Danny took one bold step that had both Sebastian and Emilia extending an arm to block his path. He focused on Rory and whispered, “I’d say I’m more like a Trojan horse.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“He set us up. Set me up—again.” Rory matched Chris’s firm stance as they studied Danny. Her voice may have sounded calm and collected, but Chris knew she was a volcano about to erupt on the inside.
“Cutter must be on his way here,” Wyatt said, now back on the terrace and standing on the other side of Chris. “We have no idea how many men we’re going to be dealing with, but—”
“I have a full arsenal and plenty of counter weapons for whatever these assholes might bring our way,” Emilia interrupted Wyatt. “But I have never needed many men on site. I only have eight guards here tonight. No one has ever dared try to infiltrate my home.”
“Eight should be enough with us here,” Wyatt said with a confident nod. “The two turrets, can we set up overwatch?”
“Absolutely,” Emilia quickly responded.
“And I’ll call in reinforcements, see if we can get more help before Cutter’s men arrive,” Sean spoke up.
“Can you take these men to the weapons room and inform my guards of the situation?” Emilia asked Sean, and he nodded.
“The first thing Cutter’s men will do is block the roads,” Wyatt pointed out.
“And my men will blow them out of their way,” Emilia quickly replied, her words bold and confident. And they needed confidence right now.
Wyatt and the rest of Echo Team, along with Harper, followed Sean inside, but Chris had no plans on leaving Rory. He knew she wouldn’t walk away from Danny without answers. And she was probably the only one who’d be able to get them, too.
“Cutter won’t be coming here,” Danny declared. “The Italian never does anything himself.”
Chris noticed a slight smirk cross Danny’s face and wondered if it was because he thought Cutter had outsmarted them or vice versa.
“Cutter’s got a lock on your location, am I right?” Chris reached into his cargo pants pocket and produced a knife with a 6-inch stainless steel blade. “We didn’t find a tracker on you, so that means it’s in you.” Once Emilia had forced Danny’s black polo shirt off and flung it over her shoulder, Chris handed her his knife.
“Where is it?” Sebastian hissed, now the only one holding Danny down. Chris assumed Sean’s previous spot and bent Danny’s arm back—yeah, he may have loved that shriek a little too much when he applied pressure.
“Removing the tracker won’t save you.” Danny issued a chilling reminder that the tracker had served its purpose, and Cutter knew exactly where they were.
Rory strode closer, her steps confident. As Chris observed her align herself next to Emilia, he saw the moment her energy rekindled. The gleam in her eyes told him she had a plan. “But if it’s the kind of tracker I’m thinking, it can help us find Cutter.”
Seeing her in op mode was sexy as hell.
“What kind of tracker?” Sebastian asked as Danny began to squirm in their grip, which resulted in another elbow to the jaw and Danny spitting out blood.
“The kind I used to map out trade routes for smuggling. We can backward trace the signal to where it was planted before he sent Danny to that hotel. I guarantee that’s where Cutter’s waiting,” Rory said. Emilia shot her a look that read, impressive.
Cutter. Chris couldn’t help but notice she’d stopped referring to him as Andrew, and he felt some satisfaction in that.
“She’s right. Cutter won’t risk coming to a fortified estate himself,” Chris said in agreement.
“If Cutter’s people haven’t already made the connection that Danny is at the home of a League leader,” Sebastian began in a deep voice, “they’ll soon realize they’re at a disadvantage, even with a surprise attack.”
Chris tightened his grip on Danny, eliciting a low growl from the man.
“Cutter won’t back down.” Danny shook his head. “He’ll send wave after wave of men until he gets what he wants.”
“And what he wants is Rory,” Chris confirmed. Damn if the lump in his throat didn’t keep getting bigger.
“He still loves you in his own weird way.” Love, that four-letter word out of Danny’s mouth only further pissed Chris off and had him squeezing Danny’s arm harder, drawing out a sharp cry of pain.
“Then we give Cutter what he wants.” Rory’s statement shocked Chris into easing up on his grip even though Danny now felt like a wild horse trying to buck for control.
Sebastian grabbed Danny by the neck and twisted his right arm behind his back, effectively calming him down a bit. Danny had a lot of fight in him, that was for sure.
But wait, what was Rory suggesting they do?
“We pull the original location from the tracker, and we bring the fight to Cutter,” Rory explained quickly as though she’d just noticed the hell-no look in Chris’s eyes.
“You’re too late. You gave Cutter way too much time. His men, no doubt, are already advancing on us. Give or take a few minutes because of this freaking hilltop in the sky we’re on,” Danny casually said, and Sebastian tossed another elbow for good measure.
Chris liked Sebastian more with every elbow jab he threw.
“Where’s the tracker?” Emilia slowly dragged the flat part of the blade along Danny’s flesh. “We can play a game of Operation, or I’ll cut until I find it.”
Chris had to admire the woman’s fortitude because one thing was clear—Emilia would make good on any and all threats.
“If this prick isn’t lying,” Chris began, “and we do have a shit-ton of Cutter’s men on their way, they’ll probably try to infil and take out your weapons and security rooms. Then light infantry forces will probably advance to our rear and bypass frontline strongpoints.”
Chris and his team avoided infiltrating an enemy who sat on high ground as much as possible, but they’d had to do it from time to time. Thank God they were the ones on high ground.
Sebastian maintained his grip on Danny but looked behind him toward the trees skirting the sea in the distance. “I don’t see any vantage points for a sniper to get a clean shot off at us, but we should still move inside.”
“I agree,” Chris said, hating that Rory was out in the open like this.
Sebastian and Chris held Danny by the arms and dragged him inside, following behind Rory and Emilia.
“Let’s move to the study. The walls behind the bookshelves are reinforced with steel. My grandfather had it designed during World War Two as sort of one big safe room,” Emilia explained, and now that windowless room made a lot more sense.
Once inside the study, Sebastian and Chris shoved Danny to his knees a few feet away from the center of the room near the sitting area.
Chris turned to Emilia. “What are the home’s weak points?”
“Not many,” Emilia responded before listing a few potential problems.
“If we give them little time to react and reinforce their line, we should be able to hold them off, even if they do send in waves of people,” he told her, not sure how much war experience she had, even though she was an elite fighter. “Maybe we put together some fire teams.”
“We need to get this GPS tracker out of Danny, though,” Rory spoke up, taking one step toward Danny. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence Sebastian found Danny in Cosenza. It’s where Cutter and I first met a decade ago when searching for Alaric’s gold. He wants to end this where it all started.”
Where they started, and damn, Chris wanted to gut Cutter.
The way Danny’s lips twitched, and his one good eye looked to the ground, was confirmation enough for Chris that Rory’s assessment was correct. “We can get a hold of Jessica and Luke and have their flight redirected to Cutter’s location,” Chris suggested. “They’re over the Atlantic right now. Plus, Carter’s plane can redirect and switch paths as well.”
“Cutter won’t be expecting that move,” Rory said with a nod.
“But I don’t want to guess at Cutter’s exact whereabouts, even if he is in Cosenza.” She swiveled her focus back to Danny on his knees. “With Harper’s help, we can get his exact location because I’m not so sure we can trust Danny to tell us that information even if he does talk.”
Emilia dropped one knee and brought Chris’s knife to Danny’s throat this time. “So, we need the tracker. Where is it? I’m not going to ask you again.” Her tone dropped bone-chillingly low.
Chris hooked an arm around Rory’s waist when Danny hesitantly pointed to his back shoulder blade as the location for the tracker.
“Good boy,” Emilia said, patting his cheek in a condescending manner.
Sebastian strode to the bar cart and grabbed a bottle of vodka. He removed the top and crouched before Danny. “For the pain. Don’t want you passing out on us when we have more intel we need from you.”
“Help us,” Rory urged, stepping forward, and Chris went right along with her. “Tell me what you know.”
Danny chugged a few sips as Emilia maneuvered to stand behind him. Her attention fixed on the spot Danny had pointed out. A deep breath later, he said, “Cutter blindfolded me and dropped me off at that hotel. I don’t know where he was before then, but it wasn’t far. The drive took maybe five minutes.”
So, Rory was right. Cosenza. Chris produced his phone from his pocket and sent out a text and email to Jessica and Luke, not sure which would get to them quicker since they were on the plane with spotty internet service.
“Why didn’t he trust you?” Sebastian asked Danny as Chris put away his phone. “Worried we’d torture it out of you?”
“Because,” Danny said after another swallow of vodka, “regardless of what it looks like, I do care about Rory.”
“You have a stellar way of showing it,” Emilia flippantly tossed out.
Sebastian removed his belt and folded it in half, grabbed the bottle from Danny, then offered him the belt with a lift of his chin, indicating he should bite into it before Emilia cut into his skin.
Danny clamped down on the black leather and hissed as Emilia worked at his back with purposeful movements, clearly not concerned about Danny’s comfort. Good for her.
“Got it,” Emilia said after a few minutes of not-so-gentle digging. Danny’s chest and shoulders collapsed, and he held a hand up for the bottle, begging for more.
Sebastian squatted in front of him as Danny spit out the belt. “You really are lucky I gave up killing people.” He handed him the bottle, then rose, and Emilia offered Sebastian the small, bloody device that was still blinking a steady green light.
“Can you get that to Harper?” Rory asked Sebastian. “She’ll know what to do.”
Sebastian nodded, then left, and Emilia gave Chris back his knife after swiping the blood onto her pant leg.
“If you want to patch him up so he doesn’t bleed all over my floors, that is fine with me. There is a medical kit in Papa’s desk. Third drawer on the right,” Emilia said, starting for the door as well. “I need to speak to my men and prepare.”
“Can you also make sure Wyatt gets in touch with Jessica and Luke Scott?” Chris asked. “Make sure they change their flight to Cosenza.” Chris checked the phone he’d borrowed from Wyatt after stowing his knife. No messages yet.
“Of course.” Emilia opened the door that Sebastian had just closed. “I’ll be back. Good luck with him.”
When Chris turned to the room, he found Rory standing with her arms folded across her chest, eying Danny. He was a pitiful sight sitting there on his ass, legs stretched out, the bottle at his lips.
“Tell me what else you know. If you really do care about me, in your own sick way, then tell me. Please,” Rory begged, her tone tender. It must have been hard for her to keep a lid on her anger and not yell at the bastard. Chris wanted to holler until his throat was hoarse and his lungs hurt.
“I never did like my cousin, you know.” A smile ghosted Danny’s lips. “Kind of glad the fucker is dead, to be honest.” He rested the bottle on the floor next to him. “Eleven years ago, Andrew met the man my cousin and I worked for. Our boss was a criminal who made most of his money in smuggled goods. Mainly artifacts and other valuables. Andrew asked him to invest in his salvage business, and they struck a deal. I was assigned to keep an eye on Andrew to ensure he held up his end of the bargain.”
Chris went to the desk and grabbed the medical kit, undecided if he’d use it or not.
“Andrew wasn’t having much luck finding treasure, not until he met you in Italy.” Danny took another long swallow.
Good, get drunk, maybe you’ll talk more.
“You became his lucky charm. You helped him turn things around, locate treasure, but at that point, he was already in deep with the smugglers, and he’d developed a taste for the money they were making. Money that came much easier than years of research and diving for treasure.” Danny coughed and winced. Between Sebastian working him over and Emilia digging for gold in his shoulder, Danny must have been hurting pretty badly, but Chris couldn’t muster up an ounce of sympathy for the guy.
Chris hesitantly went over and knelt behind him to clean the wound and apply a bandage. He didn’t need him passing out before his confession, a confession Chris didn’t think even a priest would be able to forgive.
Rory’s gaze slid Chris’s way, and she nodded a thank-you. He assumed it was for keeping Danny awake and talking. But this man had once been her friend, so he wasn’t quite sure.
Rory knelt in front of Danny. “With all the treasure he’d discovered, why keep smuggling?” Rory asked, but Chris knew the answer to that one. Greed and power.
“Andrew didn’t want to give up either life. Thanks to your help and talent for finding treasure, he became a celebrity within a few years. He used treasure hunting as a cover for his other activities.” Danny stopped to take a breath, or maybe to bite down on his back teeth, as Chris applied the antibiotic cream using gloves and gauze. “But he was sick of giving a cut to my boss, his investor, so he had the guy killed. Cutter took over, in a sense. Offered to keep Jensen and me on instead of killing us, too.”
Rory was quiet as if stealing a moment to process the news. “Is that when he became The Italian?”
Danny shook his head. “No, when you decided to leave him, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop you, but he figured you’d always come back, so he assigned me to watch over you while you stole back antiquities. Like I said, he loves you. And you weren’t interfering in his work by going after antiquities buyers, so he didn’t care. Plus, before you left, you handed him your research for future treasure finds that had him set up for years.”
Chris taped the bandage on, removed his gloves, then stood. “But when she went after smugglers . . .?”
Danny peered up at Chris. “I saw Rory’s reaction in Peru when she discovered the wildlife smuggling ring, and even though she told me she was quitting, I knew she wouldn’t let that go. So, I followed her. When she stumbled upon one of the men who smuggled on Andrew’s established trade routes, I knew Andrew wouldn’t be able to sit back and just let her continue.” He looked over at Rory. “I was the one who gave him the idea to divert your attention with something that would also work in his favor. You know . . . two birds and one stone.”
“The list,” Rory said under her breath.
“After he took over my boss’s operation, Andrew had the opportunity to blackmail a lot of people. And he took advantage of it. Kept them on standby for when he needed them. Rebecca Dominick was one of those people,” he explained.
Chris discarded the gauze and gloves, returned the med kit to the desk, then hurried back to Rory’s side in case the bastard found the strength to make a move.
“Andrew had used compromising photos of him and Rebecca to blackmail her. Forced her to dig through her husband’s files for names. He knew Carter worked smuggling cases for the CIA. Once again, Andrew lucked out when Rebecca discovered that list. And then he ordered her to hand the list to you.
”
Rory’s skin blanched a little, the color draining, and yet, she managed to remain composed. She was more pulled together than he was. He wanted revenge for what Cutter put her through.
“When I followed you to Colombia the second time, I knew your patterns well enough to realize you were waiting to make your move on Josef. That you’d probably go into his compound when he was out for his daily jog.” Danny tried to shrug but growled from the pain. “I alerted Andrew, then sent Rebecca to wait outside on day five. But you didn’t show. Nothing on day six. Finally, day seven, you breached Josef’s home.”
Holy shit. Chris’s fingers curled inward. So, Cutter could’ve stopped Rory from taking down one of his men but opted for the alternative at Danny’s insistence.
“Did Rebecca know what she was doing?” Rory asked, her voice raspy. “Did she know she was setting me up?”
Danny reached back to where the tracker had been removed. “She had no choice in the matter. Andrew threatened he’d go public with photos of them in bed together.”
Son of a bitch. Their blackmail theory had been right. Carter was going to lose his shit. Chris knew he would if he were in Carter’s shoes.
“I’m sorry.” Danny’s apology was borderline offensive in Chris’s mind. “This whole thing was just to get you off Andrew’s back and keep you safe. To keep him from throwing you in some hole and locking you up forever, too in love with you to kill you. You and I had become friends, and I couldn’t see a woman like you in a cage.”
How the hell was Chris supposed to feel about that? In a way, Danny had saved her. But he still wanted to rip off that bandage and reinsert his blade into the wound and watch him squirm. “You still let this happen. You didn’t warn her. You could’ve saved Rory. Instead, you set her on this course and got Rebecca killed. You were there when Rebecca died.”
“Andrew forced me to go with Jensen. To make sure Santiago went through with Rebecca’s murder. I didn’t kill her.”
Chasing Fortune (Stealth Ops Book 8) Page 35
