Finch (Kindred #6)

by Scarlett Finn

  “The fucker,” Brodie growled, and Zara dug her nails in deeper.

  “I had to contact you to straighten out a few things. Our messenger didn’t make things clear enough. Maybe, Devon, you didn’t understand quite what you’d stumbled onto when you hitched yourself to the Kindred wagon. We knew your brother was a lowlife, but we didn’t give you credit for quite how you’d insinuated yourself into the heart of my brilliant cousin.”

  Although his face was still in darkness, Grant’s body turned, ironically, in the direction of where Zave sat as if he could see him. It wasn’t a drastic move, it was subtle, but enough to set her on edge. “Zave, you could’ve made an excellent member of our team,” Grant said. “I’m sorry we didn’t mobilize quick enough to show you our abilities. Of all the people I imagine are in that room with you now, you are the one we would welcome. Your brilliant mind made KC what it is and bailed CI out more than once. I doubt you knew it, but our fathers worked more closely together than either you or I realized. They used both of us, just like they used Frank.

  “But that doesn’t matter now. Syn are about the future. We have an objective, one I won’t share with you. We require technology that will have to be built and programmed. The schematics are on this device, and we will expect delivery within ten days.”

  “He has no shame,” Kadie muttered.

  “I can hear your ridiculous, righteous objections, but they mean nothing to me, and my objective will not harm any of you. The bottom line is the Kindred owe Syn. By sparing your lives, we’re doing you a kindness, and we’re only willing to do that if you comply with our demands. Albert Sutcliffe was an easy mark, one who was meant to be a stepping stone. Taking his compound and the supplies he’d amassed, the weaponry, it would’ve set Syn in a strong, starting position, given us a valuable foundation.”

  “I hope he talks more about how we fucked him,” Brodie grumbled with satisfaction.

  “Given the Kindred’s interference, you can understand why we resent any possible future involvement you may have that is not sanctioned by Syn. Over time, you will see that Syn are not the Kindred’s enemy. Although, that may change if you deviate from our requests.

  “He wouldn’t be Saint without a superiority complex,” Tuck said, folding his arms.

  “Brother, you stole from me.” Grant kept talking. “You stole the compound and bartered it to an insignificant ally. You double-crossed me, emptying the bunker that contained bounty meant for Syn. But my hatred for you is rooted in our past. You know there is no salvation for us. I despise you and everything you stand for. The final straw was when you took from me the woman who was supposed to be on my side.”

  Brodie began to stand, and Zara slapped an arm on his chest to hinder him enough that she could leap into his lap. “Stay put,” she commanded, and he shoved her aside so he could continue to watch the screen with her on his knee.

  “You are to stay away. This mission is for Zave and for Tuck, they will repay the Kindred’s debt. If they do, we will return the boy and you can keep Dempsey. We shall go our separate ways. If you do not, we will follow through on our threats to ruin the Kindred. We will share evidence of Raven’s misdeeds and Falcon’s. Oh, and of course, the boy will die. All of you have something to lose.”

  “We’re not the only ones, fucker,” Brodie snarled.

  “Mitchell tells me how I should maintain my business acumen, how important it is to maneuver in these negotiations and to maintain a level of professional detachment. Zara, you remember our meetings? The late nights in the office, the meals we shared alone, the intimate conversation.”

  Brodie tried to rise again, and Zara dug her heel into his foot. “He’s trying to get a rise out of you, beau. There’s no one here for you to shoot, so stay down.”

  Grant paused. “You have already lost Art, Kindred. Your revered chief is gone. We have taken your doctor; Thad stands with us. How many more men can you lose and still function? Our numbers are growing. From the Sutcliffe mess, we learned who Leatt was, watched him, groomed him, and brought him into our fold. He’s valuable. As is Griffin Caine, my brother’s greatest enemy.” Devon heard a smile in Grant McCormack’s voice. “He will prove most valuable. His hatred of my brother almost matches my own. And he is another man, Zara, that you have lost because of your loyalty to the man you share your bed with.”

  Devon didn’t know Grant McCormack well. She’d met him and heard stories of him. What she was learning now was that he liked the sound of his own voice, he was enjoying this, and believed in his own importance. It was clear that he liked wielding power and that he liked hurting others.

  “Back to business,” Grant said, clearing his throat. “The details of what we need are on the USB drive. You will have to work hard. We know it will be your instinct to tamper with or ruin the devices, but not all of our people will be at the handover. We will protect ourselves. The information we have will be encoded to send to authorities automatically unless Mitchell or myself is there to deactivate the message. And the boy, it’s up to you if he lives or dies. Mess with us, and we won’t give you a second chance. We will put a bullet in him if you do anything we don’t like. He’s expendable. Almost as expendable as the women who sit there with you. Even Zara, who I once would’ve given my life to protect.”

  “Yeah, right,” Tuck said. “He only protects himself.”

  “You mean nothing to me now. Just as Devon means nothing, and Kadie means nothing. Your females have no value, and they are easy targets. Hurt us again, and our primary mission will be to destroy everything you love. If you think we are incapable or you believe yourselves superior, think of where we are now. You’re talking to a dead man who you were all convinced was gone. I didn’t even have to commit a crime to fake my death. You orchestrated that for me, usurped my company, sold it to our cousin. If I stroll into the FBI and tell them I’ve been kept prisoner, your crimes will send you to their deepest pits for the rest of time. They’ll uncover the Kindred, all of their work, but it won’t seem good. We will make sure you are seen as the most evil, despicable criminal organization who are working underground in this country, killing and raping for your own gain, thinking of nothing but yourselves and your own sick wants.”

  “We’re sick?” Tuck muttered.

  Grant exhaled a laugh. “Something for you to think about as you fall asleep tonight in his arms, Zar. I can turn him into the most hated and notorious man in the world, and what will you be left with then?”

  The next pause was so long that Devon thought the video was finished. But Grant moved, sitting forward in his chair enough that his features were caught in the edge of the light giving them a smoky hue. So, while they were not entirely distinguishable, they made him seem like a ghost, hidden in a shadow, staring through the night, pouring his evil purpose into each of their souls.

  “All you had to do was toss me the keys, Zar. Your life would’ve been so different…”

  His voice faded off into a whisper so soft that his lips didn’t move. The image froze and faded to darkness, plunging them into the same abyss.

  Devon wasn’t going to speak first. It wasn’t her place. Grant had referred to her, but this was a message for the Kindred veterans. Kadie squeezed her hand, and Devon remembered that she’d been clutching it throughout the message. After another few seconds, there was a click and recessed lighting flared on around the coving in the room.

  Maybe each of the Kindred were waiting for the others to speak. Zara stayed on Brodie’s lap with his arms loose around her waist. Kadie was looking at Tuck who stood next to Zave’s chair, and Zave was staring at the floor.

  “We should get to work,” Zave said and got to his feet. Tuck actually took a step toward him, as if he was going to follow, and that was when Kadie leaped up and rushed into Tuck.

  “You can’t do what they’re saying,” Kadie said. “You can’t give in to them. It’s scaremongering, they’re threatening you!”

  “What do you want me to do, Toots? If we
do nothing, your pet will die. Do you want them to kill your pet?”

  Kadie’s hands dropped away from his body. She side-stepped, Tuck kissed her temple and patted Zave’s shoulder once, which prompted him to move again. Devon wasn’t going to give up so easily.

  “What about Bess?” Devon asked, and the men stopped again. She had to get up to turn and see them in the space behind the couch. “We have to bring her here.”

  Zave nodded and took his phone from his pocket.

  “Won’t she be more at risk here?” Kadie asked.

  “She’s more at risk out there on her own,” Devon said. “If Thad’s in town, the rest of them could be.”

  She had thought about Bess last night before she and Zave got intimate in the car. But she couldn’t believe that Thad could hurt his mother. So if he’d chosen to go and talk to his mother, maybe Bess could get him to see sense. At least they would both get closure.

  Mitchell had promised that Bess wouldn’t be hurt. But in light of this development, Devon didn’t think it was right that she be left out there alone.

  Zave put his phone back into his pocket. “Security will pick her up, and she’ll be here within the hour,” he said.

  Typical that Zave should send men without warning Bess they were coming. Devon wasn’t going to let Bess be scared by the sudden arrival of strangers. She’d give her a call and let her know what was going on. Everyone was moving again until Zara surged up.

  “Swift, there has to be a way to get in touch with him,” Zara said.

  Tuck turned. “Why do you want to get in touch with him?”

  Grant had said that the details were on the USB drive, and Devon took that to mean the meeting place would be on there too. She doubted that Syn would be as dumb as to give the Kindred a map to their base, though. But Zara had to be talking about the man on the tape, the one she’d been close to at some point. Getting in touch with Grant would probably be impossible. Even if it wasn’t, Devon questioned the merit of reaching out to the sociopath.

  Squaring her jaw, Zara deliberately kept her attention away from her husband. “Because I can talk to him,” she said.

  Brodie slowly rose from the couch, and Devon wasn’t the only one who shrank back. “You’re going nowhere near him,” Brodie grumbled. “I am not going through this shit again. You heard what he said. You mean nothing to him.”

  “I have to try,” Zara said, assured in her determination. Devon had to give her points for courage. “I know Mitchell. I know Caine. I know Leatt—”

  “All of them?” Brodie asked. “You want to stroll right into Syn HQ and say, ‘Hey, remember me? I’m the girl you all liked once.’ The last person we’ll send into that room is you.”

  “Why?” Zara snapped. “Because you love me more than Falcon loves Finch or Swift loves Dove? You can’t put a measure on that, I’m no more valuable than they are. I have connections, remember? It’s why I’m useful to the Kindred.”

  “Not anymore,” Brodie said. “I’m not keeping you away from Syn because you’re more important. Damn right, you’re more important to me, but it’s because you have history with every man in there that you have to stay away. They all have reason to want to hurt you. The rest of us can hold our own or won’t provoke an emotional reaction. The last time you saw Leatt—”

  “Was in Purdy’s,” Zara said. “And he was friendly. He promised not to hurt me.”

  “Caine said something like that to you before he saved your life and wiped the slate clean. You and Thad were thick as thieves, always laughing and playing. Did you have a fucking clue what he was going to do?”

  “Of course not!” Zara said. “Grant talks as if he’s the leader, but he’s not. He’s under Mitchell, who always admired me in his own kind of way.”

  “He didn’t admire you enough to bring you to the inside,” Brodie said.

  “He tried to,” Zara said. “If Devon’s story is true, Mitchell told Grant to bring me in before I ever met you. It was Grant who chose not to do that.”

  “You’re fighting over nothing,” Tuck said. “Number one, we don’t have a fucking clue where they are. Number two, there’s no way that you can reason with them, Zara. They won’t listen. Mitchell and McCormack have been planning this for years, and they were doing it right under your nose. They’re not going to be swayed because you ask nicely.”

  Kadie went over and swatted his chest. “At least she’s trying. All you’re doing is waving the white flag. The big bully comes on the TV and tells you to bend over and you unzip your fly. That’s not the Tucker Holt I know. He threatened my life, did you hear that?”

  “Yes,” Tuck said. “That was one part of his rant that I heard pretty fucking clear, Toots, and that’s exactly why I’m gonna do what he’s telling me to do. I don’t give a shit about your pet. I give a shit about your life. As soon as Syn send Raven and Falcon down the river, do you know who’ll be in the cell between them? Me! Because I’ve been there for everything, my fingerprints are all over it. And what happens to the three of you when we’re in the slammer, huh?”

  “Hot shot—”

  Tuck strode away from Kadie to get into a central position between the door and the back of the couch. “Devon has a fucking island to run to, but it’s not gonna keep her safe. It’ll be a flashing fucking target. They’ll know exactly where to hit. They know exactly where she’ll be and that she’ll be all alone. They don’t even have to crack security, even if Devon was willing to be a prisoner in the house for the next thirty or forty years until the rest of us get out of jail. All they need is an aircraft, a couple of explosive devices that will make it look like an accidental fire. Who’s gonna investigate, huh? Who? I’d be surprised if anybody noticed the house had been burnt to the ground.”

  Kadie tried to soothe him by raising her hands. “Calm down.”

  But he wasn’t done. “And you, Toots, where are you gonna go? Are you gonna join Devon on her island? You’ll end up going down with her. Are you gonna stay in the manor with Zara? That would work, except it brings us to the greatest problem of them all.” Tuck turned around and balled his fists on his hips. “There’s no way Ms. Zara Bandini is gonna sit down quietly and wait for her man to do his time. You’re gonna get pissed, Swallow, and you’re gonna do exactly what you just did. You’re gonna convince yourself that if you can get in Grant’s face that you’ll make him see the error of his ways. When you wade in, you’re going to take my Kadie with you,” Tuck said, pointing at her. “And Devon’s not gonna be left out, especially when you pull Rig in with you. You’re going to get your own little troupe going. Meanwhile, the three of us are gonna be banged up, telling all of you to sit on your asses, knowing that not one of you is gonna listen!”

  Devon might have expected Brodie to leap in and tell Tuck not to speak shit about his wife. But Tuck wasn’t angry, he wasn’t resentful, or being hateful. It was like projecting the narrative forward and even Zara didn’t object.

  “Ok, so we have to admit that they’ve positioned themselves well and they have Thad, who might not have been active in the field with the Kindred but he was always present during our strategy discussions, and he knows what tech we have. We have to assume he’s told them everything.”

  “He might not,” Kadie said. “He’ll keep some information to himself if he’s smart. It gives him leverage.”

  Zara shrugged. “Maybe. But we can’t be sure of that. We need to catch a break.”

  “Well, that’s an excellent fucking strategy, baby,” Brodie said and sank back onto the couch where he folded his arms. “We’ll all just sit fucking here and wait for a break to find us. Excellent. I’ll bet good luck is about to knock on the front door. Maybe I should run out for beer before it gets here.”

  Being snide wasn’t helpful, and Devon could sense an argument brewing. Once again, her own man was saying little, but she knew Zave was absorbing everything that was being said. They all stayed quiet, in their own little bubbles for a second. But their reflection wa
s shattered by a knock at the door.

  FOURTEEN

  Devon’s chin came up and she saw that everyone was as startled as she was, everyone except Zave who just started toward the door. “That’s quick for Bess,” Devon said.

  Zave looked through the peephole, and for the man who was always unruffled, Devon was stunned to see surprise on his face when he whipped around and looked at Zara to point at Brodie. Zara kicked her husband’s shin without making a sound, nodded up, and without words, Brodie knew he had to mobilize.

  Brodie was on his feet and heading toward the door without a whisper of a sound. Pulling a gun from the back of his waistband, he put his back to the wall behind the door. Nobody knew who was on the other side of that door, except Zave. Whoever it was demanded that the Kindred’s assassin be ready to earn his title.

  Zave held up three fingers, counting them down. Brodie used the cover of Zave unlocking and opening the door to load a round into the chamber of the semi-automatic weapon he held in both hands at chest height, pointing it to the ceiling.

  Zave opened the door, and she wanted to see who would come in after he backed away. As soon as she saw Caine, Devon gasped. Zave slammed the door, Brodie extended the gun and pointed it to the back of their guest’s head. Caine lifted both hands in surrender out to his sides, and he fixated on Zara.

  “I got your call, sexy,” Caine drawled. “Thought you were giving into those animal urges when you demanded some alone time. Your boyfriend’s got a little jealousy problem. He’s always been threatened by me; he can’t handle our love.”

  “Get on your fucking knees,” Brodie snarled. “I’m gonna blow your brains out right here.”

  Caine lowered to his knees. “Bring your pussy over here, Bandini. I’ll show your boyfriend how to get the most outta you.”

  “Beau,” Zara said. Hurrying around the couch, she shot across the room. But Brodie moved around, and keeping the gun trained to Caine’s head, he blocked Zara from getting too close.