Page 63 of Breached

“Seems pretty straightforward to me.” He sipped something. “I visit with Jerry and finally agree to accept his repeated offer for my services.” He let out a laugh. “He’s wanted my help ever since Martin Castillo was killed. I get into his accounts, work my magic, deleting the whale accounts and rerouting the money to some offshore accounts, under my protection, of course.”

“Of course,” I agreed. I didn’t give a shit where the money ended up.

“They’ll start to notice something wrong in time but won’t have any idea how or what caused it. The virus I’ll inject is slow-moving but basically unstoppable without the password. In about one year, the Canos Cartel will be broke, and their clients will waste no time jumping ship to a more reliable supplier.”

“Perfect.” One thing about Grim was he was always focused and got the job done.

“And if anyone gets in our way, we eliminate them,” he added.

I ran a hand through my hair. “If need be, yes, but just don’t⁠—”

“You have my word,” he promised. “Now, I have something that needs my attention.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Grim.”

“Happy to help.” He hung up.

After all the calls were made, we met back up in the main conference room and discussed the various conversations. Mike confirmed that Trigger and The Devil’s Reach would hit the Ruiz family. As much as I wanted to be the one to take them out for trying to kill me, I knew they should be the ones to handle it. Trigger said that Rail, one of his men, particularly wanted the pleasure. He had had an encounter with them not that long before and was keen to do it using one of his murder flipbook ideas. Rail always had an inventive mind.

Trigger and his club would also blow up the tunnel to hell I had used in my role as Eric. It would keep our team’s hands clean and Eric Noah well away from any of it.

Cole filled us in on his conversation with Elio Capri. His cousins, Vinni and Niccola, would be here in the US and were more than willing to jump into action and volunteer their services to handle Rafael Cruz. Cruz had used a prestigious dark market to put Chase up for auction, and that went against their rules—no kids under the age of eighteen were ever to be placed for bid. Elio closely monitored human trafficking auctions with his mafia connections and had a few plans for Rafael himself. As Cole said, those details were best left unsaid.

If all went well, we’d have three Cartel families taken out, along with two tunnels. Hunter and his men would take out Bruno’s tunnel, as he and his men would be here in our territory, coming for us—the perfect time to strike. It was an ambitious plan, and there were a lot of things that could go wrong, but we hoped we had the upper hand.

“I don’t know.” Mark rubbed his face as he leaned back in his chair once everyone had a chance to speak. “This whole thing makes me damn uneasy. Once they’re here on our territory, and if we don’t kill them all, then they can run back to Mexico and share where this house is.”

“It’s a risk, yes,” Cole agreed, “and I don’t like it either, but they already know we’re in Redstone, brother. If we tried to convince them we were somewhere else, they’d know. At least here,” he pointed to the map spread out on the table, “we have the advantage. This is our home, our forest, our mountains, and we will get every last one of them, because we have to. We can’t lose our home.”

“Knock, knock,” Savannah called from the doorway, “dinner is ready.” She glanced at Cole, and I could see the stress all over her face. “It is our last meal together.”

“Of course.” Cole smiled and nodded at us. “Let’s go.”

We hurried out of the room and headed down the hallway and up the stairs toward the dining room. As we filed through the kitchen, John snagged my arm and handed me a camera.

“I know you asked me for this yesterday, but I wanted to charge it and make sure I had a clean memory disk for you. If you need me for anything else, let me know.”

“Thanks, John.”

He nodded and made a serious face. “I just made one for Sloane and another for the family. I just needed to get it done. There isn’t a lot of time.”

“Yeah, I get that. It’s hard to get my head around making one for my son.”

“I bet.” He nodded. “It’s important, though. He’s your legacy.”

“I know,” I agreed. I hadn’t really thought of it like that. “I’ll get on it.” I separated myself from the others, needing a few minutes. I sat on the stairs that led up to the bedrooms to give myself time to think. I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard sounds from the others as they sat at the table and hurried to join them.

The dinner looked delicious. I knew Savannah had taken the lead in organizing things with the kitchen staff. We’d always had help at Shadows, but we barely saw them—they always worked in the background under the guidance of Abby and Sue. Without those two at the helm, someone had to step in and help. When Cole told me who had taken it on, it gave me an odd feeling of pride.

I leaned back as a male staff member fumbled to place a large platter of roast beef in front of me. I didn’t recognize him, but as Cole made sure every person was well vetted, I didn’t worry.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“You’re fine.” I smiled, knowing how intimidating the room must be. I spotted Nicole as she entered the room and moved to pull out her chair.

“Thanks,” she said as she lowered into her seat. She had changed her outfit since I spoke to her last—she looked nice in her jeans and light gray sweater. The low swoop at the neckline drew my attention, as did her floral shampoo. I fought the urge not to lean in and kiss her neck. “Have you seen Dr. Bash this afternoon?”

My face scrunched at her comment. He was the last person I expected her to mention until I remembered they had a meeting. “No.” I reached for my glass and took a sip to keep myself from touching her. “How was your session?”