Quadruple Duty

“See?” said Jason. “Isn’t that nice?”

He nodded toward Ryan. I watched as he approached, grabbed Markus Ladrone by the hair, and yanked his head back.

“Everyone here gets a copy,” he snarled. “I want you to think about that. We’ll all have it. We’ll all be able to release this information in the blink of an eye.”

Markus tried to drop his head. Ryan shook him roughly, pulling him up until they were eye to eye.

“Screw with just one of us?” He shook his head slowly. “You’re screwing with us all. Remember, it only takes one, Markus. Which means you’ll have to get us all at the exact same time…” His mouth broke into a lethal smirk. “Or you don’t get us at all.”

He let go. Markus’s head fell like it was on a swivel. There were no defiance now, only defeat.

“Or…”

He perked up a bit. He even raised his eyes.

“Or you could walk away,” Kyle said, stepping forward. “Leave the company in the hands of Briggs, and retire immediately.”

“Retire fully,” Dakota added. His tone was ominous. “No looking back. Ever.”

&nb

sp; I didn’t understand everything that was happening, but I knew enough to realize the significance. I was seeing the end of a very long, very complicated struggle. I was watching the victors — thankfully, my boyfriends — and I was watching the vanquished.

“You do all that,” Jason sighed, “and you get to keep what you have now. Minus the company accounts, of course. Those belong to us from this moment forward.” He looked around the room. “All of us.”

The whole room went silent for a moment. It was absurd, really. A dozen grown men with cutting edge, military-grade rifles… standing in a two-hundred year old dining room where men and women once ate pheasant shot by muskets.

By far, it was probably the strangest meeting this ancient house had ever seen. Beyond weird, really.

But it was also thrilling.

Markus finally showed some signs of life. He spat, cleared his throat, and lifted his head on his own.

“What about—”

“NO,” Kyle said coldly. His expression deadly serious. “You get NOTHING else.”

There was the flash of steel as Jason unsheathed his knife. I sucked in my breath, watching as he brought it to the mercenary captain’s throat and held it there.

“Remember,” he growled, loud enough for everyone to hear. “We can always find you, Markus. Let it go now, and this is the end of it. You go back to Austria. Or your place in Fiji. Or any number of the other dirty little holes you’ve managed to dig for yourself.”

Markus leaned backward, away from the knife. I could see the razor-sharp edge, pressed tightly into the flesh of his neck. At any moment I expected it to draw blood.

“But make even one motion toward any of the people in this room…” Jason made a circular motion with his finger. “Any single one of them at all…” The man leaned back even further as Jason pushed in. “And Bradley will punch a bullet through your heart from two miles out.”

Over his shoulder, Dakota nodded grimly.

“And then it won’t matter how much of your corruption we turn over to the United States government.”

Markus flinched as Jason’s hand dropped suddenly and reached behind him. He jerked his shoulder, hard, and cut through the zip ties.

The man rose slowly, his face frozen in an eternal grimace. He stared hatefully at the rest of his company — or rather, Jason’s company now — meeting each of his men eye to eye. I could feel the disdain as he stared them down. Cursing them silently for what he saw as the ultimate betrayal.

“GO,” Ryan prodded, nodding toward the exit.

Eventually he went. Slowly. Rubbing his wrists.

“And remember, Markus?” Kyle said at last.