Once I reach the private airport for my flight out, I use a forensic extraction device to bypass the pin on Claudia’s primary phone. I sift through it for what I need, respond to one ofher contacts as if I were her, and study some of her other conversations.
Looks like I’ve got more assholes to take care of than I thought.
AXEL
Snow sprays beneath the beefy tires as I round the final bend of the mountain before the turnoff. After days of verifying that the location Bernard and I had tracked down was correct, an overnight flight on my private jet, a helicopter ride, and several hours of driving, I can hardly believe I’m nearly there.
The scenery is breathtaking. Winter has already conquered the landscape, though until you reach the higher elevation, it’s more serene than treacherous. A light dusting of glistening white to boast of holiday beauty. Summits spearing cottony clouds. Lakes and wildlife and sparkling evergreens. It’s picturesque.
But here, deeper in the tree coverage and closer to the peak, it’s death in waiting.Fitting.
I’m already baffled as to how this is where my wife grew up—the girl who loves sunshine and warmth and shivered on my New Orleans rooftop.
The entire camp is not only challenging to find and reach, but satellite images only reveal a forest. Without a tip, there’d be no way of knowing it was here. The immense steel gate is left open—here for lockdown purposes, ajar due to arrogance. Who woulddare enter the walls of an assassin camp, uninvited? To that point, when I pass a line of runners to pull in beneath a canopy of coverage, every single one side-eyes me, keeping their pace but drawing their weapon. This should be fun.
Only Bernard knows where I am. The story my family and KORT got was that I was returning to Greece to consult with my CIA contact there, following leads personally. My brothers even protested that. They wanted to send an army with me, but that wouldn’t serve my objective. I claimed the extra men would slow me down. Then I left under the cover of night.
Bernard will notify KORT of the camp’s location if I don’t contact him within twenty-four hours. If that’s the case, I probably won’t be returning with a heartbeat, but I trust that Wells and Ivy will do what they can to protect Zara and the rest of my family at that point.
With my sunglasses on, I tuck a few weapons in my suit, grab the items I brought with me, and cut right through the line of runners on my way to what appears to be the primary building. There are countless. Some small enough to be bungalows. Some clearly communal. There are slivers of training grounds in the distance too—shooting ranges and obstacle courses. This place would interest the military. Maybe they know it’s here.
It’s fucking cold, so I don’t bother removing my overcoat when I step inside. More assassins are gathered here. No one welcomes me, but I take that as a positive. Some cock their heads in recognition, puzzled as to why I’d be visiting. The rest of these motherfuckers are itching to put a bullet in my head. They’re practically drooling.
After I stick my sunglasses in my pocket, I weave through a maze of hallways, passing a dining hall, a strategy room, and a simulation chamber that has a light indicating it’s in use before I peek into a gallery. People are watching a forty-something-year-old woman hold her own against a younger man. It makes methink of Zara, though neither of them is in the same league as her.
But it’s in there that I spot it—an observatory office. That’s where Stone will be.
I find my way to the staircase and climb to see the legend.
The door is open, and before I even cross the threshold, he greets me. “Your father didn’t pass on his goal to live a long life, I see.”
A death threat, but more amicable than I imagined, so I stroll inside.
“That didn’t work out so well for him.”
Stationed in a huge leather chair, he’s massive, his tatted arms crossed over his T-shirt-clad chest as he watches his warriors battle from his grand office in the sky. This is his fortress. He’s done well for himself, built his own empire. His hair is thick and gray with dark patches, same as his beard, but other than that, his fifty-something years don’t show. He’s always reminded me of a Viking.
“Not when his offspring was waiting in the wings to burn down his throne and build his own,” he sneers.
I saunter up beside him, observing a new duo in the ring, beating the shit out of each other. “Pissed that I did what you couldn’t? That I was the one to avenge your wife? You’ll find I conduct myself far different from him … and you.”
That earns me his irate glower. His eyes are a similar shade of green to Zara’s, which physically pains me to see. Christ, I miss her so fucking much.
“You killed Keller as a message to me.” His accusation is narcissistic, but valid.
Keller’s death and the order of protection declared to anyone employing Zara that I would go to war over her. But I knew Stone would see it as a censure for not avenging her himself and a warning that I intended to claim her.
“Yes.” I glance back to the fighting mats, wondering what the hell the point of this shit is if they don’t apply it to bastards like Keller. “He should’ve been fucking dead the day he set her up.” Just the thought of what that bastard did boils my blood like the first time Zara mentioned it, so I pace to the opposite side of his office, where a window overlooks the simulation chamber, though I don’t stop to observe. “Ten goddamn years? And she paid off his debt? How the fuck could you let her do that?”
He rises out of his chair, and while age might be a factor, he’s a beast. Six-five, which is only a half inch taller than me, but he’s got an extra fifty pounds of muscle on his frame.
“She paid offherdebt,” he roars. “And she had more help than she deserved. She got herself into that fucked-up mess. How dare you show up here and question me? We don’t kill for vengeance, or we’d end up picking each other off until there was no one left.”
“No one left but Zara, I could live with.”
He startles, glaring at me as if that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard, and I swear I could kill him for that notion alone.
He shakes his head. “So, this is how you planned to approach life with her?”
