Page 76 of Midnight Torment

Me:I thought this was a secret op…

Xavier:Dante is her uncle. If the shit hits the fan, Cas has every intention of phoning the fucker and telling him to release her friend.

Me:Dante is a dead man walking. She may say her goodbyes to him now, if she has any to say.

Xavier:Yeah, I get it. I’d feel the same way.

Ash:The asshole has been a problem too long. We all seen what he’s involved in back in Cuba. It’s time for someone to wipe that shitstain off the face of this Earth.

I didn’t think there would be a toilet roll big enough for that task.

Me:For him, I’ll willingly buy a new pair of boots.

Ash:We’ll monitor the situation. There’s a satellite phone beside the navigation system you can contact us on. You need anything, let us know.

Me:Thanks. Tell Cas to keep her phone beside her and Dante’s number on speed dial.

Xavier:Good luck. Your clone arrived around an hour ago, so that should buy you some time.

We used them all the time to keep the press off our backs while we were on missions. The last time mine was activated the fucker drove my Aston Martin. He better not have taken that car from my garage.

Ash:He brought your Range Rover.

A dark smile tilted my lips up since we all knew each other too well.

Me:At least he took heed of my last warning.

Xavier:I think his ass took the warning since you threatened to shoot him in it.

Cars were sacred, and some of mine were priceless relics that I’d taken apart and rebuilt to race on the track I’d bought two years ago. I’d chop his hands off if he touched my Aston again, never mind shoot him in the ass.

Normally, I loved the sway of a boat hitting the waves at high speed, but all my thoughts were somewhere else. I refused to keep checking my phone as that could put Megan in danger if they were looking for a tracker. Pods of dolphins swam in the distance, jumping out of the water, one at the rear blowing spouts of water out its blowhole.

It gave me something to aimlessly watch and take my mind off everything. Life continued even when your own world was falling apart. Megan would have loved seeing them, since she had been constantly hanging out of the Jeep on the safari.

We moved around the coastline first past Cannes, then Nice, and then Monaco before we reached the landmass of Italy.

“I’m going to stop for a while and study the satellite maps,” I told Flynn. “You can test the equipment.”

He grinned like a kid on Christmas morning and disappeared to put on his wetsuit. This way, it didn’t look like we were following them or heading straight to their private island. I sat back with my sunglasses on and pretended to enjoy the sunshine with a bottle of beer that I had no intention of touching beside me. Flynn fell off a few times before he got the hang of the board. He flashed across the ocean toward land before he turned and headed back to our boat. The fucker spun directly above me and zoomed out again. Normally I would have been out there living life to the fullest, but it felt like a betrayal if Megan was hurt and in danger.

Flynn landed on the deck. “That is a serious piece of equipment. We’ll need to put yours together and make sure it’s working.”

“It’ll work.” There was no way Ash would send me a faulty unit.

Flynn’s hand landed on my shoulder. “We need to play a role here. Anyone who knows you would be suspicious to see you just sitting here.”

“Technically, I’m in London. My double arrived with Zee a while ago. Dante will think I’ve either gone about my life as normal, or that I’m there plotting with the guys.”

“The stupid fucker doesn’t know you very well if he thinks that,” Flynn quipped. “There is no way someone takes something from you, and you sit back and don’t retaliate immediately with deadly force.”

I glared up at him. “I’m not that bad.”

His laugh sounded bitter even to me. “Yeah, I run your clean-up company. Let me assure you, as the person who knows your body count in the UK, you are that bad. Probably worse as you deal with some of them yourself. I dread to think of the trail you’ve left behind overseas.”

“I have a few control issues.”

“No, Jay. You have homicidal maniac issues. There’s nothing wrong with your control.”

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