Destiny Mine (Tormentor Mine #3)(38)
“Ah.” Yan’s expression smooths out. “So you’re going to pretend to double-cross Novak to gain access to Esguerra’s compound.”
“Precisely.” And then I’m going to double-cross him for real, I think, but I don’t say it. As much as I trust my guys, I have to operate on the assumption that Novak has eyes and ears on us at all times. It’s highly unlikely in the privacy of this safe house, but I can’t afford to risk it.
As it was, I barely managed to convince the Serbian to go along with my plan.
“You’re going to what?” He stood up, nearly knocking over the table when I informed him of my intentions in the café. In an instant, his goons appeared from their hiding place in the back, surrounding him like a human wall, their M16s drawn and pointed at me.
“So much for building trust, huh?” I said, amused, and Novak gave me a dark glare before ordering them to stand down.
I sat down and waited for him to do the same before explaining the gist of my plan. It took a while, but he finally understood why that was the only option… why, even with his asset in place, we wouldn’t be able to get into Esguerra’s compound by force.
“Even if your pediatrician is a tech whizz who manages to disable the drones and the electric fences that protect the compound, we’ll still have the guard towers to contend with. Which wouldn’t be a problem for my team except that Esguerra has generators and backup drones that would go online within a minute of the main ones being disabled. And then, while we’re dealing with the drones firing on us from the sky, Esguerra’s backup guards—over a hundred of them—will appear and take us out. The only way past them would be with an even bigger force—say, a couple of hundred mercenaries of our own—but a group that size has no chance of getting near the compound undetected. We wouldn’t even be able to enter Colombia without Esguerra hearing about it and intercepting us long before we get anywhere near his place.”
“So you plan to sacrifice my asset to gain Esguerra’s trust?” Novak asked, frowning, and I nodded, explaining that once I’m in, it won’t be all that difficult to get within grabbing distance of Nora—and once I have her as my hostage, I’ll have leverage over Esguerra.
He’ll give up his life to save her.
“My men will be waiting just outside the compound, so once I have Nora and the baby, I’ll disable the perimeter defenses myself and use the confusion of Esguerra’s death to make our escape,” I told Novak. “It won’t be easy, but it’s the only chance we’ve got.”
The pasta sauce is finally ready, so as we sit down to eat dinner, I relay the same plan to the guys.
“No fucking way,” Anton says when I’m done. “Hostages or not, you’re not going to walk out of that compound alive. You’re talking about a suicide mission.”
“Not necessarily,” Yan says softly, winding his fork in the pasta. His green eyes hold a strange gleam. “Esguerra has a weakness now: his wife and daughter. And we’re going to use it. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, exactly,” I say and remind myself to keep an eye on Yan during this mission.
With everything so precariously balanced, the slightest unforeseen element—like one of my own double-crossing me—could bring it all crashing down.
30
Peter
The response from Lucas Kent comes almost immediately. He’s willing to meet with me, which is the first step to getting near Esguerra.
He proposes his wife’s new restaurant in London as a potential meeting place. It’s not exactly neutral ground, but I agree. I know what he’s thinking: that this might be a ploy to lure him out, so I could punish him and his wife for fucking up with Sara.
Under other circumstances, he wouldn’t have been wrong. The image of my ptichka in that hospital, her delicate face pale and bruised, still features in my nightmares. Someday, Kent will pay for letting her escape and crash, but for now, I need him.
He’s my best shot at reaching out to Esguerra.
Of course, if he turned me down, I had a backup plan. I know Nora Esguerra’s email, having communicated in the past with her about my list. However, Esguerra is not exactly rational about his tiny wife and might take it the wrong way if I contact her after all these years.
It’s better to go through Kent—Esguerra might be more willing to listen in that case.
Kent’s wife, the beautiful Yulia, is nowhere in sight as I enter the stylish restaurant and make my way to a booth in the corner, where Kent’s blond head is visible above the partition.
He stands up to greet me, his hard face wary as he extends his hand. “Sokolov.”
I shake his hand, squeezing his fingers with slightly too much force. “Kent.”
His eyes narrow, but he releases my hand without retaliating. “I didn’t expect to hear from you again,” he says as we take a seat and open the menus. “How is your Sara these days?”
“Who? Oh, that.” I catch the waiter and tell him to bring me an unopened Guinness bottle with an opener on the side. Kent requests a cup of Earl Grey for himself. I wait for the waiter to leave before telling Kent, “I have no idea how she is. I let her go last year and haven’t seen her since.”