The Talented Mr. Rivers

by HelenKay Dimon

  So many missteps had put him here, right in the line of fire. So many times he’d vowed never to come back to his family and to ignore the money, even ignore his dad’s pleas from his deathbed to come back. He’d owed them nothing but now he’d been sucked back in and couldn’t fight his way out of the muck.

  And Hunter was right. He didn’t kill people or take part in the auctions, but a part of him had known for a long time that his family dealt in some pretty dark stuff. All the whispered conversations. The guards and fake public face. He’d pretended not to know what happened behind the locked doors of the family estate because it was easier. He wanted so much for them to be different people that he silently excused the monsters they’d become.

  Like it or not, it was time to step up and be part of the resistance.

  “The set of private rooms downstairs at the club is contained, and it sounds like you have a handle on the rest of the building.” Will tried to breathe life into his voice but it didn’t work. The monotone sound rolled out of him. “That should work for what you have in mind. The owner is easy to pay off. There are cameras. There are two exits. I already went over all of this when I needed to clean out the area and get Hunter to come find me.”

  “Nice.” Fisher blew out a long breath. “You’re already thinking and talking like one of us. There might be hope for you yet.”

  “Ed said they were watching and Gatt was coming to see me.” Exhaustion hit Will. He wanted to sit down. Be alone for a few minutes.

  Seth nodded. “Then we’ll try tomorrow night.”

  When they started to move, Hunter’s voice picked up speed and volume. “We don’t have enough men to pull this off this fast.”

  “Interesting reaction from the guy who always insists on working alone,” Fisher said.

  Seth nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Peter will recognize Zach and Fisher. They won’t be able to get near this thing. That leaves the two of us to fight a guy like Gatt.”

  Hunter was wrong. Will had done the math and knew the truth. “Three. You have me.”

  “You’re not trained.” Hunter yelled even louder that time.

  Fisher scoffed. “He just said he was.”

  “No.” Hunter turned on the man who seemed to be his boss. “It’s not the same and you know it.”

  “Actually, it kind of is.” Seth cleared his throat. “He got the drop on Fisher when we came in. Slammed him against the wall without trouble.”

  “The woman running the crepe stand downstairs could get the drop on Fisher.” Hunter wouldn’t let go. He kept fighting.

  “Enough.” Will appreciated the gesture. On some level he knew it meant something. His brain was too scattered to figure out what. But they had to plan.

  Hunter’s face was anything but blank now. His expression became very readable and it said, Absolutely not. “Will—”

  “You wanted me to take responsibility, right? This is me picking the resistance.” The words should have hurt. Wariness should have gripped him. Instead, he felt a surge of relief.

  Seth slapped Hunter on the back. “Doesn’t it suck when a good inspiration story gets thrown back in your face?”

  “I fucking hate you.”

  “You’ve made that clear.” Seth gave Hunter’s shoulder one last squeeze. “Take an hour to get your heads together, then we start laying it out.”

  Will had no idea what that meant. “Heads together?”

  “He wants you two to make up,” Zach explained. “That will make the next twenty-four hours easier.”

  That struck Will as an odd requirement for this type of operation. It also seemed impossible. He couldn’t put something back together that had never really fit in the first place. “We’re fine as is.”

  Fisher winced as he looked at Hunter. “That sounds bad for you, man.”

  “Okay, we’ll be upstairs.” Seth gestured for Zach and Fisher to go. “Enjoy the hour.”

  Chapter 15

  Hunter spent the first fifteen minutes after the meeting alone with Will in the apartment, concentrating on mentally cataloging his weapons. Collecting them. Taking the guns apart and cleaning them. Stupid shit that on one level needed to be done but that mostly qualified as wasting time.

  He kept telling himself he needed to be ready, repeating the mantra in his head. The truth was he didn’t want to look up and see Will’s expression. He couldn’t get derailed, and if Will looked even a little rattled or wary, Hunter knew, he would. Of course, he’d get pissed off if Will wasn’t smart enough to be either of those things.

  The minutes ticked by so slowly he could almost hear the hands on the wall clock move. He didn’t have to look up to know where Will was. He could sense him. From time to time he could feel Will’s stare land on him.

  Hunter carefully picked the kitchen as his waiting place. Had everything spread out in front of him on the counter. Will sat on the edge of the bed. A quick glance and Hunter could see Will held something. Twirled it around in his fingers. Dark and…His glasses. He didn’t wear them now. Just passed them from one hand to the other, studying them as if they were the most important thing in the world.

  Looked like they were both trying to concentrate on the mundane. For Hunter it provided relief from the reality that hit him square in the gut while they talked about the club and Gatt and throwing Will right into the middle of danger without blinking.

  Somewhere along the line he’d started to care about Will. Really care, and that had Hunter pretty messed up. He never gave a shit about a mark. In his mind, anyone involved had made the decision and ran the risk.

  He’d gone from wanting to fuck him to wanting…God, he didn’t even know what. He just understood that he wanted to tell Will things he’d never told anyone. That thing where they lay in bed after the sex, not needing to talk. Not having to be on guard.

  Just the idea of not seeing Will every day made the world go dark on him. Forget strings-free. Forget attraction-only. This dove deeper.

  This plagued him to the point that going back to his regular life and rushing into the next assignment after this one, living out of a bag and half on the run, left him feeling flat. For the first time, the job that had kept him sane all these years morphed into a burden. It weighed on him, chained him up, and pulled him under.

  “My father tried to kill me.” The words slipped out of him and hung in the quiet room. He hadn’t meant to say anything, let alone that.

  Will’s head shot up but he stayed seated. Didn’t speak or ask questions. Something in that reaction had Hunter wanting to spill even more.

  “I mean, I know yours sucked. Like, your dad was actually successful at burning down parts of the family tree.”

  “You mean my mother.”

  Hunter had to tell him the truth even though it would rock Will’s world. Turn everything he knew upside down. But, yeah. While they were sharing, he had to get this part out, too. “Your uncle killed her. He found out she was going to run, going to tell, and he killed her.”

  Will sat up straighter as all the color drained from his face. “What?”

  “It was in my intel. Your father killed him for revenge, to get the business…hell, I don’t know.” Hunter sure didn’t understand family relationships. He was no expert there, but he did have a theory. “I know your father wasn’t an easy man, but I wonder if you being sent out of harm’s way and how much he wanted to see you when he thought he was dying…”

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to say.” Will blinked a few times. “God, I can’t even believe that’s true. I mean, I get that it is, but still…”

  Hunter wasn’t even sure how to say it but he needed Will to think about another possibility. One that might shift his life into a different perspective. “Maybe it was his version of paternal love. Maybe even abusive assholes who pit their kids against each other are capable of it.”

  Hunter hated that part. Despised it even though it had nothing to do with mass killings. But the idea of
Will being terrorized and hardened by the very people who were supposed to take care of him made Hunter want to lash out.

  “Damn.” That was all Will said. Flat and simple.

  Guilt weighed Hunter down. He rarely dealt with the emotion, rarely let people get close enough for it to take hold. It filled him now. “I should have told you before.”

  “You couldn’t.” Will shook his head. Looked blindsided and struggling to take it all in. “I didn’t know who you were then.”

  “But I want you to know me now.” Hunter drew in a shaky breath. This honesty thing was not easy. “I’m not trying to one-up you here. Not that I even could with your family history. But I want you to know that on some level I get it.”

  Will stood up then. He walked over to the other side of the counter, only a few feet away, and wrapped his fingers around the edge. “How, exactly?”

  Hunter didn’t pretend to misunderstand. He got the question. He’d talked about this once when joining the BND, then buried the memories deep. They kept coming rushing back at him, had since he met Will. Probably had something to do with being members of the Sons of Shitty Fathers Club.

  “After my father served his time for the crimes I told you about, the ones that dealt with being a member of the secret police, he wasn’t exactly welcome in the new Germany. That was fine because he hated a unified Germany more than the people he’d hurt hated him. The distrust and loathing were very much mutual.” Hunter skipped over the parts about being beaten up when he was a kid and called a traitor. How they never had enough food and no one talked to him and his mother. Zoomed right to the point. “He felt as if his country had let him down. That he’d served and been loyal, and he’d lost everything—his life, his work, his pension, his reputation—in return.”

  “He became bitter.”

  “He was probably always pretty bitter.” Hunter tried to recall a time when his father hadn’t been demanding and unrealistic in his expectations and couldn’t think of one. “But post-prison he was filled with unrelenting hate.”

  That almost seemed like an understatement. It wasn’t as if he’d written a letter to the newspaper editor to complain or petitioned to get his pension back. No, he’d spewed vile comments and talked about an overthrow of the government, in careful circles only, of course.

  “He directed that anger at you, I assume,” Will said.

  “Well, I was a disappointment because I embraced the changes.” And celebrated his father being gone and in prison despite being couldn’t-afford-to-eat-for-days poor and his mother’s torment and eventual illness. “When I went into the military, he was furious. He wanted me to object to conscription or take the alternative of civil service. When I refused, he saw it as the ultimate betrayal. I’d willingly chosen to work for the enemy that had imprisoned him. The logic was a bit twisted, but he didn’t seem to notice.”

  Will frowned. “Does he know you’re in the BND?”

  “No. He threatened to kill me just for being in the army, and then actually tried. Took out a knife and stabbed me.” Sometimes when Hunter looked down the memory would hit him. All that blood. He’d remember the cold, dark hate mirrored in his father’s eyes. “I can’t imagine what his reaction would have been to my BND position.”

  “Did he mean to kill you?”

  Hunter understood the question. At heart Will was a good man and couldn’t imagine the horror, despite the family crap he’d been dealt. “He’d meant to end it that day. It hadn’t been a misunderstanding or a mistake. He lunged and sliced, determined to kill me for my disloyalty.”

  “How did you survive that?”

  Hunter was still stunned he had. The pain had torn through him, stealing the air from his lungs. Hunter remembered sucking in, fearing he’d taken his last breath.

  “I happened to be stronger and a neighbor came. I went to the hospital but pretended it was an accident to keep my father from serving even more prison time.” Not that his father had appreciated it. No, he’d seen the choice as one more weakness. “Until the end he seemed disappointed he failed.”

  “He’s dead?” Will didn’t seem particularly upset by the idea.

  Hunter wished he could be that detached. He aimed for that level of not caring but couldn’t completely get there. His father had kicked him out and cut him off. He’d even missed his mother’s funeral.

  That had been the final breaking point for Hunter in ever trying to establish a relationship or even a mutual understanding. He’d written his father off as irredeemable and realized that he was not the only one like that in the world. “Yes. His last wish was that I not attend his funeral.”

  “Jesus.” Some of the color flooded back into Will’s cheeks.

  He’d been emotionally battered today, but this seemed to be something else. Maybe empathy. Whatever it was, Hunter grabbed on to it, hoping it was a good sign. A sign that Will cared.

  “He stayed bitter until the end.”

  “That’s why you’re big on personal responsibility.” Will’s fingers tightened against the edge of the counter. His knuckles turned a grayish white from the force.

  “My whole life has been about making up for his choices.” He’d never admitted that out loud before. Even when the thought entered his mind now and then, he kicked it out. After having refused to be his father, the idea of picking a life that revolved around him in any way made Hunter want to heave.

  Will clenched his fingers one more time, then let go. Actually flexed his hands a few times as if he’d strained the muscles. “So, you think I’m a coward for wanting to just get away from my family and never come back.”

  It was more than that. “I’m not convinced you would have been able to do it. Hell, when your dad called, you rushed home.”

  “Okay, so it’s even worse, then. You think I’m that tied to the money that I can’t break away. Nice to know you think so highly of the guy you’re fucking.” An edge of anger slipped back into Will’s voice. He carried it in his rigid shoulders and slight stiffness to his jaw.

  “No, listen to me.” That had been the original assumption, but not anymore. A spoiled pretty boy wouldn’t have made it two days on the run. He certainly wouldn’t have ducked the guards who were determined to stick with him.

  “No thanks.”

  “You’re not getting what I’m saying.” Will ran deeper than that, and Hunter was grateful. “I think you have a conscience. Strike that—I know you do.”

  Will snorted. “Since when?”

  The response was fair. It wasn’t as if Hunter had given Will much credit. If anything, he’d tried to keep his distance by taking verbal shots and acting as if Will didn’t matter. “I don’t know. The reality settled in and now I know it’s true.”

  Will’s nod was slow. “Fair enough.”

  “You’re going to walk into this plan and pretend to take over Pentasus.” There, he’d said it. The start of the one fear that had Hunter’s mind spinning.

  “Unless someone shoots me.”

  “That’s not happening.” Hunter refused to let his mind venture in that direction for even a second. “But you could have more. You’re giving it all up. All the money and power.”

  For a second Will’s mouth dropped open. When he closed it again his voice vibrated with what sounded like fury. “You still think I’m like Peter.”

  “No, and I’m betting everything that you’re not.” A tense silence followed the comment.

  After a second the anger seemed to whoosh right out of Will again. It drained from his face and his whole body relaxed. “No one in law enforcement knew about Pentasus for a very long time. No one came asking questions. No one even looked in my father’s direction. I know that’s true because even I didn’t know and I lived in the house.”

  “There were whispers about Pentasus. Some intel but it never panned out. Intelligence agencies across the world wondered. Until me.” Hunter took the credit because it had indeed been him. If, at some point, Will wanted to blame someone, it had to be
him. “I went undercover and verified that those crazy stories about this wealthy family were true.”

  Will exhaled. “You set all of this in motion.”

  Doubts rammed into Hunter. For a second he wondered if he’d gone too far. Criminals or not, they were Will’s family, and he’d all but admitted to pulling the piece that started dismantling the entire operation. “Yes. I made the connection to Pentasus from the legitimate side of the business and immediately knew the stories were true. Zach infiltrated for the CIA right after me.”

  Hunter had no idea what Will was thinking or about to say. He just stood there.

  Finally Will said, “You’re even better at your job than I thought.”

  Relief nearly knocked Hunter down. He tried to hide his surprise and kept on talking. “Let’s say I confirmed what intelligence agencies had started to believe. That there was this vast family network responsible for a lot of suspicious deaths around the world.”

  Will crossed his arms in front of him and leaned against the counter. “Imagine thinking for twenty or so years that your family could do anything, find anyone, only to figure out they could also kill without remorse.”

  Hunter knew Will was describing his reality. This wasn’t a hypothetical. Neither was Hunter’s answer. “I’d want to stop them.”

  “You’d think that was impossible. You would have been trained to believe in that family’s invincibility.” Will exhaled. “Trust me.”

  Hunter tried to step back and imagine that mindset. He’d been taught in the military and later in the BND to accomplish the impossible, to put his fear aside and push through. Will’s life had been very different and Hunter was only now realizing the importance of that distinction.

  “Is that still what you think? That your family can’t possibly be beaten?” Hunter hated for that to be true because he had no idea how Will would overcome such a thought and fight back.

  Will didn’t blink. “We’ll know soon enough.”

  —

  They’d just finished walking through the plan for the third time when Will asked to be able to take a stroll. Of course the answer was no, but they opened the wall between the two apartments for a little more stretching room.