Relentless (Option Zero 2)

She nodded wearily. “Better go check on Syd. I need a few minutes alone.”

He dropped a kiss on top of her head. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

Liam returned to the room, relieved to see Green still there. Going after him and hauling him back inside would’ve been a pain. The man didn’t look as though he had the energy or the will to do anything more. He was sitting in a chair, sipping from a cup as if he barely had enough life in him to lift it to his mouth.

“One of the nurses brought tea. It might help Aubrey to drink some, too.”

The only thing that would to help Aubrey was if her uncle weren’t such a lowlife. Because he’d made a deal with the devil, his entire family had been destroyed.

Something hammered at his brain and he wanted to address it before Aubrey returned. “Who were they?”

“I’ve already told you. I don’t know. Why won’t—”

“I’m not talking about this organization or entity or whatever you call it. I’m talking about the men who abducted Aubrey. The men who beat and terrorized her. I want the name of the bastard who raped her, stabbed her. He’s British. You know who he is.”

Green blew out an explosive sigh. “He’s dead. They’re all dead.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I made sure of it. Think what you want about me Stryker, but I never intended anything like that to happen to Aubrey. When I found out what they’d done to her, I arranged for the monsters to be dealt with.”

“How did you find them?”

“I traced the money. They never left Syria. They were dead within days of Aubrey’s return.”

Liam tried to be glad about that, to be at peace that the promise he’d made to himself—finding and punishing Aubrey’s attackers—had been done already. Didn’t diminish the fury. He had wanted to be the one to make them pay. But he did console himself with one thing. They hadn’t been alive these last twelve years. That would have to be enough.

Green took another sip of tea, then looked up at him. “You knew this was about me all along. How?”

“Not at first. And I didn’t know much. When Aubrey told me what her abductors said about sending her home with a message, I knew it likely had something to do with her family. Her parents were squeaky clean. You, not so muc

h.”

Green’s smile was sad. “The gambling debts.”

“You owe a lot of people a lot of money, including Marc Antony Ferante.”

“He was one of their pawns, too.”

“Did you hire someone to kill Ferante?”

“No. I imagine that was the organization meting out their own brand of justice. They don’t tolerate disobedience very well.”

“What about Lawrence Medford? Did you arrange for his death?”

“No. That was Ferante. I just…”

“You what?”

“I persuaded him that if Aubrey’s funds for her project were taken away, she wouldn’t be able to continue with the documentary. He knew she had something on him that might expose him. He agreed, for a price, to take out Medford and leave Aubrey alone.”

Liam could barely get his brain around all the lies and conspiracies. Did any of these people even have a conscience?

“What did Ferante do for the organization?”

“Blackmail is one of the ways they keep people in line. Ferante was a master at gathering secrets. Whenever someone was stubborn about following their orders, they’d often call Ferante for help. He provided them intel to coerce their obedience.”

“He apparently wasn’t too valuable to eliminate.”