Jazz’s eyes went wide in horror. “What?” she screeched. “My Andy?”
Rory nodded in confirmation. His normally expressive face was now solemn.
Rihanna felt the news sink into her own brain while she watched her friend visibly slump against the bench. It was all happening in slow motion and Rihanna’s body just didn’t seem to respond.
“No. Oh my God, oh my God,” Jazz cried, beginning to teeter on her legs, tears streaming down her face.
Quade, closest to Jazz, swooped in and picked her up before she could fall further to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been a long night.
It took Rihanna the best part of four hours to get Jazz settled enough to sleep. Brayden had been a huge support helping Rihanna pull herself together enough to help Jazz. The news had rocked her best friend to her very foundations. To make matters worse, the increased threats meant that it just wasn’t possible for Jazz to leave here at the moment.
Where she wanted to go, none of them really understood. It was part of the grief process. They’d all coped with the tantrums and tears that had resulted. Rihanna knew that deep down Jazz understood why she couldn’t go but it was small consolation, given the situation.
The real question that everyone wanted to know was why was he there in the first place. It didn’t look good. Not good at all. And Rihanna couldn’t help but shake the nagging feeling that they weren’t going to like the answer much.
“Morning all.” Tom Anderson’s voice came through loud and clear over the speakerphone. “Have we got everyone?”
They’d all gathered around the speaker phone in the family room again. Rihanna had no doubt the guys had been talking to him throughout the night. Her attention had been entirely on trying to console Jazz. Jazz was now sitting at the end of the lounge, half curled into a defensive posture, staring off into space. Her normally sparkling green eyes were dull and red-rimmed from crying and lack of sleep.
“All here this end, boss,” Brayden confirmed.
“All here as well, boss,” another voice confirmed. Rihanna suspected it was Dylan but couldn’t be sure.
“Okay, let’s bring everyone up to date. Last night, Rory and Quade arrived on scene at an incident in Broadbeach. They engaged in a hand-to-hand situation with six Chinese nationals, of which they managed to apprehend two of them. These two have been questioned by Centre personnel and we can confirm they are members of the motherland extremist group as we suspected.”
There was a lot of nodding of heads around the room as Tom continued.
“From what we can ascertain, it seems they had been working with Dr Matthews as we previously concluded. Matthews had set up a meeting to obtain further virus in its natural state. It seems Matthews was working for the Chinese to increase the volume of the virus in the transport agent, essentially creating more of the material he stole from the Brisbane laboratory. The meeting went south and Rory and Quade walked in on the tail end of it.”
Jazz suddenly leapt forward in her seat, startling everyone. “What sort of meeting?” she demanded.
Tom Anderson had paused to accommodate for the interruption but it was clear he was unhappy about it. “It seems Black had the six canisters of virus from your facility, Dr Mason, and was selling them to Matthews and the Chinese. We can confirm that the canisters were not at the premises.”
There was the sharp intake of breath from all five occupants in the room.
The words coming from the speakerphone all became white noise to Rihanna and her vision suddenly seemed to narrow. Somehow Andy was involved with the break-in. He was involved in this. Jazz’s…boyfriend…had…been…involved in this.
Oh my God.
She felt sick.
Bile rose in her throat.
Somehow she had enough presence of mind to slap her hand to her mouth as she ran from the room in search of the nearest bathroom.
She slumped to the floor, crouched over the toilet, panting. Her throat was on fire and her stomach burning from the sudden evacuation of its contents. The night’s events had taken their toll. This morning’s news had finished her. She couldn’t go on. Her world was upside down. She didn’t know how long she lay there for. It could have been a minute or an hour.
The first she knew of Bray’s presence was when he pressed a cold cloth to her forehead and picked her up off the floor, his strong arms and body somehow shielding her from all the craziness her world had become.
He placed her gently on the bed and sat beside her, tenderly wiping her face with the cloth. Rihanna’s focus started to return and the world slowly began to right itself to at least appear as it should, even if she felt it would never be quite the same again.
Rihanna shot up into a sitting position. “Where’s Jazz?” Rihanna realised if she was feeling this bad, Jazz could only be feeling worse.
Brayden gently pushed her back to the bed. “Don’t worry about her at the moment. Rory is looking after her.”
Rihanna felt mildly better at that but still terribly guilty. She should be helping her friend through this, not Rory.
“Baby, let Rory take care of Jazz for a little while. He’s good at that sort of stuff. You need time to get yourself together.” He’d read her mind or did he just really understand her?
She laid back, letting out a long breath. Brayden was right. The last thing she felt like doing was consoling someone else when she felt so low herself. But if she needed to, she would. But before she could be of use to anyone, she had to understand what had happened.
Brayden seemed to understand that she needed to know and began piecing the story together for her. “It seems Andy planned the whole thing quite convincingly over several months. He first met the leaders when he catered a function for a group of Chinese businessmen. From what we can gather, he overheard them talking about the Hendra virus and what it could potentially be used for. He knew you were involved in the research and figured you’d have access to the virus. He saw an opportunity and took it. They were going to pay him one million dollars per canister.
“He then organised for the East Europeans to abduct you and your father. Their intent was to throw everyone off the trail of the real culprits: Black and the Chinese. The Steel gig at the beach on New Year’s Eve was the perfect opportunity for Black to enact his plan. He knew you’d be there with Jazz. All he had to do was split you up in the crowd and give those guys the opportunity that they needed. You know all the rest.”
Rihanna pondered what Brayden had told her. A few other things started to make much more sense.
“So he made up with Jazz just to get close to me again?” she asked.
“We believe so.”
Rihanna tensed, half sitting up before letting herself fall back to the bed again, letting out a low growl. “I just realised that he pumped me for information a couple of months ago. We were at Jazz’s brother’s birthday party and he kept asking me about my work. I stupidly thought he was just trying to get into my good graces so I’d tell Jazz he was really making an effort this time.” She paused, thinking it all through. “How stupid could I be?” She fumed at her own stupidity.
He brushed the hair back from her face. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Minky. You couldn’t have known.”
“So why did the Chinese kill him?”
“They were probably just trying to remove any traces of evidence. It’s quite common for these sorts of people to permanently remove anyone who can later determine their involvement or identify them.”
“So how come Matthews ended up left for dead?”
“We don’t really know but if I was to guess, I’d say he realised he would suffer the same fate as Black once his usefulness was reached and he panicked, leaving them no choice but to finish him as well.”
The finality of Bray’s words really hit Rihanna hard. One man had died and another was in critical condition, unlikely to survive the next twenty-four hours. This was incredibly serious stuff. These guys were pl
aying for real.
Rihanna sat up, leaning her head back against the headboard. “I can’t believe it’s so real, Bray. I mean I knew it was bad and I know better than most what the virus is capable of doing but I knew Andy and he was murdered last night in cold blood.”
He took her hand. “I know how bad it can get, Rih. I’ve done this for a long while now. It never gets easier but it’s something that needs to be done. I didn’t know Black so I can’t say whether he was a good person who got stupid and greedy or a bad person who got even greedier. And I can only begin to imagine how hard this is for you, being personally involved on so many fronts. But I can’t say I’m sorry it happened or I wouldn’t have met you.”
She threw herself forward, knowing he’d catch her with his solid body, burying her head into his shoulder. “I’m not sorry I met you either.” She raised her head to meet his eyes. “Certainly not sorry about that. I just wish it could have been under better circumstances, but then maybe I wouldn’t have been pushed to give us a go.”
“We’ll never know. I’m just really pleased we are giving it ago.”
With that, he tickled her until she screamed for mercy.
***
They’d found Rory sitting out by the pool, holding Jazz close; she was in his lap, her face buried in his broad chest. She was still clearly upset by the death of Andy last night and the news of his involvement today.
Bray and Rihanna walked up to them, Bray’s arm slung loosely around her shoulders in a comforting way.
Rory raised his head and looked out at them.
Brayden mouthed, “How’s she doing?”
“Okay,” was Rory’s silent response as he stroked her hair again.
Rihanna walked over and crouched beside Jazz, putting her hand on her shoulder.
“How you going, Jazz?”
Jazz sniffed back a sob and turned her tear-streaked face to Rihanna. She looked a monumental mess.
“Why are you even talking to me? I’m so stupid, I almost got you killed.” The words came out a bit broken through her sobs.
“Oh honey, I don’t blame you for Andy’s actions. You would never knowingly put me in danger,” Rihanna reassured, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“Do you really believe that?” Jazz asked through the tears.
“Of course. I’ve known you forever, and you’ve always been there for me. I know you’d never do anything to hurt me.” With Rihanna’s words, Jazz pulled away from Rory and wrapped her arms around Rihanna.
“I’m so sorry, Rih. I’ve caused all these problems,” she blurted.
Rihanna stood straighter, pushing Jazz back a bit. “You look at me, Jazz Carter, and you listen up good. I’m only going to say this once. You did not have anything to do with anything that has happened. Andy took advantage of your good nature and your relationship with him and with me. He is the one who caused this mess, not you.”
“But if I hadn’t have got back—”
Rihanna cut her off. “He got the information he needed from me over two months ago, Jazz. Looking back with what we know now, I realise he pumped me for information at Darren’s birthday party. And I stupidly gave it to him, thinking he was trying to make a real go of it with you by being friendly with me. You breaking up and getting back together, I don’t know how many times over the last few weeks, had nothing to do with it. He already had the information he needed.” Rihanna waited, letting her words filter through Jazz’s fuzzy brain.
“I don’t want to hear you blame yourself again. This is on Andy, not you.”
“Oh Rih, how can you not blame me?”
“Because I love you, goose. Always have, always will,” Rihanna said simply.
Jazz finally looked at Rihanna and began to realise that she meant every word. “Even if I have lousy taste in men?”
“Even when you have lousy taste in men,” Rihanna confirmed, rolling her eyes.
***
Brayden and Rory had moved off to the side as the girls had their discussion.
“She really okay?” Brayden asked.
“She really lost it for a bit.” Rory scraped his hand through his messy blonde hair. “Scared the shit out of me. But she’s pulling it together now.”
“Motherfucker, what a lowlife thing to do to these two girls.”
“Yeah, makes you wish he was still alive so you could kill him all over again.” Rory could be decidedly bloodthirsty at times.
Brayden nodded his agreement. “What’s Quade up to?”
“I think he’s in the office talking with the boss and the others. I think they’re working up the intel and planning for the sales and racing carnival.”
“Cool. When’s all that go down?”
“Think the sales start in two or three days. The racing carnival kind of fits in around it.”
“Okay, why don’t we go see what he’s found out. These two look like they’ll be okay for a little while without us.”
They headed into the house and found Quade at Brayden’s desk, tapping away at a laptop.
“What’s the latest?” Rory asked, settling himself beside Brayden on the couch.
“You’ve got more visitors descending, Stud,” Quade snickered.
“Just my fucking luck,” Brayden growled in disgust.
“Boss and Rihanna’s father are coming in. Boss wants to go over the plans for the op from here.”
“What’s he think? I’m running a fucking hotel?” Brayden’s frustration created a low chuckle from both Rory and Quade.
“Well, mate, you did buy a house with six bedrooms, office, a games room, parking for a dozen vehicles, a huge entertainment area, pool, hot tub, machinery shed…do I need to go on? Us poor plebs don’t have budgets that run to all this.”
Brayden shook his head at Rory’s prodding. The Centre paid exceptionally well. These guys were a long way from starving. His royalties and other income from Steel ensured he was comfortable for life and could afford to have what he really wanted.
“It gets better. He’s bringing in D and Angelo as extra backup for us. They’ll be here as well. He’s also called in Aaron and Mickey to beef up the other team immediately; the others are about twenty-four hours out.”
“Shit must be serious if he’s mobilised everyone on this gig.”
“Code Red for the Centre as of two hours ago. He’s even quietly alerted the SAS for this one.”
They all knew what that meant: immediate, high-risk danger with the potential for massive civilian impact, including casualties. Having the SAS on standby was a double code red. Bray could only remember one other time that the boss had put those boys on standby. The Aussie SAS boys were regarded worldwide as some of the most kick-ass operators in the world. Right up there with the legendary US Navy Seals. In fact, it had only become recently known that these guys had done a lot of the initial infiltration work in the last Iraq war. The SAS boys also had a special counterterrorism unit for exactly this type of thing.
“Marvellous,” Rory agreed sarcastically.
“When’s the boss arriving?” Brayden asked.
“Around seventeen hundred.”
“Great, just in time for dinner. Hope he’s bringing groceries. We’ve just about eaten our way through everything here.” Rory was thinking with his stomach again.
Quade smirked at that. “Yeah, he mentioned that Selena and Ali would be heading over mid-afternoon with supplies.”
“Guess we’d better grab the stretcher beds out of the shed and set ’em up in the games room,” Brayden bitched resignedly.
“Yeah, but I’m not giving up my room,” Quade grumbled.
“Me neither. Rules are first in, best bedded,” Rory agreed.
“Clearly Brayden was here first. He got the best bedroom and the best girl,” Quade threw out, deadpan. The guys all laughed at this.
“Oh, I don’t know, Quade. Jazz is hot, hot, hot and now single,” Rory reminded him.
“That girl is a huge pain in everyone’s butts.”<
br />
“Really? I swore I noticed a huge pain somewhere else when she was stitching you up last night,” Brayden needled him. “And don’t give us any shit about left over adrenaline from the fight. You want her something bad. You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”
“That’s total crap, Rory.”
“Whatever, mate. It’s gonna happen—not sure when, but it’s gonna happen,” Rory teased confidently.
“What are you, a fucking psychic now? She’s a total ballbuster and I’m not intending to have mine broken by a shrink, even if she has the hottest ass I’ve seen in a long while.”
Brayden and Rory exchanged smirks. “Keep telling yourself that, bro.”
Quade stood abruptly from the desk and headed towards the door. “We’ve got stuff to do or are you two more interested in playing Dr Phil?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Bray. I was kind of enjoying the conversation. How about you?”
“Well, I was certainly enjoying it not being about me for a change.”
Rory slapped him on the back in a “I’ll pay that” kind of gesture. They all headed for the door. There were beds to prepare before the invasion of the Centre kind.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Dad, I can’t believe you’re here. It seems like I haven’t seen you in forever.” Rihanna ran up to her father and locked herself around him in a fierce hug as soon as he managed to get out of the car. He looked even more tired and his forehead seemed to be etched with even deeper lines of worry. His lanky frame seemed even thinner and she’d swear there were a few more grey hairs in his thick, medium brown hair. His brown eyes still held all their sparkle, though, she noticed.
“Oh Rih, it’s only been a week and I’ve spoken to you nearly every one of those days,” he said, downplaying her enthusiasm.
Gosh, her father was just so exasperating sometimes. “But so much has happened in the week, Dad.”
“That’s very true, Rih,” he agreed.
Rihanna heard a throat being cleared and dragged her attention away from her father to glance in the direction of the other men.
Finding Trust (Centre Games) Page 28
