Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(80)

“He thinks he can prove that the senator was involved in not one but two crimes involving his own family members as the victims.” Brody stared out over the green, a grave look in his eyes. “If he’s right, you can bring the senator down without getting into that building.”

“His wife’s death?” He’d wondered about that. It seemed so coincidental that his wife had been murdered.

Brody nodded. “Apparently Liam has discovered a witness who claims her husband was hired to kill McDonald’s wife. Naturally the husband is dead. Shanked in prison sixteen years ago. Before her death, Alice McDonald visited a divorce lawyer. She’d also hired a PI who disappeared under mysterious circumstances a week after Alice’s murder.”

“That’s all conjecture. It makes a great story, but it won’t put McDonald away. I need proof.” Could he be satisfied if he put MacDonald in prison for the rest of his life? “What’s the other crime he’s looking at?”

Brody hesitated. “McDonald was behind Faith’s kidnapping.”

Ten felt his jaw drop and an unholy rage threatened to take over. The man wouldn’t make it to prison. He would strangle the senator. He would wrap his hands around the f*cker’s throat and squeeze and squeeze until he turned blue and then purple, and then Ten would squeeze some more. Would that be too humane? Maybe gutting the man would be more satisfying. Playing in his entrails. Or feeding him to some mangy mutt. Yeah, that would be better.

“Are you breathing, mate?”

“What did you say to him?” Theo seemed to have gotten the ball in the hole and was now studying Ten with a look of horrified wonder on his face. “Dude, you are really red.”

“Ah, you told him about senator’s part in Faith’s kidnapping.” The Russian nodded approvingly. “See, this is why I’m not worried. He is in love with her. No man turns so red unless he’s in love. Well, or he drinks too much vodka and someone insults his mother. My mother was good woman.”

“Shit.” Theo handed Nick his putter. “Why would he do that?”

Ten tried to force himself to calm down. He couldn’t murder the man here. He needed time and space to think about how to properly punish the senator. “Politics or money. It’s all the senator cares about.”

“He likes to combine the two, and Li thinks that’s what her kidnapping was about,” Brody explained. “A manufacturing company had plans to open a factory in Ghana. They would have competed with a rival company for workers and incentives.”

“A Collective company.” Ten wasn’t asking a question. It was a statement. The senator was a puppet for The Collective.

“Yes.” Brody hefted the heavy bag with no problem. “The kidnapping scared off the rival and left The Collective firm with a clear field in the country. Li found a wire transfer to the general who took Faith.”

“That only proves he paid the ransom.”

Brody shook his head. “The transfer was three days before her kidnapping.”

Shit. It would kill Faith. She loved her father. He knew he had to bring the man down. It was imperative.

“Li thinks we should lay all this out to Faith,” Brody continued. “Show her and bring her over to our side.”

And break her heart. It would be broken when she learned what her father had done, but not this way. This way would mangle and scar her heart forever. At least his way, she still believed the man loved her. A monster, yes, but she could still look back on her childhood and know she’d had a parent who cared. Ten took all of that from her if he used this intelligence.

He could bring her to his side. He could chain her there, but he ran the risk of changing her, of hurting her so deeply he might not recognize the Faith she’d been before.

“No. Bury it. Faith doesn’t ever need to know about this.”

“Shit, you really are in love with her,” Theo said, his eyes wide.

He wasn’t sure he’d go that far. He wanted her. He wanted to protect her. “I promised she wouldn’t get hurt by this. I can’t protect her by walking away. The senator has hurt too many people, and he’ll go on doing it if we don’t bring him down. If we can prove he was behind selling out troop movements, he’ll go to jail for the rest of his life. I have to be satisfied with that.”

“I’ll sit on it, then. Don’t worry about it getting to her. The only other people who have the report are at McKay-Taggart. This is your call. And the third hole is a walk. We should get going or those tourists behind us will catch up.” Brody started up a hill.

“It doesn’t have to be me.” He said the words almost as though he was tasting them on his tongue. “I don’t have to be the one who brings him down. All that matters is he goes to jail.”

Nick had walked behind Brody, leaving him and Theo alone for a moment. Theo put a hand on his shoulder. “No. It doesn’t have to be you. Someone else can do all of this, brother. Someone else can break in and get those files and you can walk away with the girl.”

Could he? Did he even deserve the girl? “We have to do the recon. No one else will get this close without tipping off the senator. If I leave this to someone else, they’ll get one shot at it.”

“And they’ll do the job.” Theo breathed in the air, obviously enjoying the island. “When everything goes down, you’ll be there to take care of Faith. She never has to know we were a part of any of this. She’ll lose one family. A shitty one, if I do say so. And she’ll gain another. We’ll close ranks around her and take care of her and she never knows. She never has to feel that pain.”