A good long bath, a good meal, and… Noelle, because no matter what she did, he was still as addicted as he’d always been. Nelson had damaged her, yes, and left her unbalanced. Her logic didn’t always line up with his, but she whatever her threshold was, she operated within it. Had she tried to shoot him, yes. But she swore it was staged, and Damien believed that. She was the one who’d led Barnes to where he was being held by Terry King. She was the one who would bring Naomi to him. But none of that really mattered anyway. At the root of it all, he still wanted her because she belonged to him, and that was a fact that nothing would change.
Harrison, on the other hand… may as well be dead to him.
After not speaking to her brother for almost fifteen years, Yvette had come to Damien when the boy was barely twenty years old, and she herself was on the verge of death. She’d explained everything, how Terry King had forced himself on her when she was a teenager, after realizing she had a schoolgirl crush on him. How she’d been scared to say anything, for fear of seeing her brother go to prison for hurting Terry. So she left. With her swollen belly and enough financial support from Damien to get on her feet, she moved away, and decided that she wanted nothing to do with anyone from her past anymore. So she worked her ass off to raise her son, until she fell ill. And suddenly, she needed her brother again.
Yvette passed away, and Damien took Harrison in. The boy was already on his way to becoming a police officer, but Damien worked hard at eroding the boy’s moral ideals away, molding him into what he thought was the perfect inside man in law enforcement.
Apparently, Harrison had just been a good actor.
Damien was usually an excellent judge of character, but Harrison’s hatred threw him for a loop. What more could he have done for Yvette, when she wanted nothing to do with him? Nothing. So Harrison’s anger there was misplaced.
His anger over the mistreatment of his sister… maybe warranted.
Now that was something that Wolfe respected.
That absolute drive Harrison had to protect Renata’s honor increased Harrison’s currency as a man, at least in Wolfe’s eyes. Of course there were things that got by, things that brought him closer to Terry King’s demise, but even that was understandable. Everybody, at some point, had to make some sacrifices. But as much as Wolfe “got” Harrison’s anger, the betrayal was just something he couldn’t abide.
So he told Barnes to take care of it, at the same time he snatched Terry King.
King was here now, in Wolfe’s domain, but Barnes was nowhere to be found. With everything going on though, that was fine. Barnes still had a cover to maintain, so maybe he was dealing with Naomi’s friends. But no matter… Wolfe had something to occupy him in the meantime anyway.
“Overconfidence,” he said, smirking at Terry. “You know what that means, right? I mean… you’ve always been full of it. You take action without thinking it through, without forming contingencies, and backup plans for the contingencies, and you’re just… I hesitate to call you stupid, but… that shoe does seem to be your size, Terry.”
“Fuck you.”
Damien smiled. “Oh, you tried that already. Shooting me, blowing up my house, leaving the bodies of my staff to pass off as Noelle and I. Holding me hostage, trying to kidnap Naomi… you’ve tried a lot. And I haven’t even brought up our past yet, old friend. But maybe I should. Because you see… you started this war. You and I were friends, remember? And then you screwed me out of that deal. You conspired with the FBI against me. And let’s not forget the late revelation that you touched my baby sister. So…” Damien shook his head. “You have to understand my anger at this point, right? That you started this, and weren’t even big enough to take the punishment I dealt like a man.”
“You went after my fifteen year old, and got her pregnant!”
Damien shrugged. “You went after my fifteen year old sister, and got her pregnant. Payback is a bitch, isn’t it? No expiration date. No statute of limitations. Not with me. You see… the thing is, I’m a very easy man to get along with. There are only two things that move me – my family, and my business. As long as you don’t mess with either of those, you’re good with me. But goddamnit, Terry. Somehow… you just couldn’t seem to keep your hands off either. And so… here we are.”
“Yeah,” Terry chuckled. “Here we are. I’m tied up, my son stabbed me in the chest. If you don’t kill me, I’m probably going to die of a blood infection, or something, from not getting it treated.”
“I actually like the sound of that.”
Terry smiled. “I bet you do. But here’s the thing. You’re standing there crippled, thinking you’ve won. But… I have the last laugh here.”
Damien shook his head and laughed, tipping his head to the side. “You are one funny motherfucker, Terry. Explain to me why you think you get the last laugh.”
“Cause you didn’t see the double-cross your little homeboy Barnes pulled. He’s probably halfway to somewhere tropical by now, with both of our money. Isn’t returning any calls, is he?”
What double-cross?
Swallowing his sudden panic, Damien smirked, trying his best to keep it from showing on his face. “What is this? Dying man’s last delusions?”
“Not delusions at all. I hope you took some time since you’ve been free to call your daughters. Because Barnes sold me the location to their safe house. And I can see from looking at your watch – what is that, an Audemars Piguet? It’s nice – that it’s juuust about to be seven. And well…” he smiled. “Boom.”
Damien’s heart dropped to the floor as Terry’s words registered in his mind. What was…? No, he was probably lying. Just trying to get a reaction. But… Barnes wasn’t returning any phone calls. Was this why?
A slow, steady, burning rage built in Damien’s chest. The kids were innocent in this, really. But he realized with a jolt that he couldn’t even say they were off limits, because he was the one who’d dragged Renata in. But that fact didn’t bring the level of his anger any lower.
“You motherfuc—”
“Oh, relax.”
Damien stiffened, then turned toward the doorway to see Noelle standing there, looking positively bored. He shook his head. “How am I supposed to relax when this sonofabitch—”
“Did absolutely nothing?” Noelle tossed her hair over her shoulder as she sauntered into the room, stopping in front of Terry King. She was dressed for the weather – boots, jeans, and a white sweater – but when she bent in front of him, there was a clear, enticing view of her breasts, and that was where Terry’s eyes went before he smirked up at Damien.
“Oh yeah,” he said, his face pulling into derisive sneer. “I almost forgot about the fact that I’ve been in every inch of your drugged out whore of a wife. Pussy was just as sweet as you claimed.”
Damien’s jaw twitched as he watched Noelle lift a hand to caress Terry’s cheek.
“Oh, Terry,” she said, giving him a sweet smile. “You really shouldn’t gloat. It’s not very nice, first of all, and second… while you were all up in every inch of this sweet pussy… I was plotting on your ass from the beginning.” The sweetness dropped from her voice as she stood, crossing her arms. “This drugged out whore made sure the explosives you intended to use on the safe house got a last minute detour. You see… money works both ways, and your security guards were really easy to turn against you, cause they don’t think you’re a very nice guy. That expensive private jet of yours blew up about ten minutes ago. Damn shame you weren’t on it, in route to Dubai, but… shit happens, right?”
Noelle giggled as Terry lunged in her direction, fighting against the ropes that kept him tied. She turned to Damien with a smile, and however brief this moment of clarity was, before her personal demons took over and she medicated them away, she reminded him of the girl he’d first fallen in love with. “I was gracious enough to spare his family, so we can stop affecting innocent people. And our girls are just fine,” she said, under her breath. “… including Naomi.”
“She’s here?”
Noelle nodded.
That had been the last thing Barnes had done, removing the agents from the gym and making sure Naomi could be reached. Noelle had insisted that she could do this – that she wanted to this, and against his better judgement, Damien had agreed.
But… she’d come through. He wasn’t sure how, but apparently, she’d convinced Naomi to come here. With one last sneer at King, who was cursing and fighting and trying his best to move, Damien stepped out, and slowly started following Noelle down the hall.
A commotion started around the corner, and they moved a little faster. When they rounded the wall, Damien was… honestly unsurprised to see two large bodyguards on the floor, apparently knocked out, and Naomi standing over them before she turned around.
“I told you I was coming right back,” Noelle scolded, crossing her arms.
Naomi shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve waited long enough. Too long. I was ready to meet my…” she took a deep breath, and then turned eyes full of barely veiled disgust up to Damien. “…father. I’m ready to meet my father.”
&
They’d done this before.
Suited up for battle, and gone after Damien Wolfe.
Last time, they’d been interrupted by Harrison’s arrival, and the gear had come off, weapons were put away. Nobody sped off to put their lives in danger.
This time… it was really happening.
Renata sucked in a deep breath.
After confirmation that Barnes was dirty, she’d carefully searched the safe house for any traps, scanned the computers, done everything she could on her own to make sure she and the girls were, indeed, safe. Every one else was off shooting people or getting shot, getting in car accidents and rescuing people, or looking for Naomi. And Renata was… alone with the girls, and trying not to look panicked, for their sake.
She wasn’t alone anymore now though. Inez and Harrison were back now, in makeshift hospital beds that had been pulled into the “war room”. The girls had been assigned as nurses after a quick and dirty training session from Savi, just enough to make sure Harrison and Inez didn’t die of their injuries before she could get back.
If they got back.
But Renata was really, really trying not to think like that.
Her brain power was better used remotely hacking Wolfe’s security system, and she needed it all, because she was on her own. Quentin was with Marcus, heading into unknown dangers. There was so much they hadn’t done together yet, so many things left unsaid, but… again. She was trying not to think about that.
Her fingers flew over the keys as she worked her way through the maze-like code protecting Wolfe’s security system. She was struggling hard against his anti-malware protections, and every bit of ground she gained, it seemed like the virus protection was kicking her back another step.
“Can I help?”
Renata looked away from the screen long enough to see Taylor standing over her, her eyes scanning the lines of code. She opened her mouth to tell her daughter that this wasn’t a game, or a test, that what she was doing required an experienced hacker, an adult. But before she could form any words, Taylor had plugged Quentin’s extra laptop into a doc, and started typing away. She watched, in awe, as Taylor weaved and navigated through the code even faster than she had. Instead of speaking, Renata indulged a smile, and then went back to typing herself.
In what seemed like no time, they were in, and the security camera feed was playing on her screen.
Taylor winked at her mother as she stood to return to her nurse duties, and Renata shook her head as she placed a call. “Harrison was right,” she said, as soon as Quentin answered the phone. “That’s definitely where they are. I’m watching Naomi kick a security guard’s ass right now, and the other one is already on the floor.”
Despite the situation, Quentin chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds about like the Mimi I know. Do you see anybody else?”
Renata quickly cycled through the camera feeds, stopping when movement on one caught her eye. “Yeah. I see King tied up. Damien and Noelle are in the room with him.”
“Okay. How many guards in total?”
“I see… six. Including the two Naomi took down, so I’m guessing he’s not fully staffed tonight. Good for us, right?”
“Yeah. Probably hasn’t had time. Alright, keep us updated on what’s happening in there. We’re about ten minutes out.”
“Okay. And Quentin… come back to me, okay?”
There was a short moment of silence, then a deep breath on the other end of the line. “Gonna do my best, cher.”
Renata closed her eyes for a long moment, fighting back nervous tears before she opened them again to see Noelle and Damien leaving Terry King alone in a room. Whatever they’d said had him mad as hell, because he was fighting hard against his bindings, even with that stab wound to the chest.
“Lucky bastard,” Renata mumbled under her breath, wondering if an inch or so to the right or left would have actually killed him. What a celebration that would have been.
Wow.
Was that how she really felt? Did she really hate him so much that she wanted to see him dead? She thought about how he’d abandoned her with a mother who hated her, never even bothered to check in. How he’d send people to snatch Naomi and the girls. How twice now, he’d shot Harrison.
So… yeah.
Death didn’t seem so bad.
Behind her, Harrison broke into a fit of jagged coughs, and she turned to see a panicked-looking Taylor and Kennedy frozen where they stood. Renata immediately jumped up, passing the girls to get to him. She helped him sit up, patting and rubbing his back as she held up a glass of water for him to take a sip.
“Thought you’d be asleep by now. Those painkillers still haven’t kicked in?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, sucking in a breath as she positioned another pillow behind him. “Not quite. I can feel myself fading though… sis.”
Renata’s hands faltered over the fabric of his shirt as she lifted it to check his wound, and make sure his coughing hadn’t torn his sticthes. “Yeah… I guess at some point we’ll have to talk about that… right?”
“I guess.” He laid back, giving her a wry smile as his eyelids drooped. “You had to know I wasn’t being nice all these years “just because.”
She grinned. “You called that being nice?”
“Ah, come on,” he chuckled. “I was trying, you know. For a long time, I had no idea I had a sister.”
“And I didn’t know until a few hours ago that I had a brother. Well… unless you count TJ, and then we have to count King’s other kids too, and it’s…”
“A mess?”
Renata smiled. “Yeah. A mess. You wanna know something though?”
With his eyes barely open, Harrison nodded. “Yeah.”
“I always thought there was something between me and you. Not romantic at all, you know, just… a vibe. Ever since you came and saved me from Wolfe that time. That wasn’t the type of thing you do for just some random girl.”
Harrison shook his head. “No. No, it wasn’t. He’d done enough to you. I was… supposed to… kill him. I fucked it up though, biding my time… waiting to see King fall. Wanted to see both of them rot.”
Renata lifted an eyebrow. “You wanted Wolfe dead too?”
His eyes came open for a second, and focused on hers. “Hell yes. Make him pay for what he did to you. You and Taylor… Naomi… Kennedy… Savannah. Y’all are the… only family I’ve got.”
Renata blinked back a fresh round of tears as his words sank in, and Harrison drifted off. She adjusted his pillows a little more, then wiped her face before pulling up his covers.
She’d always been grateful to Harrison for that time he protected her against Wolfe, and she realized now that there were probably so many more times that she’d never know. Because he believed in the value of family, more than the only other blood relative besides her daughter – her mother �
�� that she’d even known.
She checked on Inez, who was already sleeping, then sat back down. In less than three minutes, the team would be at Wolf’s house, and she needed to be ready to proceed with the thrown-together plan they’d formed, and were praying would work.
Renata pulled her braids behind her back, away from her face, then leaned into her screen as she cycled through the camera feeds on the video monitor. Empty room. Empty room. Empty room. Empty room. Empty room. Empty ro—wait a minute, she thought, cycling back a few rooms until she came upon one that made her eyes go wide.
“Oh, shit!” she mumbled under her breath, clenching her hands so tight that her nails dug into her palms. “Please… hurry up, guys.”
Eighteen.
“You don’t really need that.”
Naomi scoffed, and tightened her grip on the gun she’d taken off one of the armed guards, then used to direct Damien and Noelle into the dining room. “The hell I don’t,” she snapped back, in response to Damien Wolfe’s words.
He was right there. Just a few feet away. So damned close.
For so many years, she’d been waiting on a moment like this, the chance to aim a gun at Damien Wolfe and end his life the way he’d ended her father’s and yet… somehow she couldn’t make herself pull the trigger.
“Naomi, listen to me—”
“Why? Because you’re my “father”? I don’t believe that, not for a second. If he knew I wasn’t his, why would Nelson take care of me, hmm? He never mistreated me, not a day in my life.”
“Because he loved you.” Noelle stepped forward, standing beside Damien. “He treated me like scum beneath his shoe when we were in private, but you, Mimi. You were his only child. Precious to him. And when he found out that you weren’t biologically his, it made him hate me more. Not you. He knew that it would hurt me. Hurt us,” she motioned between herself and Damien, “to see you dote on, love him, while neither of us had access to you.”
Save Me If You Can Page 20
