The Price of Grace (Black Ops Confidential 2)

soldiers Thing One and Thing Two. It still shocked her that the Dubai businessman hadn’t even asked what she needed them for, just handed her a couple of humans. Damn, that felt great. Perks of every step her father took closer to the presidency, living on this planet with no rules. Being rich was one thing. But living with no rules was what all humans really wanted. Just ask Mukta.

She turned to Thing Two. His pacing was making her nervous. “Can you check on the boy? Make sure he isn’t up yet?”

So far her borrowed humans had been super helpful. Thing One, scratched cornea and all, was outside readying the tripwires. He said he could do it in his sleep, but she still trusted robots more.

“No problem,” Thing Two said, swinging his stun baton around in a way Layla wasn’t sure was smart. Thing Two was always trying to impress her. Kind of stupid when she was already fucking him. He took his Hulk-body up the stairs.

“Do you know the ‘Little Red Cap’ story?” Layla asked the girl, Cee, who was tied to a white wicker chair.

Despite the bruise on the side of her mouthy face, which had taught her just how far Layla would let an insult go, Cee leveled a fierce reddish-brown glare at her.

“Guess not. It’s the Grimm version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ A story that even at the tender age of two I hated. Because if you’re so stupid you can’t tell the difference between a wolf and your grandma, you fucking deserve to be eaten.”

Cee’s jaw tightened. She glared. Smart enough to get the insult anyway. Not her fault she was cyber-stupid. The wolves these days were in your own home.

Layla continued to type, occasionally checking the remote feeds on the screens, flashing night vision images of the cabin’s perimeter and surrounding woods. It was all set.

Her hands were sweating. There was one element here that could screw this up. She trusted her technology. She trusted her remote operators, two tech geeks that had been following her since she’d gotten her first college degree in computer science at fourteen. But the human element… “What do you think, Cee? Will Grace come alone?”

Cee scoffed. “No. She will bring an army. And more guns than just those two men.”

Probably not an army. Her surveillance of the woman said she was pretty much a loner and seemed to keep even the attempt on her life to herself. Porter. What an idiot. “Nah. I don’t think so. This is another thing we have in common. I could’ve gone to my brother Porter, gotten help with this, but I didn’t.”

Given an opening, Cee wasn’t going down quietly. “Momma will come with her. And Leland. And—”

Layla laughed out loud. Momma. That old bitch. Not likely. “At this very moment, the FBI is at the Mantua Home searching for your sister. No. If they were to send anyone, it would have to be someone not at the house. And your team is scattered. So that’s not likely. Sure, there’s a chance Grace will bring backup, but I think I’ve got it covered.”

She could handle as much as three extra bodies. More than that, it would get iffy. “Thanks, Cee. Sometimes you just need to talk these things out.”

Layla toggled from drone image to drone image, checking the grounds. She’d have to pick up the long-range sensors and other valuable equipment, but there would be very little evidence left here. “Stop squirming, Cee. You can’t untie yourself with me in the room. This isn’t the movies.”

The girl stopped shifting on the chair.

With the last of her drones in place, Layla turned to Cee. She looked terrified.

Maybe not so stupid. “How would you like your explosive vest, Cee, with a little bit of fringe or unadorned?”

Chapter 63

Gracie looked out her window at the crumbling edge of earth that separated the car from a long drop. Yikes. This was as rural as Pennsylvania got. The SUV had passed a defunct town a few miles back, but they hadn’t seen anything resembling life or the remains of once-life since.

The higher they drove into this remote part of the Pocono Mountains, the rougher the thread of road became—and the thinner. Though moonlight brightened the night sky, the dense trees crowding the dirt road blocked much of it.

As he drove, Victor’s headlights sliced a resolute triangle up the winding road. He cursed as the SUV rocked over the pothole-strewn road. Couldn’t be easy with his injuries.

“Are you sure about your information on Layla, Victor?”

“I told you, Red,” he said. “This chick keeps to herself. Is a control freak. She wants Cee here. Makes the most sense to get you all together, clean up the mess in one swoop.”

Letting out a breath long and low enough to empty her lungs, Gracie tried to calm her nerves. What if Cee wasn’t here? What if…

The big warrior next to her scooted across the back seat, put his strong, protecting arm across her shoulders. “Focus on the plan. On what you can do.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder, getting a face full of scratchy Velcro from his bullet-proof vest and a side full of weapons. Dressed all in black, including his hat and long sleeves, Dusty had a small armory on his person.

He was right. Concentrating on action would keep her sane. She’d checked her phone, which Layla had insisted, via text, that Gracie “had to bring.”

No more messages from Layla. In fact, her phone read, “No service.”

Dusty and Victor had no cells on them. They’d communicate via two-way.

Focus on the plan. “I approach from the front,” Gracie said. “Distract Layla.”

Dusty squeezed her close. “I swing around the back. We have the layout of the house. A good sense of the land.” He meant they’d managed to get details on the house and property from online photos. It was forty acres square in the middle of wild brush-filled forest. The perfect family getaway for an angry psychopath to take her victims. “Not that I’d brag, darlin’, but the woods and I are fine friends.”

She smiled, though he couldn’t see it. What with her face smooshed up against him. “Not that you’d brag.”

“Never. But if I were to brag, I’d say you’d picked the right man for this job. You keep that psycho busy. When I get close enough, I’ll switch on my jammer. It’s got a good range, but a shit battery. Not to mention waiting until I’m close will give her system less chance to evolve past the intrusion. Once I flick the switch it’ll slow down the signals to her security and her communications. Enough that I can ghost into the house. Get Ty. Get Cee. And—”

“Get out,” Gracie interrupted. “I can handle Layla.”

“You won’t be alone,” Victor said. “Whatever she has planned, and I have no doubt she’s got a couple of live bodies, the major thrust of Layla’s execution will be electronic. That’s her comfort zone. So when Dusty signals me via two-way that he’s close, I’ll break from my hidey-hole and head straight down the driveway. And my jammer,” he patted the huge black box plugged into his outlet and to an external battery on the floor of the front seat, “has lots of juice. Thanks to your momma’s technology we’ll roll over whatever Layla has up her sleeve.”

“Easy peasy,” Gracie whispered, though her throat was tight with a ball of doubt and fear. What if Cee wasn’t here? What if Ty… Damn Layla.

She was terrifying. Brilliant, with access to powerful technology and the darkest places on the web, through which she could reach the darkest of human minds.

They rounded another corner and started up the steepest incline yet. Trees crowded the thread of road like a threat. This was the final road, the one that led to the driveway and the cabin. She didn’t want them to get too close. “Victor, stop and hide under the cold pack in the back, so she won’t be able to read your heat signature.” Assuming she was that prepared. And Gracie was assuming it. “I’ll drive us to the spot she indicated and park there.”

He pulled over, turned off the lights. “You sure we shouldn’t try to get closer?”

“No. I’m nervous enough about brin

ging you guys.” Momma and Leland had tried repeatedly to get her to let them organize a team. That would’ve been a disaster. The time it would’ve taken, for one. The risk for the family—this was getting beyond complicated with the FBI. And the personality dynamic. She had enough dealing with Layla. She couldn’t add siblings hopped up on revenge to the mix. “We need surprise. So we’ll do our best to make it look like we’re following her instructions. She wants me to park my car two miles from the cabin, under a tree with a glow-in-the-dark X spray-painted on it, and run up to the house.”

“Sounds like I’m going to be all kinds of comfortable,” Victor said. He held up his two-way. “Until Dusty buzzes me that I’m needed.”

“I’ll try to make it fast,” Dusty said. “It’s a few miles through these woods on foot.”

Her stomach twisted with fear. Was this a mistake? Should she have come alone? What if something happened to them? To Dusty?

Reading her mood, probably from the tension in her body, Dusty bent closer. “We’re going to be just fine. You concentrate on your part.”

She angled her head to meet his lowering mouth. She kissed him, open-mouthed and long and hot. The ache that shot through her body was as much emotional as it was physical. “Just be careful.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

From the front, Victor cleared his throat. “Do I get one of those? Either one of you can answer.”

Dusty smirked and gave her a you-take-this wave as he climbed out of the car.

“You’re staying in the car two miles from the cabin. Only coming at the last minute to a jam party. What could possibly happen to you?”

As she opened the door to climb in the front, Victor gingerly climbed between the seats, careful of his sling, on his way to the cold pack in the back. “Knowing my luck with your family, a bear attack.”

* * *

The dirt road was an uneven, ankle-turning mess. Not easy to sprint on in thick boots in the dark. And though Gracie used her night vision goggles, they didn’t help with the altitude. That’s it. She was never taking such a long break from the gym again.