Buttons and Grace (Buttons 6)

Adelina was right. “Maybe…”

“I wasn’t with Tristan very long, but I know he’s not stupid. He’s very paranoid, and I’ve heard him speak on the phone to his associates. He plans things far in advance, and he’s a lot smarter than he seems. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted you to break Crow out.”

“He has no idea I know where he is.”

“Or does he?” she challenged. “The only reason you wiped out his compound is because he thought you weren’t going to hand me over in the first place. He had all of his men armed and ready to attack in France before you pulled up to the compound. He told me himself. He expected you to keep me. The only reason you got me out of there was because he never anticipated you would do it.”

He was smarter than I gave him credit for.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he anticipated all of this, and he’s waiting for you to move in, assuming he only has a few men by his side. He probably wants to wipe out both of you for good. As long as one of you is still alive, he’ll always have to look over his shoulder. Speaking in code to Crow sounds too easy, if you ask me.”

Now my heart was pounding. Adelina was making sense—completely.

“That’s my input. Now you should ask Pearl for hers. She knows how psychopaths work. She was a prisoner a lot longer than I was.”

I didn’t want to bring Pearl this terrible news, but I knew it was unavoidable. I needed every bit of insight if I were going to pull this off. Adelina just gave me a perspective that I hadn’t anticipated. I was too stressed out to critically evaluate the situation—that I was being played. “I’ll call her.”

“I think that’s a good idea. I hope it works out.”

“Me too.” I hung up and called Pearl.

She answered before the phone even rang. “Is he okay? Did you get him?”

I hated to disappoint her. “I haven’t moved in yet.”

“Oh…” Her depression was heavy in the words.

“I’ve run into some complications.”

“No, please don’t say that to me.” Her voice started to crack again.

“I spoke to Adelina, and she thinks Tristan might be setting me up. He knows my conversation with Crow meant more than we let on, and he’s waiting for me to show up. Bran looked at the satellite footage, and Tristan has a hundred armed men in the compound.”

“No man has an army unless he’s expecting a war. I think Adelina is right.” Her voice was full of sorrow, but she didn’t burst into tears like last time.

“I’m starting to think she is too. He probably thinks I’ll break in to the compound with twelve men. Then he’ll slaughter us.”

“You need more men, Cane.”

“I’ve called everyone I know. I only managed to pick up twenty more men.”

“That’s not enough.”

“I know. I’ll go in there alone if I have to…but I know it’ll kill me.”

“There’s a solution to every problem. Crow always tells me that.”

“I wish he were here… He would know what to do.”

She sighed into the phone. “But we’re all he has, Cane. And we’re getting him out of there one way or another. We aren’t giving up.”

“Never.”

“Then you need to think of something, Cane. And think fast.” Her usual strength resurfaced, the attitude Crow noticed when he first saw her. She turned hard and fierce, knowing she didn’t have time to shed a single tear when Crow’s life was on the line.

“I’ve thought of everything, Pearl.”

“If you had, we would have a plan right now.”

“I’ve called everyone I know. Even if I could make it back to our base in Florence, I wouldn’t have enough men to bring all our weapons and trucks. The issue is the number of men. I just don’t have enough.”

“Then you need to find them.”

“I already told you I called everyone. I even called some of Crow’s contacts too.”

“There’s gotta be somebody…”

I wished there were.

“What about money? What if we offer him everything we have?”

“He doesn’t care about money, Pearl. This is personal now. I could offer him a hundred million, and he wouldn’t blink an eye.”

“Then we have nothing else to offer…except me.”

“We aren’t even going to talk about that.”

When Pearl didn’t argue, I knew she agreed with me. The second Tristan realized she was pregnant, he would kill the baby. Pearl couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let that happen to my future niece or nephew. We had to protect that child no matter what. “Wait…”

“What?” Maybe Adelina was right, and Pearl would have a trick up her sleeve.

“Crow mentioned your beef with the Skull Kings. They’re trying to push you out of the market.”

How was that relevant? “Not important right now, Pearl.”

“It is important. Aren’t they the biggest assassins in the world?”