Page 32 of Kage

“I get it. Okay? I’m sorry about that. I had no way of knowing. I’ll get another plane down there, but it needs to wait.”

Yeah, I’d been none too nice from the moment he’d answered the phone. I’d gotten voicemail the first time, spouting off enough details he knew the mission had been botched, but not enough give away where we were hiding.

At this point, I didn’t trust anyone.

“No, you won’t.”

“What the hell are you thinking of doing?”

“I’ll handle the extraction myself. What the fuck do you mean it needs to wait?”

His heavy sighs were getting on my nerves. “I received word from the Bermudan police that there’s some heightened gang activity. At least that’s what they’re calling it. Don’t say it. Could be a ploy.”

“Yeah, it could be. If we take the news at face value, the island is inundated with soldiers searching for us.”

“Exactly. You need to lay low for a couple days. Let me make the arrangements.”

“In case you haven’t figured it out, someone talked. Either they were bought off or simply dirty all along. That much I don’t know and don’t give a shit. That’s for you to figure out. My mission is to bring Ms. Carver home safely and that’s what I’m going to do. But I will do it my way.”

“Jesus Christ, Kage. That’s what almost got you killed on more than one occasion. You’re a fucking hot-dogger, completely unconventional.” I was standing outside the front door on the small landing, staring out at the jungle surrounding the building. At this point, I was grateful for the cover.

“You could have picked someone else for the job, Gray. That would have been fine by me. But you chose me. And do you want to know why? For the exact reasons you just mentioned. Now, I know you pretty well, Gray. You’re hiding something about this mission. I can feel it. It burns my throat raw. Your reasons why you kept whatever it is you’re hiding from me don’t matter. I have a woman whose life is at stake stuck with me in a goddamn Bermuda hotel with soldiers from an undisclosed location bearing down on us. I am absolutely going to do what I need to do to get us the fuck out of here.”

His long silence was typical, but I didn’t care.

“Do what you need to do, Kage. I trust you. You’re right. You’re the only man capable of pulling this off. Let me see what else I can find out. I’m your only contact and no one else will know.”

“Including her fucking father.”

“He’ll be pissed, but I’ll handle him.”

“I don’t like what I read about Mr. Carver.”

Gray snorted. “Take a number. What don’t you like?”

“The kind of business he’s involved in could easily take him down another path.” While he’d diversified over the years, the fact he was heavily involved in communications meant for the military remained in the back of my mind. A lot of people walked in shades of gray. A lot of people used one business to launder for another as well. With the kind of people Randolph Carver was potentially doing business with, certain bribes could be difficult to ignore.

“Yeah, I thought of that. I’m searching his business associates to see if there’s any connection we haven’t thought about.”

“Again, that would have been decent of you to share with me prior to me taking the job.”

“By now, you know that the timing really was an issue.”

“Fine. What’s done is done. But this isn’t going to be my burial ground.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow, Kage. I’ll get some answers.”

Yeah, tomorrow. If we lived that fucking long. After ending the call, I almost cracked the phone from the force used as I held it to my forehead.

“Trouble in paradise?”

Her voice was much softer than before, too sultry for my tastes. I rubbed my eyes as Tank trotted toward me.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I answered her.

“I have a feeling you can handle almost anything.”

My thoughts drifted to my past, which wasn’t a good thing to occur when I was on a job. I’d almost lost myself in a bottle instead of hunting down an enemy. The reasons hadn’tmattered. My shattered soul hadn’t bothered anyone. “Not everything.”

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