Alex, still in his expensive suit, usually preferred to work alone, but he first had to know what he was working with. In Germany, everything was layered with too many unknowns, too much corruption, and too many risks. He needed backup. He wasn’t even sure if they had the right man!
When they arrived near the outer reaches of the shack, Alex laid down the law. “Disable all vehicles.” They saw two. “I don’t want this fucker getting away, and I want to capture him alive. I need answers, not another dead body.”
“Yes, sir,” his men said.
Alex also made the decision, after reviewing in detail photos of the shack, that their best strategy would be to go in as if they were SWAT. “Half the team will break down the front door,” he said. “That team will be anchored by me. The other half will break down the back door. That team will be anchored by Belvins. Belvins and I have already synchronized our watches. As soon as the clock strikes 3:15am Munich time, we break in.”
“If they discover us before 3:15?” asked one of his men.
“We improvise,” said Alex.
They didn’t have to improvise. Alex waited, and his chief waited, and when the clock struck 3:15, they both nodded, the battering rams were employed, and the front door and back door were knocked down simultaneously.
Alex had already made clear that he did not want there be talking or unnecessary noise when they entered, beyond the doors falling, so that he could hear what he needed to hear. His crew obeyed his command, and the silence worked. Because as soon as they entered, Alex heard footsteps in the back of the shack, where the bedroom undoubtedly was.
As Alex and his men ran toward the room, gunfire suddenly erupted from the opposite side of the house, and then from the room where the noise was heard, causing Alex and his men to retreat into a side room, or down the hall, or wherever they could go to get out of the line of fire. Alex, in a side room, began firing back, but he had no target. The house was dark and all that could be seen was the pop of fire from gunshots.
But then there was no sound of gunfire, save Alex and his men firing back. Alex realized quickly what was happening. “They’re getting away!” he yelled as he hurried out of the room. “Half out back, half out front! We need them alive,” he ordered as he and his men scrambled to get out of that house and capture the man they needed to question.
Alex charged through the front door, where his instincts told him Max Rogan, the man in question, would attempt to make his getaway. That was where the vehicles were parked.
And Alex’s instincts were right. Max Rogan, the consigliere for the Heinrich Crime Syndicate, jumped into his dusty, older model Audi RS4 that was parked in front of the house and ready for takeoff.
But the car wouldn’t crank. Alex’s team had already disabled it. Rogan tried and tried, but to no avail. Rogan’s decision made him exactly what Alex had hoped he’d be: a sitting duck.
Alex kept his weapon trained on the man they believed hired that hitman, even as he heard gunfire in the back of the house where it turned out two bodyguards, both of whom had been the shooters inside the house, were making their getaway. They chose the woods. Rogan, as Alex had suspected, would choose the car: the easy way out.
Now it wasn’t so easy, and Rogan just sat there. Alex ordered him out. “Get out of the vehicle with your hands where I can see them,” he ordered as if he was a cop. “Get out now!”
But Rogan just sat there.
“Get out now!” he yelled again.
But Rogan just sat there.
Alex slowly made his way to the car’s driver side door. He didn’t want to kill this fool. He needed intel. But he would kill him without hesitation if it came down to a life or death situation. He was hoping it wouldn’t.
And when Rogan finally opened the door of his car, it appeared as if he understood the stakes also. Alex would get some answers!
But as soon as Alex made it around to the driver’s side of the vehicle, Rogan, with gun still in hand, lifted his gun and pulled the trigger. He was determined to take Alex out.
Although Alex might not have been the faster draw, his gun was already drawn. As soon as Rogan put his finger on that trigger, Alex was already firing. He shot Max Rogan five times in rapid succession. When it got that close, Alex never took any chances. Rogan dropped his gun, as he dropped to the ground.
Alex’s heart was hammering by yet another close call. But his anger was sizzling too.
“You okay, Boss?” Belvins yelled as he ran back up front.
Alex realized, at that moment, that the gunfire out back had ceased. “Our people okay?” he asked.
“Everybody’s okay. Everybody made it.”
Alex was relieved to hear it.
“Even as Rogan, I see,” Belvins said, “didn’t make it.”
“Were you able to spare either one of Rogan’s bodyguards?”
“They both decided to fight to the death,” Belvins said. “And they did.” He looked at Rogan again. And then at his boss. “Where does this leave us?” he asked.
“No damn where,” said Alex. And then he took his shoe and kicked the tire. He no more knew why somebody tried to kill him now than he knew before the ordeal began!
“Clean it up,” he ordered. “I don’t want any cops breathing down my neck again.”
“What about the Heinrich family? You think they’ll try to come after us?”
“Come after me for taking out a man who hired a hitman to take me out? Hell no. This is Europe. They know better. But just in case,” he added, “make sure no bodies are found, and no chatter gets started.”
Belvins smiled. “Yes, sir. I’ll give the order.”
But Alex was, once again, staring at Max Rogan’s lifeless body wondering why a seemingly intelligent man like him would go against his own crime family and hire a hit man.
CHAPTER TWENTY
When Alex and his crew made it back to the hotel in Munich, after traveling in separate vans, all Alex wanted to do was go to bed and try to get some sleep. He was given the key to his new suite, as the presidential suite now needed serious repairs, and he began making his way to the elevators. But Belvins stopped him with news about Kari.
“As you know, we never turn on our phones when we’re on assignment in the field.”
It was only at that moment did Alex realize his cell phone was still off.
“That’s why,” Belvins continued, “I didn’t get the call in time.”
“In time for what? And what call are you referring to?”
“The call about Miss Grant, sir.”
Alex stopped walking. His heart dropped. “What about Miss Grant?”
“She somehow found out about the incident, about the shooting, and is on a plane, sir. She’s on her way to Germany.”
Alex couldn’t believe it. “She’s coming here?”
“She’s on her way, yes, sir. She was already in the air before I knew anything about it, or I assure you I would have stopped it.”
“But how is she getting here?” His private plane was already in Germany. “Is she on a commercial flight?” Where she could be unprotected, he wanted to add. Or disrespected! Alex was getting red hot with anger.
“It all happened so fast, sir. Her security detail back in Florida tried to contact us, but, like I said, we were in the field and you were being interrogated. None of us had our cell phones on. And they had no choice but to let her fly commercial. Sending your aircraft would have taken 12 hours just to get to her, they didn’t have permission to send it anyway, and they said she wasn’t about to wait that long to get to you. She had booked her flight and was on her way to the airport before they even realized themselves what was happening. They had to get tickets last minute and board that plane too.”
Although Alex was angry by the lack of notice, he still felt thrilled that he would be seeing her again, even though it was a thrill he wasn’t about to share with his men. But he was concerned about Kari, too. “Her security had better be airtight on that plane,” h
e warned.
“Yes, sir. It is, sir. I already told them myself. They understand.”
“Jordan with her?”
“No, sir. He’s still in Apple Valley. He’s going to stay with the Church family while she’s here.”
“Tighten security around him.”
“Even more than he already has?” Belvins asked. The chief was surprised because Alex already had more elaborate security on Kari and Jordan than he had on himself.
But it was a question that went to the heart of the matter for Alex. In his heart, he was responsible for those two people unlike he’d ever felt responsible for anybody in this world. And that included his own flesh-and-blood deceased son and incarcerated daughter, both of whom were brainwashed into hating him by their mother.
But that ambush left him not only reeling by how close a call it had been, but by how unsettled it left him. Not because of what would have happened to him per se. But because, if he would have died in that ambush, who, he found himself wondering, would take care of Kari and Jordan? “Yes,” he responded, in answer to his chief. “Even more.”
But as Alex turned to head to the elevators, the GM hurried across the lobby and called his name. “Excuse me, Mr. Drakos,” he said when he made his way up to him. “But you have a guest waiting. A Miss Kari Grant?”
Alex looked at Belvins. He was just as surprised as Alex. “I thought she was still in flight,” he said. “When I got the call, when we were heading back, she was still on her way. I thought I’d have time to tell you long before her plane landed. But it was a long drive back and I got that call a couple hours ago.”
But Alex didn’t wait to scold his security chief. He didn’t give a fuck about scolding anyone. He needed to see Kari. He needed to make sure she was okay! He hurried across the lobby where Kari was waiting, leaving the GM and his chief well behind him.
And when he saw her, sitting in an oversized wing-backed chair, her head leaned back and her eyes closed, his heart swelled with pride and happiness and love. Great love. Because he knew she came all this way, spending money she did not have to spend like that, just to make sure he was okay. No other woman, no other human being, had ever cared for Alex the way Kari did.
And as her security detail, the men he paid to keep his woman safe, rose to their feet when Alex entered the area, he didn’t even think about scolding them for not keeping the chief aware of her location moment-by-moment. His heart, mind, and eyes were on Kari, even as her eyes remained closed and oblivious to his arrival.
When he made it to her, he knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on the arms of the chair. And he looked at her smooth dark skin. At her perfectly symmetrical face. He inhaled her always clean, always fresh scent. “Kari,” he said to her so softly it would have been amazing for her to have heard him.
But she heard him. And opened her eyes. When her eyes opened, and he saw that softness he loved so much, and then she smiled at him, his heart melted. And he smiled too. “Hey, babe,” he said.
When Kari suddenly realized she wasn’t back home in bed, but remembered she was in Germany making sure Alex was still alive and kicking, her look turned panicky. “Are you alright?” she quickly asked as she sat up in her seat. She even placed her hands on his face and chest as if she were feeling, he thought whimsically, for bullet holes.
“I’m perfectly fine, darling,” Alex said to her, amused and gratified. He stood up. She rose to her feet too. And he embraced her with an embrace that nearly smothered her. And then, ignoring the GM and security chief and anybody else who would want his attention, he took her upstairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
They were naked, in the bed inside his suite, facing each other. Alex had been inside of Kari for nearly half an hour, fucking her in a slow-motion fuck. But their reasons were different. Their entire purpose was to be with each other far more than to have orgasms.
Alex’s right hand was behind her neck, and his left hand was squeezing her ass, as his dick continued to stroke her wet, tight space.
She was staring at his handsome face, and she was rubbing the side of that face. They were so relaxed that both of them were drowsy.
“You were out on the search. Weren’t you?” she asked him.
Alex continued to stare at her. He had already decided he was going to be completely honest with Kari about what happened. She came all this way to see about him. It was the least he could do. “The shooter is dead,” he said. “But I was looking for who hired him, yes.”
“Did you find him?”
Alex hesitated. “Yes.”
“Did he say why he hired somebody to kill you?”
“Didn’t get a chance to hold a conversation.”
“So we don’t know?”
Alex shook his head. “No. Still unanswered questions.”
Kari exhaled. It was becoming their new normal, whether they wanted it to or not. “Is this guy who hired the shooter in the same boat as the shooter?” she asked.
Alex studied her. Would she tire of his lifestyle and leave him? Was that the risk he was taking for being so honest with her? “Yes,” he said.
But Kari didn’t frown, and she didn’t show any disapproval. “Good,” she said.
He smiled. “Oh, it’s good?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” said Kari. “If you end it, then he can’t try it again.”
Alex frowned. “Why you little gangster,” he said, and they both laughed.
But it was a fleeting laugh, because they both knew the stakes.
And that was why Alex wrapped her in his arms, and she wrapped him in her arms, and they kissed and fucked even longer. They fucked, slowly and tenderly, until they came.
And then they fell asleep.
And later that next day, Alex watched as Kari, fully dressed, placed her cell phone and her earphones back in her purse and prepared to head back to Florida. Only this time, his plane was taking her back.
“I can easily take a commercial flight out, Alex,” she said.
“Oh, no, you can’t,” he responded. “Your flying commercial days are over.”
“But the time, and the expense! Your flight crew will have to travel twelve hours just to get me home, then twelve hours to get back to Germany to be at your disposal. It’s too much, Alex.”
“For whom? My flight crew? What the fuck else they’ve got to do?”
Kari smiled. “You know what I’m saying!”
“Yes, I know what you’re saying. But hear what I’m saying. It’s my job to look out for you. Let me do my job.”
Kari smiled. “Will do,” she said.
“I only wish I could go back with you.”
“Negotiations continue?”
“They continue. This incident yesterday isn’t helping. But I’ll get what I want in the end.”
Kari smiled. “That’s right!”
“Hopefully, it’ll be sooner rather than later. And then I’ll be home.”
Kari smiled. “Can’t wait. In the meantime, I’m ready.” She grabbed her carry-on case along with her purse, the only two things she came to town with, and Alex took it from her so that he could carry it.
“I meant to tell you,” he said to her as they headed for the suite’s exit, “but I’m going to cover your expenses for this trip.”
Kari would have normally said no way. She had it. But only she didn’t really have it.
“Especially since,” Alex added, “you refuse to use that credit card I gave to you.”
Kari smiled as they stood at the door of his hotel suite. She wasn’t about to use that card! But she wasn’t about to turn down his offer to cover her expenses, either. “Thanks,” she said.
Alex was surprised. “Thanks? That’s it? No fight? No I Am Woman Hear Me Roar battle cry?”
Kari hit him on his muscular bicep. “Very funny,” she said.
“I’m serious! What gives?”
Kari smiled. “I can’t afford this trip,” she said honestly.
She ex
pected Alex to laugh. But he didn’t. His heart went out to her instead. And he realized, right then and there, just how independent from him she really was. In her world, she was on one side, and he was on the other. And she was right: on her side, she couldn’t afford to hop a plane to Germany! A trip like that could set her back months, if not years! But she came to see about him anyway. That was Kari. That was the woman he adored.
“We’d better get going,” she said. “It’s noontime here, which means it’s five am Florida time. I would have loved to be back in Florida before Jordan gets out of school. But at least I may get home before dark.”
“You will,” said Alex. But he lingered, staring at her.
“Anyway,” she said, about to open the door, unsure why he was looking at her so oddly.
But just as she was about to turn the knob, he said it. He just said it!
“Marry me, Karena,” Alex said.
At first, Kari froze. She couldn’t move a muscle. Then she turned, very slowly, and looked at him. Was this some kind of a joke? Alex told jokes every now and then. Was this one of those times?
But when she turned, and saw the seriousness on his face, she realized it was no joke. This man was serious!
“I don’t want to live without you, Kari,” Alex said honestly. “I can’t. There’s no two ways about it. I can’t. Will you marry me?”
Kari knew it was on the spur of the moment. He didn’t even have a ring! But neither one of them were big on ceremony anyway.
She smiled, dropped her bag, and fell into his arms. “Yes,” she said. “Yes!”
Tears were in her eyes when they stopped embracing. “When you get back home,” he said, “we’ll go ring shopping. Or I can have my jeweler bring you his finest selection.”
Alex Drakos 3_What They Did For Love Page 10
