“Dom, I need to speak with you regarding a matter of some urgency.” Colt got right to the point. I sat up, instantly on alert. “An issue has arisen with some international investments. It just came to my attention. We have a security concern I’d like to discuss. Where are you?”
“Asheville.” I wondered what he’d gotten himself into. I’d always known, any man running a business that big had to get his fingers dirty every now and then. No one amassed that kind of wealth and stayed squeaky clean.
“Can I fly you back to New York?”
“Really?” He couldn’t even discuss it on the phone? He had to be into some deep shit.
“It’s about Gigi.”
I was up on my feet before I even responded, “Yes.”
“Give me your address. I’ll have a car there in twenty minutes to take you to an airfield.”
The car was waiting for me right when he said. I’d already been ready for nineteen minutes. It was what I knew how to do, and it involved Gigi. She might be in danger. I needed to get to her. The flight took too long, even though it was private so I didn’t have any of the usual commercial flight hassles with security and lines.
Colt was in a town car waiting for me when I landed just after one a.m. He gave me the highlights of his current shit storm. I was right. It was a bad one.
It turned out that his former COO, Leonard, had been dealing dirty for years, getting in way over his head with exactly the kinds of people you didn’t want to mess with at all, ever. I knew about those kinds of people. I hadn’t grown up with a silver spoon in my mouth like Colt. In some ways, I’d had more of an education than Colt with all of his Harvard degrees. Most everyone I knew had a dark side and, given the right conditions, they’d go there. Greed and power were ruthless motivators.
It seemed Leonard had gotten into it with a Columbian drug cartel. Of all the dumbass moves I could imagine, that might top the list. How had he pitched that investment—there’s this great opportunity with these really cool guys? Had he ever heard of Pablo Escobar? The guy was dead, but his practices weren’t. Those were some ruthless motherfuckers, and I said that having met more than a few.
I didn’t get all the details. We didn’t have time. But the gist of it was he’d gotten Kavanaugh Investors involved with the coffee trade, which had pissed off those involved with the cocaine trade, and now the cartel had issued a death threat.
The thing about a Columbian drug cartel was they really knew how to hit where it hurt. A typical bad guy would have taken a swing right at Colt. A cleverer bad guy would have targeted his new wife, and that would have been effective. But Colt had Caroline under wraps, heavily guarded since intel had reached him that this could become a problem.
But these guys? They were the real deal, experts at cruelty and getting what they wanted. So they’d made a death threat against Colt’s beloved, vulnerable younger sister. Unprotected, living single in the city, Gigi would make an easy target.
Or so they thought.
“You’re the one I can trust,” Colt told me, intense, fervent, more desperate than I’d ever seen him. “You’ll keep her safe.”
“I’ll get her out tonight,” I agreed, not even bothering to formally accept the assignment. No one would hurt Gigi. I didn’t care what they tried to do. I would stop them.
“I’m working on a place for you to take her.”
“I know a guy.” I took charge of the situation. Colt knew how to make all sorts of business arrangements, but he didn’t know how to make these kinds of plans. We needed a heavily-guarded safe house, the kind of place we could disappear for a while until Colt straightened out the mess. It had been more than a few years since I’d talked to anyone back in the MC, but they’d take my call. They’d know where to hide us. And Colt would be able to pay them handsomely for their help.
“Thought you might.” Colt exhaled with relief. I wanted to tell him he should keep on holding his breath. This thing was far from over. But I’d let him worry about that.
I had my mission now. I needed to grab Gigi, steal her away without a trace under the cover of night and hide her from anyone trying to do her harm. I was on it. I would succeed. I had only one question: Who was going to protect Gigi from me?
But there was no time for hesitation. We might already be too late. Colt said he had a couple of guys watching security at her apartment. Most likely gym rats who’d talked their way into getting an earpiece. I had no confidence in them.
“Where is she now?”
“She’s at her apartment, probably asleep.”
“Take me there now.”
He told me again he had people watching her. Instead of cursing his stupidity—he should have moved her the second he knew she was a target—while we drove I made some calls. As I’d thought, I knew the right people in the right places. There was a house outside Phoenix, used before for exactly this purpose, with security built to withstand the fire of the pathological and heavily armed. Good, because it sounded like we would need exactly that.
“I need a car with bullet-proof windows and a change of plates in the trunk. Can you get that?” Colt was a wealthy and powerful guy, but I’d bet he’d never had to comply with that kind of request before.
“I’ll figure it out,” he assured me. “And I’ll give you some money. Do you need a weapon?”
Yes, I would, more than one, but the guys I knew would set me up better than Colt. Plus, I already had my M9 on me. “Got one.”
“Yeah? On you?” He seemed surprised. Maybe he didn’t meet with guys every day who carried concealed semi-automatic handguns strapped to their lower back. Or at least he didn’t realize he did.
“Get two burner phones,” I continued. “One for you, one for me. Do you know what that is? A prepaid phone you throw out after you use?”
“Got it.” He hadn’t heard of one before, I could tell. Fuck, I hoped Colt wouldn’t screw this up. “Where will you take Gigi?” he asked.
“Somewhere safe.”
“I’m going to work this out, Dom. I swear I am. It rose up and it’s biting me in the ass, but I know how to work my way out of a tough situation.”
“These men want to kill your wife, your sister, your grandmother, anyone they can to bring you to your knees. Do you understand?”
He looked white as a ghost but to his credit he only swallowed once before saying, “Absolutely. I’m on it. I’ll have this mess cleaned up fast.”
I nodded, wondering if it would be as fast he promised. Regardless of how long it took, I assured him, “I’ll keep Gigi safe while you do it.”
The town car pulled up in front of her Upper East Side apartment. “How long do you need—car, phones, plates?” I wanted it all in ten.
“An hour?”
“Make it 20 minutes. I’ll bring Gigi down, and I want the car here waiting for us.”
“All right.”
“In 12 hours, call my phone from yours. I’ll give you our coordinates and ETA.”
“Dom, thank you. I didn’t know where else to turn.”
“You did the right thing.”
I slipped out into the night. Getting into Gigi’s apartment was far too easy. The guy standing in the hall outside her doorway looked about 16-years-old. When I told him I was working for Colt, he let me right into her apartment. He was either the dumbest security detail in history, or on the payroll of the cartel. Either way, I needed to make this quick and quiet, getting Gigi to a secure location as fast as possible.
The apartment was silent and dark. The first bedroom I checked was empty, but the family in the photo on a dresser was not Gigi’s. I hoped I was right and the room belonged to a roommate. In the second bedroom there lay Gigi, sleeping peacefully, and I let out the breath I was holding. Fate had given us a pass. I’d gotten to her in time—again. Now I’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.
I woke her with my hand across her mouth. Her eyes widened in panic.
“Shh, you’re all right,” I whispered. “I’m
here with you. I’m going to take care of you.” She relaxed at my words, looking up at me with so much trust it nearly killed me. I definitely didn’t deserve it. “Can you listen but stay quiet?” She nodded and I removed my hand.
“You scared me to death,” she whispered, hand to her chest, sitting up.
“Listen to me,” I spoke, hushed and urgent. “You need to pack a change of clothes and toiletries and then I’m going to get you out of here.”
“What?” Her voice rose a fraction. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain everything when I can. Right now, you need to pack. Use the bathroom. Put on some sneakers. We’ve got to go.”
“Wait, is everything all right?” I could see her anxiety rise, realizing this wasn’t a social call.
“I can’t take time to explain it now, Gigi, but your brother Colt asked me to come here and get you.”
“Is he OK?” Now she was definitely speaking too loudly. Who knew who might be listening or watching us, a sniper rifle trained on her through the crack in the window shades?
I knelt over by the bed at her side, taking her hands into mine. “Gigi, do you trust me?”