by Bianca D’Arc
“You still have any contacts among Marshall’s people?” Zack asked quietly a few moments later.
“Some. You were friendly with Marshall himself after you did that training session with his team, weren’t you?” Jay prompted.
“Yeah.” Zack paused before going on. “I think it might be worth contacting him if we’re going to do any business with Renvil or his people in the future. I’m not sure if they’ll tell us anything, but I think at the very least, John would warn us off if Renvil’s folks were bad juju.”
“It’s your call,” Jay told his partner. “You know Marshall better than I do. If we want to be more stealthy about it, I could contact Brody. I left on good terms with him after that marksmanship course he taught.”
“His second in command? I don’t know. John isn’t the kind of guy who likes beating around the bush. Then again, an oblique approach could have benefits. We’ll have to think this through,” Zack replied. “But, right now, we need to get our heads in the game for the next part of tonight’s op. You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Jay answered with only a bit of bravado in his tone.
This time, when the duo confronted Roberto Salvatore, the encounter went much more according to expectations. The same goons who were still sporting black eyes and abrasions surrounded their boss, but nobody got the drop on Zack or Jay. There were no creepy eyes or freaky ninja girls hiding in the shadows. Just a mob boss and his henchmen, in a dingy backroom.
“I am not pleased with your interference in my affairs,” Salvatore told Zack as they faced off. Jay was acting as backup, while Zack did the talking.
“And we’re not pleased that you targeted our woman to get back at her employer. However, you will soon learn that any plans to use Miss Guthrie to get at Renvil’s accounts are no longer plausible. By now, he has revoked her permissions and probably changed all his account numbers. She is no longer a vulnerable point in his operations, and I believe he’s even decided to go out of the restaurant business altogether.” Zack enjoyed telling Salvatore that his plans wouldn’t work. It was a childish pleasure, he knew, but it felt good, anyway.
“You managed all this in a few hours?” Salvatore looked caught somewhere between anger and admiration. Zack tilted his head in modest acceptance.
“I’ll do anything to keep Becky safe. And, if she were ever harmed, nothing would stop me from killing the one responsible.” Zack paused to catch Salvatore’s eye. “Slowly. And very, very painfully.”
Zack had the satisfaction of seeing Salvatore swallow hard before he could hide his fear. Good. Maybe, now, the asshole would leave Becky alone. Salvatore sat back in his chair and stared hard at Zack before finally blowing out a sigh and shaking his head.
“You know, I thought Billy was exaggerating when he told me about you,” Salvatore said in a defeated tone. “I can see, now, he wasn’t. You’ll get no more trouble from me. It’s Renvil I want. The girl is of no more use in that regard. I’ll call off the dogs.”
“That would be greatly appreciated.” Zack didn’t sound thankful but, rather, grudging. He didn’t want Salvatore to think he was owed anything for doing the right thing here.
And, just that easily, Becky was out of danger. Oh, they wouldn’t rest easy for a while yet, but if Renvil was as good as his word, things would get easier from here. Salvatore would bear watching, but Jay was already working on installing remote surveillance with recording capabilities. It was only a matter of time before the man revealed something they could pass on to local police or even the Feds. With any luck, he’d be in jail before the year was out, and he’d never know who had tipped them off.
Jay and Zack went back to the restaurant to find half the unit sitting at the bar, charming Becky. They were drinking champagne, and when Jay and Zack walked in, a cheer went up.
“You think Renvil told her?” Zack asked Jay silently.
“Well, something has her celebrating. Let’s go find out how far his goodwill went,” Jay suggested.
“You mean, you think he followed through and gave her the restaurant?” Zack queried as they strode over to the bar.
“I’d say it’s a very real possibility based on the number of expensive champagne bottles I see open on that bar.” Jay’s observation made Zack do a double-take. No way would their frugal Becky open that many expensive bottles if the cost was going to come out of her paycheck.
Becky met them out in front of the bar, smiling brightly. “Welcome to Chez Becky,” she said, reaching up to kiss each of them, in turn. “I don’t know how you two managed that, but he asked if I wanted it. I said yes.”
“So, he really did it?” Jay asked her, taking her hand and guiding her back toward the bar.
She nodded and told him about the phone call in detail while Zack greeted the others and got drinks for himself and Jay. Jay’s brother, Mike, took Zack aside and asked for a sitrep. Zack told him what had happened and knew he’d pass it around the unit. They were all interested in helping keep Becky safe.
“As of right now, she should be safe, but we’re not relaxing our guard just yet. Jay and I are going to keep an eye on things for a while and see how it goes,” he told Mike after he’d filled him in on the night’s action.
“We’re all willing to help if you need it, just say the word,” Mike assured him.
“Thanks,” Zack told him, meaning it. “Right now, we’re just going to wait and see, but I have a good feeling that things are going to turn out all right.”
They celebrated with their friends for an hour or two, and then, they had a sort of informal escort home, as some of the other guys decided to practice their tailing skills. Zack and Jay had decided they were going to come clean with Becky that night, while she was still in such a great mood. It was risky, but they couldn’t keep secrets from her if they wanted her to share their lives.
They’d also decided to ask her to marry one of them. Well, both of them, in reality, but only one of them, legally. The way Lilly, Mike and Peter had done it. Lilly was married to Peter under the laws of man, but emotionally, she was married to both men. Zack and Jay wanted the same thing with Becky…if she was agreeable.
After all they’d been through together, they thought she probably was. They just had to explain their rather unique situation with the telepathy before they could ask for that total commitment. They’d both agreed she needed full disclosure before she could make a truly meaningful decision about their future.
Tonight was the night. Make-or-break time. Either she accepted what they had to tell her or she ran for the hills. They’d know in the next hour or two.
Something was a little off with the guys as they drove home, but Becky put it up to the weird day they’d had and the fact that they had a rather obvious security escort home. She could see the big SUV and two guys on motorcycles riding in front and behind their vehicle, and she’d bet there were others in less obvious spots on their path.
It was touching, in a way. These guys cared about each other as a unit, though they all seemed to be paired off in teams of two that never varied. She wondered about that. She wasn’t up on all the military stuff, but she thought maybe there should be more variation than that. Like, people coming or going as folks aged or were promoted and new people joined the group. Then again, what did she know?
She had realized over the time she’d known them that whatever they did in the military, it wasn’t something they talked about. Special Forces, they’d said, but didn’t elaborate further than that. Secrecy was part of their deal, and she’d come to respect that. But it was clear, when they called for help from their friends, the other guys were there for them. In a big way.
She liked that. She liked knowing that Zack and Jay had the loyalty of the guys. She’d gotten to know most of them on a friendly basis as they frequented the restaurant over the past year or so. They were uniformly polite and built on the huge side, but there was something very calming about being around them. A feeling that these giant men were protecto
rs. They wouldn’t necessarily start a fight, but they’d definitely bring it to a conclusion in their favor.
Zack and Jay were cut from the same cloth. It was what had attracted her to them in the first place. That and their sense of humor—similar and complementary to each other, they had kept her laughing and smiling whenever she’d stopped to chat with them at the bar or at the dinner table. She had liked them from the very beginning, and now, after going through so much with them, she knew she…loved…them. Both of them.
She didn’t know how that could possibly not end in disaster, but her heart was given. She couldn’t get it back, now. And frankly, she didn’t really want to.
“So, when are you two going to tell me what you did this evening that caused my sudden windfall? And why do you seem more relaxed than at any time since my attempted abduction?”
There. She’d asked the questions that had been on her mind for the past hours. She’d only been waiting to get them alone to start seeking answers. They had definitely been up to something earlier, and they seemed all too satisfied with themselves, right now.
“Well, we might’ve paid your Mr. Renvil a little visit earlier today,” Zack admitted with a mischievous grin.
“Renvil? But how did you even find him? The man’s a ghost.”
She had tried to track down her boss before with absolutely no luck. The man was never found until he wanted to be found. And the only times she’d met him had been when he’d arrived unannounced at the restaurant to conduct business with her. He’d never eaten in the dining room or even sampled anything from the kitchen. He’d merely drunk wine at the bar or in her office with her as they went over paperwork.
“Vee haf our vays,” Jay said, almost laughing as he said the words with an unidentifiable blend of foreign accents. She couldn’t help but chuckle at his light mood.
“He was very apologetic about putting you in jeopardy,” Zack said.
“So apologetic that he just decided to give me a restaurant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?” She gave them both a skeptical look. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing,” Jay insisted. “All I did was have a little chat with the man. Giving you the business was totally his idea once he realized his Livern identity was burned beyond saving.”
“And where were you when all this was happening?” Becky asked Zack.
“I was backing him up. Of course, we never expected one of Renvil’s scary ninja women would get the drop on me. Or her brother to have a bead on Jay. It got very interesting for a few moments,” he admitted, making Becky’s stomach clench in fear, but his words made her wonder…
“What do you mean scary ninja women?” she asked.
“Have you ever really looked at any of the people Renvil keeps around him?” Zack answered her question with one of his own.
“They’re…odd,” she said finally. “A little scary, but also mostly nice. Mr. Livern sends this one guy named Clay to check on things every once in a while. He orders just about one of everything on the menu. When he first appeared, I thought he was just going to eat a nibble of each to test it, but that man eats every last morsel, every time he comes in, and seems to really enjoy it. Yet, he’s not fat. Not by any stretch of the imagination.” She kept to herself the very female admiration she had for that man’s physique, knowing her guys wouldn’t appreciate it. “He brings friends, sometimes, and they all eat a lot. Like way more than they look like they can handle, yet they all look like supermodels.”
“Supermodels with a lethal edge,” Jay put in, confirming her words.
“Something’s really odd with the people around Renvil. And the man, himself,” Zack said quietly.
“His eyes were just freaky,” Jay agreed. “Kind of inhuman.”
“He always looked normal to me when I’ve seen him. His manners are a little old world, but I found it charming,” Becky told them.
“There’s something not right with that guy,” Zack insisted. “But it’s different from the strangeness of the people who work for him. We’ve seen that kind of strangeness before in people we know and respect.”
“I’ve never seen anything like Renvil before, though,” Jay put in.
Becky wasn’t sure where they were going with this, but both men seemed very impressed with what they had seen that evening. Almost traumatized by it, though not in a bad way. Just really spooked and thinking hard on whatever they’d seen.
“It was his idea to give me the restaurant?” Becky redirected their thoughts. They were more than halfway home, and she wanted to get the story out of them before they got distracted any more. “Was it by way of apology?”
“Yes,” Jay replied. “Though, I got the feeling he’d always had that contingency in mind. He’s the sort of man that plays the long game, I think.”
“Well, he’s set me up with enough working capital to keep the place running into the future,” she told them. “And I insisted on paying him in installments spread out over a number of years. I’m going to take a percentage of the profits and give it to him each month until I’ve repaid the debt, even though he said I didn’t have to do any such thing. I told him he could consider himself a silent partner until I paid off the cost of the business plus interest.”
“You did?” Zack seemed surprised and impressed.
“I didn’t want to accept something for nothing. As it is, he’s giving me a deeply discounted price off market value. One of his legal people is going to come into the restaurant tomorrow to go over the arrangements. I’ve already consulted a lawyer of my own, so don’t worry on that score,” she told them before they could object. “We’re having a meeting about it over lunch, so I’ll have to go in early. I need to do that, anyway, to talk to the day staff.”
“You’re sure about all this?” Jay asked. “I mean, you really want all that responsibility?”
“Owning my own restaurant is a dream I’ve had since I was old enough to choose my career path. The fact that I’m taking on one that I’ve spent the past few years perfecting and that’s already a proven winner is just icing on the cake. I don’t want it to fade. I want to keep it fresh and new and exciting for years to come.” She knew her expression showed the true joy inside her at the idea of such a challenge. “Of course, I’ll be able to hire another manager, at some point, so I don’t have to be on site all the time. I’ll be able to delegate and handle the bigger picture, the way I’ve always wanted to do.”
Jay nodded before asking another question. “Are you sure you want to maintain the connection to Renvil?”
She hadn’t expected that particular question. Renvil had a reputation, but nobody but herself and the lawyers would know he was involved. And maybe his rather sinister rep would keep undesirables out of her business. It was worth considering, which was something she hadn’t until Jay asked the question. She told him her thoughts, and he seemed to consider his words carefully before responding.
“I don’t know the full story behind the…the differentness we both saw tonight, but if it’s anything like the people Zack and I both knew before, then an association with Renvil could be beneficial. And, as you already mentioned, his reputation might keep other unsavory types from causing you trouble.”
“Speaking of unsavory types, we also paid a visit to Roberto Salvatore this evening,” Zack told her.
Her breath caught in her throat. They’d confronted the man who had tried to kidnap her?
“What happened?” she demanded, imagining all sorts of things.
They pulled into the drive and left their escorts behind while Jay checked his security system status. The lights came on up the driveway as they neared the house, and neither man answered her question. Jay was preoccupied with the readouts on his phone, and Zack was checking mirrors and scanning the area the old-fashioned way.
“Let’s get inside, and we’ll tell you the whole story,” Zack finally said as they waited for the garage door to close behind the vehicle.
“Clear,” Jay said, putt
ing away his phone and opening the door.
He hopped out and went into the house to do a physical check before Zack would let her exit the vehicle. It took only a minute or two, during which Zack tried to calm her.
“It was okay, really. Salvatore was nowhere near as scary as Renvil. His men weren’t even in the same class as Renvil’s, and we outclassed them, easy,” Zack insisted, even as he remained attentive for Jay’s return and the all clear it would bring.
She wondered at his wording. “How did Renvil’s people rate compared to you?” she asked, out of curiosity.
Zack’s expression took on an uncomfortable cast. “I’m ashamed to admit two of them got the drop on us. Physically, they seem to have some kind of gift of stealth that is even better than our training. They’re really good. But, ultimately, I’d have to rank us about equal because we did find Renvil and ambush him, when both of those things should have been prevented by his people. It was a fact Renvil was forced to admit—right before he tried to cultivate a business relationship with us. He liked our skills and wanted to add them to his available talent.”
Becky was both appalled and impressed. She knew Jay and Zack could do things normal men couldn’t, but to hear this kind of description of what they’d done—and that someone like Renvil, with all his resources, wanted to…what? Hire them? Well, it was extraordinary, to say the least.
Chapter Twelve
“He wanted to hire you?” she asked, wanting to make sure she was understanding this correctly. “But you’re soldiers. You’re still in the military.”
“Not really hire. Not in the traditional sense. More like he seemed to want to cultivate a relationship so he could learn how we found him. Maybe keep lines of communication open so we could pass information along when asked,” he told her.
