On The Rocks (40 page)

“Partners?” Sanzio jumped in.

“Not now,
maninho
.”

“Yes, partners,” Xander goaded.

Sanzio lowered his gun and got in Abrahan’s
face. “No.
Now
!”

Fine by Xander. So long as they were
arguing, he and his girls were still breathing.

“You would give this man the title you gave
to me? Your own
brother
?”

Abrahan backhanded him hard enough to draw
blood, and Sanzio doubled over. “You will shut you mouth or I will
shut it for you. Do
not
think for a moment I won’t kill you
where you stand.”

Breathing hard, he turned his harsh glare to
Xander.

“I think you’re lying,” Abrahan said, “about
why you’re here. About knowing her. So maybe I’ll kill you all
then, just to be sure.”

“And you’ll be out of a buyer and a
reseller. Here’s how this is gonna work.” He pointed at Naima and
stared her down in the process. This wasn’t the time for her ‘dance
with the prince' bullshit. “You’ll let my wife go. Now. Once I get
confirmation from my guard that she’s safe, I’ll wire the four
million to your account. You pay Metis, we get the list, we all
walk out of here and life goes on as planned.”

Abrahan paused a long moment, those dead
eyes of his digging into the side of Kizzie’s head. “No. If I kill
you, I will still have the list. Perhaps my brother is right. I
don’t need another seller. I’ll do the job myself.”

“You don't have the contacts,” Xander said,
his voice level.

“I'll get them.” He motioned with his
fingers and spoke to his men. “Bring his wife. We crop the bitches’
ears first while he watches.”

The guard behind Kizzie dug his knee into
the crease of hers. She slammed to the floor hard, sucking a hiss
into her mouth. The other guard dragged Naima forward.

“Stop! Leave me alone!” Naima struggled as
much as she could, but the man’s sheer size was too much to contend
with.

As still another guard came up behind him,
Xander curled his fingers around the solid barrel of the gun. He
was completely out of sane moves.

Left a whole list of insane options he was
about to get comfy cozy with. If he hit the guard behind him first,
then maybe he could rush the one behind Kizzie. That kept the
threat on Naima. Vice versa threatened Kizzie.

Shit.

Options went rapid-fire through his head
when a voice piped up over the chaos that had erupted.

“You don’t want to do that.”

All eyes shifted to the woman kneeling on
the floor.

Kizzie angled her face up to look at
Abrahan. “Not if you want to know what I came here for.”

“I already know.” Abrahan said. “You’re here
to steal things that don’t belong to you.”

“Or to deliver them.” A wicked gleam in her
eye and a matching smile on her face, Kizzie said two words Xander
never thought he’d hear: “I’m Metis.”

24

EVERY ONCE IN a while, something Lennox had
taught her actually paid off:
The difference between life and
death is how quickly you can connect the dots.

As soon as Abrahan had shown up, Kizzie had
been assessing. The impulse in high tension situations was to act
quickly, but slowing down actually bought her time. Slow-mo also
let her see her opponent’s weakness.

Of course, shit started going warp speed
once Xander had a gun to her head. But wedged between the moment
that cold nickel kissed her skull and the second he’d pulled the
trigger, Kizzie made the connection that would save their
lives.

Well, Xander and his wife’s.

Not exactly a foolproof plan, but the best
they had.

The meathead behind her who’d been coping a
feel yanked her off her knees by her armpits. She wobbled in her
stilettos and fought the urge to dig a cute, pointy tip into his
shin.

As she gained her balance, she felt Xander’s
steady gaze on her. She ignored it. Ignored him altogether. If he
knew what she was up to, he might do something stupid like try to
save her.

Or, hell, draw down on her again. For a
moment there she thought the gun was loaded.

Did
he
know the gun wasn’t
loaded?

A shudder inched down her spine.

Either way, she was at peace with knowing
she wouldn’t get out of this one. But she wouldn’t force Xander to
choose between her and his wife in the process.

“You’re Metis?” The disbelief in Abrahan’s
voice was palpable. He looked around the room and chuckled.
“You?”

His sycophants jumped on board, chortling
and snickering, like
she
couldn’t possibly be the brains
behind smuggling sensitive data out of the CIA.

“Me.”

“Prove it,” Abrahan said.

Kizzie cocked her head. “Prove what? That
I’ve had eyes on you since the beginning?” She shrugged and looked
at Sanzio. “Easy enough to run into your brother at a club. Ply him
with cachaça… Convince him to take me back to his place… Or, should
I say, take
Janet
back to his place.”

Recognition flared in Sanzio’s eyes.

“A lie!” he spat. He thundered toward her
and pointed the pistol at her head. “I should shoot out your tongue
for that.”

She ignored him and locked eyes with
Abrahan. “You’re the boss. Am I continuing with this story, or is
Zio here gonna shoot out my tongue? Sounds to me like he doesn’t
want you to hear the truth.”

“
Maninho
, enough.”

“But—”

“Enough!” Abrahan grabbed his brother’s
pistol arm and forced it down. “If she’s lying it will come
out.”

Yup, eventually.

But by then Xander and his family would be
safe. For now, she’d continue with the truth as she knew it.

“Go on,” Abrahan said.

“I’ll streamline it for you.” She paused for
effect, then whispered the password she’d sent to Fletcher what
felt like a lifetime ago. “Palhaço.”

Two heads twisted toward her in Poltergeist
slow-mo. Abrahan’s face paled and she knew she’d hit her mark.
Giving this train a little more gas she added, “At first I thought
it was an unusual collection. But then, to see a clown
everywhere
? That shit’s kinda creepy, Sanzio. I admit that
password I sent was a little dig at your brother’s… oddity.”

“She’s
lying
,
mano
!”

Abrahan muttered in Portuguese, “
You
are the liar. You assured me you didn’t take anyone there.”

“I didn’t!”

“Then how does she know about your
home?”

“I don’t know,” Sanzio insisted.

“Because I was there.” Kizzie wrenched free
of the guard and stabbed him with a look of pure contempt that
froze him right where he stood. Rubbing her wrists, she strolled
toward Abrahan. “I was there, as was Silvia. Or am I making up Ms.
Moniz, too, Zio? Your time in jail…?”

“Abrahan, I—”

The elder Galletti cut off his brother’s
words with a slash of his hand through the air. “You can’t cover
the sun with a sieve,
maninho
. I’ll deal with you
later.”

Gaining confidence, Kizzie rocked her head
from side to side, cracking her neck.

“What was your point in all this?”

Kizzie let a slow smile ghost across her
face. Because, yeah, she hadn’t thought this conversation would
last this long. Improvising was like traversing a minefield. The
tiniest misstep could blow her ass to smithereens, and she kinda
liked her ass unsmithereened, thank you very much.

“Well?” Abrahan said impatiently.

She gave him the opposite, chose her words
carefully. Spoke slowly.

“The more people in your operation, the more
holes to poke in your operation.” She eyed each of the guards and
then stabbed a finger at Sanzio. “He’s a big hole. The Agency
already had people watching Sanzio. They were days from snatching
him up, so I got to him first. Bugged his phone. Gave them
something to chase.”

Abrahan nodded as though connecting dots of
his own. “That’s why you sent me the new one…”

Kizzie held her tongue. The worst thing to
do at a time like this was let someone else take over her lie. She
pole vaulted over that land mine, went back to picking on baby
brother.

“You can thank me for sending you to jail,
Zio. By the time those agents figured out what had happened to you,
you were already here. Safe and sound in big brother’s beautiful
house.”

Sanzio grunted, baring his teeth.

Smirking, Kizzie eyed Abrahan again. “If
they can get to you, they can get to me. And I can’t have
that.”

Abrahan eyed her warily. And now that Kizzie
was paying attention, almost every gun in the joint was pointed in
her direction, tipping the bullet to Kizzie ratio firmly in
Abrahan's favor.

But the guards were no longer paying
attention to Naima and Xander, so that was a plus among
minuses.

By the clock on the wall, she had twelve
minutes before the transfer from Metis —the
real
Metis—
would come through. Time to get rid of the extras on set.

“Now, if you still want what I’m here to
give you, we can make a deal.” She admired the ring on her pinky
finger casually. It wasn’t quite on all the way, but it got the
point across. She glanced at Xander.

Her Dom was all types of controlled rage
teetering on the edge of going apeshit. He didn’t like what she was
doing. She knew it and didn’t care. He had to leave and get his
wife to go with him. Otherwise, they’d all die right here.

“This guy's your partner?” Abrahan nodded
and she waved her hand dismissively. “Get rid of him.”

Xander shook his head. “I don’t think so.
I’ve got an equal share in this, so I’ll be staying right here to
be sure nothing shady happens. Unless of course, you don’t want my
money anymore, Abrahan.”

Kizzie narrowed her gaze on him. Then looked
at Naima. The poor woman had tears streaming from her eyes and a
goon the size of one of those blue whales wrapped around her like a
snuggie. She pinned Xander with her glare. If this man didn’t get
his wife out of here, she was going to have to break character and
kick his ass.

“My deal isn’t with him. It’s with you,” she
said to Abrahan. “In fact, I don’t like that he can ID me. I want
him gone.”

Turning, she strolled over to Xander and
eyed him up and down. “Get rid of him and his wife, or I walk. And
the list goes with me.”

Xander shook his head. “Abrahan—”

“Stop talkin’, slick.” Lips pursed, she
turned her back on him. “He walks, or I do, Galletti. You two can
still partner up, but it won’t be my list you sell off. You’ve got
ten seconds to decide.”

Her eyes flashed to the clock on the wall.
Less than ten minutes until the delivery.

“Tick tock tick tock,” Kizzie said. “What’s
it gonna be, Abrahan? Did I come all this way in my pretty gown for
nothing?”

In the long moments that passed, Kizzie
could feel Xander’s stare penetrating the back of her head. He was
livid, but he’d live. So would his wife. Two out of three ain’t
bad.

Kizzie made a soft hum in her throat and
started for the door, heels tapping sharply on the floor. “Happy
anniversary anyway.”

“Metis,” Abrahan called.

She craned her head over her shoulder.

“
Sim
. He and his wife will leave.
Maninho,
” he crooked his fingers and Sanzio responded like a
well-trained pet. “Take the guards and escort them to separate
rooms until I decide what to do with them.”

“I should stay with you,” Sanzio said.

“Separate. Rooms.” Abrahan repeated
sternly.

Ah shit. Not part of the plan. But she
couldn’t very well argue for their release. She hoped Xander got an
opportunity to get them free.

As Kizzie looked into her Dom’s eyes for the
last time, she knew he would.

She fought a sad smile. Fought the urge to
tell him goodbye. To say she was sorry. To wish it could be
different.

Fixed him with a look of utter indifference
and curled her lip.

The guard behind Naima walked her out. The
one behind Xander was a little less friendly, pushing him
along.

Kizzie watched Xander watch her as the door
to the office slid shut with a terminal bang. Another glance at the
clock. T-minus eight minutes.

“All right then, Abrahan. Let’s get down to
business.”

THE HEAVY DOOR to Abrahan’s office shut with
a clang that echoed the hollow feeling in Xander’s gut. Kizzie was
on the other side of that metal partition, pretending to be a CIA
mole and using Naima’s ring to do it.

Damn, she was brilliant. How Kizzie had
connected those dots, he didn’t know, but she’d gotten he and Naima
out of the office, which gave him an opportunity to get them out of
the building alive.

Bonus, Kizzie had also gotten him what he’d
come here for. In a few minutes, that nifty little piece of
software in the modified storage card on the ring would be in
place. Shortly after that, the
real
Metis would transfer the
list. The heavily encrypted data would move through onion routers
all over the world, bouncing from anonymous computer to anonymous
computer, headed for Abrahan’s laptop.

But it wouldn’t get there.

Nope, halfway through it would be diverted
to one of Xander’s private servers using an IP spoofer. Or, as he’d
told Naima, gnomes and fairies would magically steal it.

Technical mumbo jumbo aside, in less than
eight minutes, millions of dollars would fly out of Abrahan’s bank
account and the man would have nothing to show for it.

And then Abrahan was going to kill
Kizzie.

Which kinda pissed Xander off, because he
wanted to kill her first.

Yup, right after he took out Sanzio and the
two guards behind them, got Naima out of here safely, got Kizzie
free and had a moment to get beyond the worry digging a crater into
the center of his chest, he was going to hug her tight and then
strangle her with his bare hands.