Page 68 of Need to Know

“Disrespect will not be tolerated!” he barked. “There's a hierarchy that your husband understood. He accepted his place in it. He knows that I’m the true ‘King of the World’. It's a pity your friend doesn't get it—but he will,” he pouted, his face red with rage again. Oliver Roux’s temper really was on a hair trigger!

“XANDER!” Roux called out and moments later a man stepped out of one of the guest rooms and loped down the hall into the lounge. He was a tall skinny man in his early sixties wearing an oversized grey suit with a baby blue shirt, unbuttoned at the neck to display an unruly bush of grey chest hair. I recognized him in an instant.

“Nate, Jack, you’ve met Xander before, or do you not remember? I hear Rohypnol can really do a number on the memory!” he chuckled. Xander paused a meter away from his boss.

“Yes, Mr Roux,” he wheedled.

“You were right about this one,” Roux pouted, gesturing to Jack, 'Lippy little muthafucka. You got anything to muzzle him with?”

“Excuse me!” Jack exclaimed in alarm as Xander retrieved a Heckler & Koch VP70 pistol from the back of his waistband and pointed it at him.

“This should keep him quiet for a while!” Xander sneered.

I put my hands up and moved in to stand in front of Jack. “Hey, hey, there’s no need for that! What the fuck is going on Roux? Why did you invite us here?” I roared, horrified that someone was pointing a loaded weapon at Jack. I hoped the task force was watching this and getting ready to arrest this bastard because the exit keyword was on the tip of my tongue.

****

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Jack

Oliver Roux’s henchman was pointing a gun at me, and I was rabbit-in-the-headlights frozen. The weapon wasn’t a prop, and Xander wasn’t an actor. He was pointing a real fucking gun at me! And now Nate, with his hands up in surrender had stepped in front to shield me. If I wasn’t so terrified, I would have swooned.

“You know he’s alive, right, your father?” Roux stated.

“So I’ve heard,” Nate replied flatly.

“Curtis is an intelligent man; very specific skills…his services are highly sought after. But, he refuses to work for me.”

“My dad has standards! What of it?”

“Shame that, he’d be quite the asset…Look, do you by any chance know where he is?” Roux said in that lazy Boston drawl as if his question was a casual enquiry and not the very reason for this invitation. “Curtis obtained something that belongs to me, and I want it back,” Roux stated.

“Sorry, I don’t know where he is, can’t help you,” Nate replied. “I’m just here in Berlin for a little down time before our promos. You know what it’s like, all work and no play…it’s not good for the soul.”

“Huh! He’d have to possess a fuckin’ soul to understand that!” I sniped.

Roux sneered, “Let’s cut the bullshit. I know Curtis escaped from China. We’ve been tracking him around Europe for weeks. Somehow, he got the Téng hú chips to you.”

“What’s a Téng hú chip, some kind of food?” Nate said nonchalantly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know for a fact that’s bullshit. You know exactly what I’m talking about, both of you do. The chips in question are in the safe in your suite,” Roux countered.

“Where did you get your Intel?”

“As I said, everyone’s got a hole! Someone wanted theirs filled with my money.” Roux gave a malevolent smile. I’d called it earlier…there was definitely a mole in Special Agent Porter’s team…and now the international law enforcement agencies watching our button surveillance footage knew that too! How embarrassing! Someone was in deep trouble.

“If your father would have followed orders and passed the chips on to Rivera, my lab could have developed working replicas in time for my launch today. Now I’m gonna have to wing it with an AI-generated demo!” Roux grumbled.

“My father was working for the US government. He hasn’t stolen a damn thing from you,” Nate insisted.

“And the US government work for me!” Roux roared, his face purpling with outrage. At the raised tone of voice, the cat, Lolita, scrambled from under the couch and scurried to the dining table where she leaped up and then leisurely tip-toed her way between the charging cradles. She seemed to take glee in using the wooden spoon protruding through her harness to knock over the Satellite phone.

“I thought that your years with Erik would have made you smarter, educated you a little about the way the world works! You’ve made a fatal error, Nate! I want those goddamn chips. If I don’t get my chips I will ruin your fucking life. I’ll ensure no one in the entertainment industry would piss on you if you were on fire, let alone green-light any of your future vanity projects.”

Sure, Roux had unlimited resources, he could do this. He was malicious enough to find interesting ways to discredit those who denied him. Nate’s jaw stiffened with anger, but before he could retort, Roux spoke again.

“I could,” he grinned, and his sudden change in mood gave me whiplash. “But…I’d say there’s a deal to be made, don’t you think Nate…Jack? You really do not want to test me.” Neither Nate nor I had a chance to respond.