Hard Risk by Sidney Bristol
Chapter Twenty
City, NY.
Robin’s stomach was trying to eat its way out of her. It seemed silly that given the absolute chaos going on around them that her biggest concern was if she was going to eat again. None of them had slept much last night. There was no heat, so the three of them had huddled together, changing out who got to sit in the corner with the cardboard buffer. It was just a box they’d mangled enough so that a person could sit on half of it while the other half served as a barrier to the wall. But after Saaina was taken away, Jessica and Robin had flattened it out and now lay on the concrete floor.
“Was that your stomach or mine?” Jessica asked.
Robin squinted up at the ceiling. “I don’t know anymore.”
Jessica’s hand flopped over on top of Robin’s. They clutched each other tightly and said nothing.
“We need a plan,” Robin whispered. “We should have had a plan when that guy came for Saaina. There’s only one of him. We could have done something.”
“He’s not the only one out there. You’ve heard the other voices,” Jessica pointed out.
“Would you rather die here and now? Or wait?”
“I’d rather bide my time for a better moment.”
But what if a better moment didn’t present itself?
They’d had no warning Saaina would be taken from them. Where was she?
“So we do nothing?” Robin asked bitterly.
“We wait. Think about it. Harper knows what’s going on. You said they shot a guy before shooting out the SUV windshield, right?”
“Yeah.” Robin propped herself up on an elbow. “I was thinking, that guy looked familiar. I think I’ve seen him before. In Harper’s apartment building.
“Weird,” Jessica said slowly. “Regardless, the police know you’re missing. If Harper’s smart, he’ll figure out I’m gone, too. They’ll find your dad’s body. There’s a trail. We just have to wait for the cops to catch up to us.”
Robin bit the inside of her mouth to keep from saying anything.
Sometimes Jessica had a little too much faith in the legal system.
Uncle Daar has gotten away with having Mom killed. It stood to reason he could wiggle out of this, too.
The door opened suddenly, startling both of them.
This time there was a different, Hispanic man armed with an assault rifle. Uncle Daar loomed in the doorway behind the man.
“You two. Come with me. Now,” Uncle Daar said in clipped tones.
Robin glanced at Jessica then pushed to her feet. They both moved quickly, before the man with the gun could get impatient.
“Where’s Saaina?” Robin asked her uncle.
“I don’t know.”
“What?” She wasn’t sure if she was more surprised that he’d answered or that Saaina was missing.
Please let her have gotten away.
Uncle Daar never missed a step. “I will explain this once and without detail. Someone is sabotaging me and if you try to slow me down, I will have this young man kill you and make sure your body is never found. Do we all understand one another?”
“No,” Robin said.
“That’s too bad. Maybe your friend can explain it to you while we drive?”
She reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling them both to a stop. “Wait.”
Uncle Daar’s head whipped around and he stared at her with a menacing glare that made her tremble.
“Answer me one thing,” Robin said. When he didn’t chastise her or deny her, she licked her lips and continued. “Did you have my mom killed?”
“Yes,” he said flatly. “Now move.”
His gaze went past her. Jessica staggered forward, pushed by the man with the gun.
Uncle Daar pulled away from Robin.
She’d always thought learning the truth would be more climatic. That she’d drag it out of him with an audience. This seemed… Sad.
Mom had died, and now Robin might, too.
For what? Money? Power?
She couldn’t think of anything that would make killing someone worth it. And therein lay the difference between Robin and her uncle.
Friday. FBI Office, New York City, NY.
The moment Harper had been dreading was here.
He followed behind Baruti and Logan into the satellite FBI office. It was the same one where they’d initially met Samuel and Baruti to begin with, back when the team was still finding their rhythm.
What a wild damn ride.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Jamie Silva called out.
Harper flipped off his best friend. He was in a sour mood and full of dread.
Jamie ambled up to Harper with that wide, shit-eating grin on his face. “I was going to start taking bets whether or not you were ever coming back.”
“Fuck you,” Harper groused.
Jamie snorted and held up his hand. Harper would be an ass to ignore that, so he smacked his palm to Jamie’s. He squeezed Harper’s hand and pulled him in, slapping Harper’s shoulder.
“It wasn’t the same around the office without you, man,” Jamie said softer.
“Can’t say I missed you, slackers, one bit,” Harper drawled.
Jamie laughed and shoved Harper away. “You’re an asshole.”
He shrugged. “Apparently I’m your asshole.”
Evan hung back a little. The Ukrainian immigrant was always quiet, but these days he wore a slight smile. Probably thanks to that new wife of his. Marriage suited Even.
He caught Harper’s eye, and they nodded at each other by way of a greeting.
It was nice to be back amongst the team. Harper had finally found a rhythm working with Samuel, but it wasn’t the same. There was a balancing act with a team of two. You were either picking up the slack or slacking off. But with the rest of Harper’s team? They all pitched in.
This should never have been a secret mission. They should have had everyone on it, regardless of who went undercover.
The very idea of one of the other guy’s in Harper’s shoes made him grind his molars together.
Where was Robin? Was she okay?
“Guys?” Tucker called out.
Harper’s stomach sank, and he turned.
“Zora wants to talk,” Tucker announced.
Because of course, she did.
Harper was dreading this.
It didn’t matter how many times it happened, he would always struggle with the power structure. Most of the time he worked through that by making people laugh. It was his coping mechanism. But not this time. He was too raw, too on edge.
Jamie smacked Harper’s shoulder again and then the lot of them were filing into an inner room like old times. Like nothing had changed.
Zora stood at the head of a conference table staring at a tablet. If Harper had to guess, it was something from Diha. At this point everything relied on her untangling the trail.
“What’s our plan for rescuing Robin?” Harper asked before Zora could begin.
Zora didn’t immediately look up. She pursued whatever was on her screen a moment longer, dragging her finger across the screen before glancing up at Harper.
“We are currently focused on the security guard who left the bank with the laptop. If we can figure out how Daar’s associate and Saaina left the bank, we’ll have a good idea for where to start looking,” Zora said.
“What about Robin?” Harper said, louder this time.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. He glanced back, expecting to see Tucker. Instead it was Evan. His face was grim, and he nodded.
At first, Harper didn’t understand the silent meaning. But then Harper thought about Texas and everything that had happened with Evan’s wife. There was someone else willing to back Harper up on this.
He’d never been more grateful to anyone than he was right then.
Zora kept talking. “There isn’t anything we can do for Robin until we get a read on her GPS tracker. Spending time looking for her is a waste. We’re better served locating the laptop. With that, we are better armed to deal with Daar.”
“Better armed?” Harper snorted. “We have Daar’s confession on tape. What do we need the laptop for?”
Zora clasped the tablet in front of her. “The laptop is bait. We know Daar will do everything he can to recover it because based on the recordings he believes there is information on it that could be damaging to him. Whoever has the laptop has leverage.”
“Fifteen-year-old leverage?” Harper snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so. In his shoes? I’d get out of the city. I’d go.”
“But you aren’t Daar. You fail to understand the way that powerful men think.”
Harper opened his mouth, but someone yanked on the back of his shirt. He staggered back, glaring at Logan’s head as he stepped in front of Harper.
“What would you have us do?” Logan asked. “Until Diha uncovers something, can we assist in any way?”
Harper had heard enough.
They’d be put on some busy work, something that might yield results, but didn’t really matter.
Yeah, he was out of this.
He turned and left the conference room. They’d done this song and dance before. Harper knew that Robin’s life didn’t really matter to Zora.
Did anything?
“Want to take a walk?” Tucker drawled.
Harper frowned over his shoulder. He hadn’t realized Tucker had left with him.
“Not really,” Harper said.
“Too bad.” Tucker nodded at the side entrance. “Come with me.”
Restless and without a better option, Harper followed after Tucker. They stepped out onto the sidewalk as a gust of chilly air blasted them.
“Fuck me,” Harper muttered.
Tucker shoved his hands in his pockets and pulled his cap down farther on his head.
It was hard to see Tucker and Zora together working. Tucker was a redneck in the truest sense of the word. He’d been raised in the backwoods of Louisiana and Texas, living mostly off the grid. He was quiet and kept to himself all of the time, which did kind of make sense when paired with Zora. She was a woman who commanded a room. She probably had some Ivy League degree. Tucker’s circumspect nature toward people probably paired well with Zora’s inherent distrust of everyone.
Come to think of it, Harper knew very little about Zora. They all did. She was simply the power that drove them most of the time. So cold and unfeeling.
“How do you do it?” Harper blurted.
Tucker frowned at him. “What?”
“How can you be with her? How can you stand there and support her decisions when she gives no fucks about what happens to people like Robin?”
Shit.
Harper should not be asking Tucker about this. It was shitty.
“For the record, I’m not with her. We’re friends. And I take walks,” Tucker said.
That startled Harper.
“Zora knows things she can’t tell us. Ever. She’s working on a completely different field. You and I? We work here. Now.” Tucker’s finger jabbed down toward the ground as he spoke. “Zora? She’s seeing a global playing field. It’s hard to accept, but she really is doing what she deems best in the long run.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes you have to play the short game.” Harper shook his head. He’d thought of this before himself, but it didn’t excuse everything. “If the people you’re fighting for are dead, what are you really doing?”
His phone began to vibrate against his thigh. He pulled it out and frowned at Diha’s name on the screen. She probably wanted to talk him into coming back inside. He just didn’t feel like it, but he answered anyway. He couldn’t ignore Diha.
“Yeah?” Harper said.
Diha spoke over him. “The tracker is back online!”
Robin.
Friday. New York City, NY.
Daar braced his elbows on his knees as the van bumped along the street. Amaar sat in front of him, laptop balanced on his knees and fingers dancing over the keys.
“Anything?” Daar asked, speaking in Arabic. Without Peter there, there was no need to operate in English. In fact, it was better this way. The men Peter had hired to supplement their numbers couldn’t eavesdrop.
“I’ve gone back seven years. Nothing of note,” Amaar muttered.
Daar nodded.
There had to be a specific reason the chancellor’s representative in New York wanted to meet at this location. Amaar maintained he didn’t know who he was supposed to meet or anything beyond what he’d shown Daar.
Could he continue to rely on Amaar?
Daar’s gut said yes. Mostly.
“Any word from Peter?” Amaar asked without looking up.
Another cause for concern. “No.”
“Something must have happened.” Amaar shook his head. “Saaina had to have set this up. You know Peter is loyal, don’t you?”
Daar nodded. He’d lie to put Amaar’s mind at ease.
The truth was they could all betray him. He didn’t think Peter would, but neither had Daar suspected Saaina was in communication with the chancellor.
Daar’s gaze fell on Robin sitting at the back of the van on the floor. She had her head together with that friend of hers, no doubt scheming a way out.
That betrayal hurt, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. With how Cassim had ostracized his own daughter, what had they expected? Still, she should have some family loyalty regardless of what he’d done. Family should be everything.
And now family was nothing.
Daar had shaped his life around doing what was best for the family and now it was all gone.
He didn’t regret having shot Cassim. That was a weight Daar had labored under his whole life. But Robin? That stung.
“We’re almost there,” the driver said over his shoulder.
Amaar closed his laptop. The other men in the van shifted, but were otherwise ready for anything. Peter hired nothing but the best.
The van pulled into a small parking lot attached to an average-looking, beige office building.
“What’s the plan?” one of the hired men asked.
What was the plan?
The contact was expecting Amaar, not the rest of them. It stood to reason if they went in with numbers they would easily over-power whoever was there. But to be safe, Daar needed all hands on deck. That would leave no one in the van with Robin and her friend.
He should leave them here. That was the most obvious solution, and yet he didn’t want to let Robin out of his sight. Part of him had already decided that Robin was leaving with him. She was smart. He could explain the past. She would understand in time. He would make her see things his way and then it could be different.
The other reason was that he could not allow Robin or her friend to fall into enemy hands. Not the government or the chancellor’s or Maxwell’s. She might have betrayed him, but she was still family. The only person allowed to end her was Daar. And he wasn’t ready to do that yet.
“Bring them with us, but hold them in the back,” Daar said.
He saw the glances the men cast at each other, but it didn’t matter so long as they followed orders.
They parked the van, and the backdoor opened. The hired men unloaded then hauled both Robin and her friend out.
It was time.
Amaar stood and offered Daar a hand. Together they got out of the vehicle.
The street was devoid of traffic. Commerce in this corner was not doing well, which probably played into selecting this location for the meeting.
Neither the chancellor nor Daar would want eyes watching.
“Come. Let’s get this over with,” Daar said to Amaar.
They strode toward the building. Unsurprisingly, it was unlocked. The lights were on and the faint sound of music drifted toward them.
There were no cameras that Daar could see, but he assumed they were being watched. It was what he would do.
He stepped in front of Amaar, leading the way down the only hall into the interior of the building. It might be smarter to have the hired men lead, but this was not the appropriate time. Daar’s position was being challenged. He could not appear weak. Not now.
Who would they find?
There were a few men the chancellor might enlist for a job like this. Daar didn’t know any of them well, which was probably by design.
The music grew louder, some modern pop hit he couldn’t name.
Daar stepped through a doorway into a large interior room and slowed his pace.
Peter stood on the other side of the room, a gun in one hand and his phone in the other. Daar was aware of another man standing a little behind Peter and Saaina sitting in a desk chair, but Daar’s gaze remained on Peter.
For several moments the two men stared at one another.
Peter?
It didn’t click.
Was he being forced to be here?
That didn’t seem right.
Peter wasn’t the kind of man who took threats lightly.
Daar’s mind refused to believe Peter was working against him, but what other explanation was there.
“Peter?” Amaar took a step forward, speaking in English now. Peter never had picked up Arabic. “What the fuck is going on?”
“This isn’t what we discussed,” Peter said in a calm, even tone.
Amaar jabbed his finger at the other man. “Fuck that. Start talking.”
Daar held up his hand. “Amaar?”
Amaar jerked back, glaring across the room at Peter.
Damn it.
In a way, it made sense that it would be Peter. All those years ago, it had been the chancellor who recommended him to Daar. He’d made the mistake of assuming that because Peter had been faithful all these years that he was Daar’s man.
The chancellor must have set this up back then when Peter was a young man.
All this time and Daar had let his demise in with his own hand.
“What is this about, Peter?” Daar asked. He glanced at the other man. This one he recognized as one of the chancellor’s men.
Peter sighed and pocketed his phone. “I’m here to offer Amaar a new job. Please put your weapons down. We have you surrounded and outnumbered.”
As if that were a signal, figures stepped into the doorways around them. If Daar were to look behind them, he was certain there would be more.
“Amaar?” Daar asked.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit,” Amaar snarled.
Daar put a hand on the young man’s shoulder.
Peter shoved a hand back over his short hair. “I didn’t want you to find out.”
“Your plan was to steal Amaar away, then what? Come back to me and tell me you ran into trouble? Carry on as if none of this happened?”
Peter met Daar’s gaze and nodded. “Yeah. Something like that.”
Daar snorted.
“This business between you and the chancellor is a big misunderstanding,” Peter said. “I’m doing you a favor trying to untangle it. But he wants Amaar.”
Amaar was practically vibrating with rage. “Seriously? You expect us to believe that?”
“Seriously.” Peter gestured behind him. “I’m going to prove to the chancellor. You wait and see. All I was supposed to do was offer Amaar a job. I can tell the chancellor he said no and we all forget this little meeting happened.”
“What of the laptop? And Saaina?” Daar wasn’t a fool. Those were two pieces he could not allow to fall into enemy hands.
Was there a person in his life the chancellor did not have their hooks in?
Robin.
“That wasn’t me. Saaina told Daar about the laptop a long time ago to save her own skin.”
“And the men you supposedly roughed up for intel?”
Peter glanced at the man behind him. “Yeah, that was all the chancellor’s plan. Look, the laptop and Saaina come with me as evidence to back up my story and we work this out,” Peter said.
“No.” Daar shook his head. “No, that’s not how this is going to happen.”
Peter leveled a hard stare at Daar. “All due respect, sir? It’s not your decision anymore. I don’t have a decision in this. We do it this way or we’re all going to be sorry.”
“I wasn’t aware I’d empowered you to make decisions on my behalf.”
He shook his head and took a step toward Daar. The men on either side of him shifted, some weapons coming up.
Daar held up a hand, urging the men to stay their hands.
Peter pressed his free hand to his chest. “This is spinning out of control. I can put a stop to it.”
“You’ll stick a knife in our back,” Amaar snarled. His face was flushed, and he stared at Peter as though he wanted to choke the life out of the man with his own hands.
“I’m on your side,” Peter yelled back.
“You have a shit way of showing it.”
“Boys,” Daar snapped.
Amaar was already moving. He shoved a hand into his laptop bag. He didn’t even get a chance to pull anything out. One of the men waiting in the wings fired, hitting Amaar in the shoulder.
“No!” Peter yelled.
Daar dove at Amaar, taking them both to the ground before the young man’s body could become Swiss cheese. Behind them, the six men Daar had brought with them returned fire, but it was a bloodbath.