Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Ghost assured me we’d have backup, but they couldn’t be too close. If they got there after Russos men shot us, then we were dead whether the FBI got their man or not. I didn’t give a damn about helping the feds, and I didn’t want Teddy in custody. I wanted him dead.
I was forced to sit in a dull, gray conference room at Ghost’s hotel and listen to his colleagues tell him everything that was wrong with the plan we’d worked up. I eventually tuned them out and started thinking about all the things I wished I could show Ghost at the ranch to convince him that horses were awesome.
Finally, Ghost had had enough. He slammed his hands down on the table and stood. It was the loudest sound I’d ever heard him make. “If you want me involved, this is how we’re handling things. If not, I’ll walk out right now.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Watch me.”
He jerked the door open. I froze in place just watching him, then he looked back at me. “Come on.”
I hadn’t gotten to my feet before the man in the suit sighed loudly. “We’ll do this your way, but if it goes to hell, you’ll take the blame.”
“Let me make sure I understand. If I succeed, you’ll take the credit, but if I fail, then you’ll pretend you never sanctioned the operation?”
The asshole nodded.
“That will be as good an excuse as any for me to walk away.”
“If you sabotage this—”
“I have every intention of eliminating this target.”
“Wait,” one of the other men protested, but the suited man held up a hand.
“No one is going to be sad if this guy disappears. We’re here to get information. There are likely to be casualties.”
“Exactly,” Ghost said.
He gestured for me to follow him, and we left. Once we were in his car, I looked at him. “I thought arguments like that were just for TV.”
He smiled. “Some units don’t run this way, but with me and X involved, this is how things go.”
“Would you really have walked away?”
“Yes, and we would have done this on our own.”
“I’d rather do that anyway.”
“Occasionally, it’s useful to have backup, and we won’t have to do the cleanup ourselves.”
“No one is going to be looking for this asshole.”
“That’s probably true, but we don’t know who will show up with him. If the Russos send someone they consider valuable, they’ll want to know what happened to him.”
Ghost was right, but I still didn’t like the idea that I was working with the feds. I might not want to be part of the Russos’ criminal empire, but that didn’t mean I was opposed to working outside the law. I didn’t mind the ranch being a safehouse for men the law would throw in jail instead of providing witness protection.
There were things I wouldn’t do. I had my own moral code. Whenever the Carlottis had wanted to involve me in something I objected to, I’d mostly been able to take a different job instead. Mostly, but not always.
Working at the ranch with Grant, I knew he’d never cross any line I wasn’t willing to cross. He also wouldn’t want me working with the feds. but there was no reason for him to know.
Before we could show up at the location where I’d told Teddy to meet us, Ghost needed to look like he’d fought with me. Fortunately, that could be done with makeup because I wasn’t going to hit him, and I wasn’t going to watch anyone else do it either.
The team member who fixed him up really knew what he was doing with special-effects makeup. Ghost looked like he had a black eye, a cut on his cheek, and his sleeve was torn and soaked in fake blood. If I hadn’t seen the transformation, I would have believed the jagged slash on his arm was real.
One of his colleagues tied Ghost’s arms behind him, but I wouldn’t leave until Ghost had shown me more than once how easily he could get out of the ropes.
Teddy was waiting for us when we arrived, but I doubted he’d been there long. My stomach churned when I saw him, but I reminded myself that tonight, he was going down for good, just like he deserved. I would have been free from the Carlottis sooner if it hadn’t been for him. Even though he knew I wanted out, he kept reminding them I could deliver results, mostly because he was too scared to go out and do the things I did.
He only thought about himself, which would give us an advantage today. He would gladly sacrifice anyone who’d come along with him as protection so he could get out unscathed. He’d tried to sacrifice me enough times that I was sure of his motives. He wanted Ghost and me alive because we were more valuable that way, so we would focus on getting rid of anyone who was with him first.