Page 115 of Breaking the Rules
“Who the fuck are you?” Brad screeched.
He made a move toward her, but the woman leveled the Beretta at him and bared her teeth.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m being rude. Did you think this was Petra?” Waverly laughed. “This is Carolina. She works for Xavier. She’s done quite a bit of fieldwork in investigation and executive security. She also looks a whole lot like our friend Petra, don’t you think? Did I mention she’s an amazing shot? I wouldn’t try anything funny with her.”
Brad’s California tan face was turning an unhealthy shade of red, and he raised his gun. “Where is Petra?” he screamed.
Waverly reached under Carolina’s poncho and pulled out a Glock. Two against one. “You must feel incredibly stupid right now,” she said, her voice oozing with sympathy.
“You are going to regret this,” he hissed, his gun pointing in her direction.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s what they all say,” Waverly said, hurrying to Sylvia’s side. She yanked the tape off her mouth while Carolina ordered Brad to put the gun down and put his hands on his head. Waverly worked the bindings around Sylvia’s wrists free. “Are you okay?” she asked softly.
“Does getting drugged and kidnapped count as a blip in my sobriety?” Sylvia asked with a shaky smile.
Waverly grinned and worked her feet free. “I think you’re in the clear. But I’ll have a talk with your sponsor if you want.”
“I think you’re going to have to have a talk with your father and I first,” Sylvia said looking pointedly at the gun in Waverly’s hand.
“Yeah. Long talk later. Right now, I need you to get out of here. Are you okay to walk?”
Sylvia answered by standing and then swaying. Waverly caught her around the waist. “You got this Carolina?”
“Oh, yeah,” the woman said with a deadly smile.
Brad cocked the hammer on his pistol and trained it on Sylvia. “Wait!” Brad cried out desperately. “I can still get you the cash. Just tell me where you have the girl.”
Waverly glared at him. “You took my mother, drugged her, tied her up, told me you were going to kill me no matter what, and you think I still want to deal with you?”
“I can get you more than twenty-five million.”
“Not interested,” Waverly said as she guided Sylvia off the set.
Brad’s laughter, a creepy echoing snicker, made her pause. And then she saw what he found so amusing. A half dozen shadows stepped into the light. Waverly recognized four of them as her stuntmen assailants from the alley. They all held guns. Waverly trained hers on the ninja whose ass Xavier had kicked.Seven against two,she calculated.
Carolina kept her gun trained on Brad and ignored the new arrivals. They stood back-to-back with Sylvia sandwiched between them. It wasn’t the best odds, but Waverly still had a few cards to play.
“Don’t tell me you can’t do your own dirty work,” Waverly taunted Brad. “You just keep calling in others to do it for you. You surround yourself with minions and then sacrifice them like pawns. Like you did Dante.”
Brad lifted his hands. “When you have money and power, you don’t have to get your own hands dirty. Dante was a liability just like you turned out to be.”
“Sooner or later you run out of pawns,” she warned him.
“I’ve got an army loyal to me,” he bragged.
“So you have the FBI investigate me for running the espionage ops you sanctioned, and you throw my name out there in connection with Dante’s disappearance?”
“It’s your word against mine,” Brad smirked. “And I’ve got enough evidence pointing at you that no one is going to believe a word you say. Not that you’ll be around to defend yourself.”
“It’s illegal! What you’re doing includes blackmail, kidnapping, murder, and probably treason. You had Dante killed!”
“So what? I’m not stopping now. I spent so many years kissing the ass of people like you. People whose power only comes from the way they look at a fucking camera. Do you know how good it feels to finally have real power?”
“Oh, I do.” Waverly’s laugh had no humor in it.
“You have nothing,” Brad spat out.
