gabrielle missed Zoe’s unusual stillness, but Beatrice subtly shifted. Eyeing her as if she was about to ask a question before dropping it.
“After his mob flop, Finch started threatening Lazarus again, even more directly, before stopping abruptly. That’s when he went on full alert, and we started analyzing who might be the next target. And our most probable guess is Archer Blackwood. Archer is the same age as Lazarus, also born in Britain but on the wrong side of the tracks, as you Americans say. He married young, into money, and had an opportunity to buy oil rigs in the North Sea fifteen years ago. That was the first step of his empire. He’s one of the most powerful tycoons in the world.”
Zoe shook her head. “I never heard of him before.”
Gabrielle agreed with her and analyzed the picture even more. “How can a man so rich and influential stay under the radar like that?”
“It stems from more than ten years ago. Blackwood was suspected of killing his wife for her money. The accusations were dropped, but that was when he ceased all media appearances or social functions.”
“And why would he be the next target?”
