The Revenge (The Insiders Trilogy #3)(7)

Fuck that.

I tipped my head back. “I didn’t just call this meeting to look you in the eye and ask why my grandfather was able to murder my woman’s mother.” I indicated his men. “I know how you came into the country, what roads you used in Canada to get to this country. I know the airport you arrived at, the day you flew out of Rio. I knew all this because the second reason for this meeting is that while I’m getting reports on you, I’m also getting reports on my grandfather. And since you’ve been gone, he’s done no moves. None. If he didn’t trust you, he would’ve been concerned. He’s not. He’s doing nothing except waiting for you to return to him. That tells me that he trusts you, and that was the point of everything.”

“What?”

It took a second.

“This whole meet was to test your grandfather’s alliance with us?” His hands went to his gun, but held there. His men reacted to him, going on alert. But by that time my own security team was coming up from behind us. And they were coming in dark. The vehicles would’ve been left behind, and they were walking in.

Harden jerked toward me, then caught movement behind me and stepped back. His hands went up. His men’s, too.

He swung his gaze back to mine, livid. “What the fuck is this?”

“You told me you knew I had security coming.”

His nostrils flared. “I was bullshitting you. I didn’t actually know you had men coming in.”

They walked past the line of security guards who had flown with me. They walked past me, past Josh, and they spread out. They made a circle around Harden’s men, who were outnumbered now.

All of them were eyeing my new guys warily.

“Relax.”

At my command, the new team lowered their weapons but remained exactly where they stood.

Harden had been noting all of this, and he swung back to me. He muttered a curse, rubbing a hand over his jaw before spitting to the side. “Can you explain what the hell is going on here?”

“The third reason I asked for this meet.” I nodded to the new guys. “These men are going to go with you.”

“What?” He went still, his eyes bulging out. “I can’t do that. Your grandfather’s really fucking paranoid.”

“Exactly.” I stepped closer. “You are gone right now. You brought with you the rest of my men. He still has men with him that aren’t mine, and I’m a selfish bastard. I want to control everyone around him. To do that, I will leak information back to him, making him think the current team with him right now is turning on him. I will keep at it, and when you return with the coordinates for the person he sent you to search for, he will then promote you. He will tell you to get more men. You will bring in mine.” There was no room for kindness in this world. I wanted to choke the life out of my grandfather. “I want every goddamn man surrounding him to be mine first. Got it?”

He stared at me, long and hard.

Five seconds.

Ten.

Thirty.

A minute passed before his mouth thinned. He abruptly nodded, his neck looking stiff. “I’m assuming you’ve arranged travel for all your men?”

“You assume correct.” I nodded to Scott, who came forward, pulling a folder from his bag. He handed it over to Harden. “That’s everything. Instructions are all in there.”

He leafed through the file before handing it over to one of his men. Turning back to me, his eyebrows were pinched together. “You said you were watching Calhoun? You partly pulled us out to test him? See if he trusted us or not.”

“I did. He’s paranoid, and he hasn’t sent anyone to watch you. That means he trusts you enough not to double-cross him. It also tells me he’s stretched to the point where he doesn’t have anyone to send after you.” Which gave me the best satisfaction.

It told me Chrissy’s murder was the ace in his sleeve and he was hurting.

It was time to set the trap, to draw him in, and then to close it while he was inside. I was salivating over that meeting.

“You didn’t need to do this face-to-face.”

I shook my head. “A part of me needed to look you in the eye. You reached out right after Chrissy Hayes’s murder and reassured me you were not in the loop on that one. It was a small team project and was kept quiet from everyone. I wanted to believe you, but I couldn’t know for sure. I saw your reaction to Chrissy’s death. You reacted. So did your men.”

“We’re not in the business of murdering innocent women.”

I nodded. “Take care of the rest of my men. They’re about to become your brothers down there.”

Scott was debriefed on the way here, so he approached, giving Harden and the new team further instructions. Josh went with me, following me back into the small plane. He took his seat, watching me, and after a few moments of silence, he whistled under his breath.

“What?”

“I heard stories about your grandfather. Being in our business, you can’t not hear about him. The rumors are all true. I’ve seen enough firsthand. But you. No one’s ready for you. You’re going to make a lot of powerful people very nervous.”

He was right.

I didn’t care.

I shifted back in my seat, took my phone out, and texted Bailey.

Coming back. Are you sleeping?