Page 59 of Defenseless
They spent two hours running through what would happen in the next day and a half. Tonight, they’d lie low at the hotel and rest up. In the morning, they’d make their way to Benicio’s home. Ava and the team back in Mystery Lake now had eyes on the place and would be their guides. They planned to be back in the air by late tomorrow night and home the day after. It was a solid plan, but Chad was never happy with just one plan. In that, he and Sabina were remarkably alike.
Teague eventually claimed the other bedroom for a nap, and Killian crashed out on the couch again. They’d have all night to study the roads and potential routes to their destinations. Chad, on the other hand, had other plans for his nocturnal activities. If he’d been traveling alone or on an op, he never would have considered taking a break. But Sabina was going to be nervous about confronting her biological father. He both wanted and needed to focus on her. Which was, admittedly, no hardship.
The remainder of the flight and hotel check-in went without a hitch. HICC had reserved a suite with two bedrooms for them. Chad presumed it was a family suite, as one room had a king bed—which he and Sabina claimed—and the second, two full-size beds. Ethan eyed the two beds then shifted his gaze to the couch. Chad empathized with his cousin. There was no way he would have wanted to be in the same bedroom with Sabina if he couldn’t also, at the very least, hold her. In the end, Ethan said he had some work to do before going to bed, then said good night to Kara before she disappeared into the bedroom. The look Sabina shot Chad told him she’d seen his evasion technique, too, but neither spoke of it. In fact, once they closed the door to their room, neither spoke very much at all, preferring to let their bodies say what needed to be said.
After the languorous night, they rose, showered, then joined Ethan and Kara in the main room where a large breakfast was already laid out. He gestured for Sabina to get started while he checked in with Teague and Killian. As predicted, all was quiet on the home front.
At fifteen minutes to nine, Teague swung a large SUV under the portico in front of the hotel. Everyone tossed their bags in the back, then the four of them climbed in, and he pulled away. Killian followed behind in a smaller, more nondescript, SUV.
An hour later, they pulled to a stop in front of a small shop a quarter of a mile from Benicio Silva’s house. If they needed to make a quick exit, it was easier for four people to slip away than to get a car through the closed gate of his property, so they’d agreed to walk the short distance.
Killian took the lead at a respectable distance ahead of them. Then Chad, Sabina, Ethan, and Kara followed. Teague brought up the rear.
Eight blocks later, Chad pressed the button on the panel outside the gate to Benicio’s house and waited. A few seconds later, a voice crackled over the intercom. Chad wasn’t fluent in Portuguese, but he knew enough to translate the dismissal. Ignoring it, he pressed the button again, this time holding it down until a man appeared at the door set into the fence to the left of the gate.
He was armed, not a surprise, but so were Ethan and Chad. Although Chad intended to do everything in his power to keep the situation from devolving to a point where those weapons were needed.
The man stared at them through a pair of beady eyes and shifted his coat to reveal more fully the gun at his hip. Chad nearly rolled his eyes. They were standing less than eight feet apart, nowhere near enough time to unholster it if he and Ethan decided to rush him.
Despite the lack of any real risk, he and his cousin took subtle steps to put themselves between the man and Sabina and Kara. Although, to be fair, neither woman seemed particularly fazed by the weapon. As an employee of HICC, Sabina was no stranger to guns. And given the kinds of places Kara traveled, he suspected she had her fair share of experience, too.
“Americans?” the man asked in English, his voice heavily accented.
Chad nodded sharply. “You can tell Benicio Silva that Lalibela and Nalanda Houseman are here to see him.”
The man eyed them, then withdrew a phone from his pocket. Hitting a button, he brought it to his ear. What followed was a conversation too rapid for Chad to understand, although he did hear the sister’s names. Less than four minutes later, they were being escorted into the very modern house.
They followed Beady Eyes through a pair of tall glass doors and into a foyer. Then continuing up a wide set of gleaming metal stairs, they traipsed down a hallway, around a corner, and finally, into an office with panoramic views toward the city.
And there stood Benicio Silva. The man formerly known as Richard Houseman.
Despite the hour, he held a glass of whiskey. He didn’t move from his position behind the desk, not even after his guardian left, closing the door behind him. With one hand in his pocket and the other holding the tumbler, he studied them.
“You both look like your mother,” he finally said.
Neither Kara nor Sabina moved. No one had expected a joyous family reunion, but his cool appraisal surprised Chad. The man had spoken as if observing a piece of art that he didn’t quite care for. He showed no shame for what he’d done. No curiosity about how they were or what they’d been doing the past twenty-four years. No familial affection whatsoever.
“Tell us about Kevin Jacobs,” Sabina said.
Benicio stilled for one brief second then he smiled. Or at least Chad thought that’s what he’d intended. It was hard to tell with the amount of work he’d had done on his face.
“You were always bright children. I’m going to assume you’ve turned into bright women and that you know I stole a fair bit of cash from the man.” He gestured for them to take seats, but when neither Sabina nor Kara moved, Chad and Ethan stayed standing as well. Benicio sighed, as if put out.
“I was running the accounting business for a man I’d worked with for a few years.Hewas the one who did business with Jacobs. To make a long story short, he decided Jacobs needed to be taken down a peg or two. He authorized me to take the money. He didn’t need it, so he told me to keep it. He was more interested in making a point.”
“And what was the point?” Kara asked.
Benicio’s gaze shifted between the sisters before landing on Chad. “It wasn’t about the money. That was the point,” he responded. “He wanted Kevin Jacobs to know who was calling the shots. And that it wasn’t Kevvy.”
“And that everything could be taken from him at the drop of a hat if he stepped out of line,” Sabina said. Benicio switched his gaze to her then nodded and took a sip of his drink.
“Why are you telling us this?” Kara asked. It was a good question and one Chad had been wondering.
“Because neither I, nor the man I worked for, are in the business anymore. We both retired five years ago.”
“It doesn’t work that way in the kind of organization you worked for, Silva,” Chad said. “You don’t get to start talking. Not even when you retire.”
There was an odd tug on the corner of Silva’s mouth. Again, maybe a smile? “You’re right,” he said. “When we retired, my boss’s son took over the organization. I got out because the kid could barely piss into a toilet on his own. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Two years after his takeover, there was another power grab. This one by a different organization. Killed pretty much everyone I knew. So you see, it doesn’t matter if I talk about them. They’re all dead.”
