The Mercenary (3 page)

A
UGUST
1, O
NYX
D
IAMOND
M
INE
, C
ULLINAN

“F
uck!” Ray Lambert threw his mobile phone against the wall as Olivia hung up on him. It shattered into several pieces just as his carefully ordered world was doing. He didn’t need this right now. Not from Olivia. She was part of his perfect world. The one that couldn’t be touched by the dirtiness of his life here at the mines.

“Dammit. Anita, get in here.”

“Yes, sir?” Anita, his secretary, asked as she stood in the doorway to his office.

“I need a new mobile phone.”

She nodded. “I have two replacements in my supply cabinet, Mr. Lambert. If you give me your old phone, I can send it back to the dealer.”

He gestured to the floor where the pieces still remained. She looked at it and then got down on her knees to pick up the pieces. “What shall I say happened to it?”

“It fell off my belt when I was in the mine,” he said.

“No problem,” Anita said. She left his office and returned a few minutes later with a brand-new phone. She handed it to him along with his SIM card.

He took the replacement BlackBerry and put the SIM card in the back. He hit the power button and waited. The phone worked fine and he dismissed Anita from his office.

“Go with her, Nels,” he said to his bodyguard. The other man left his office.

The Onyx Diamond Group was part of a larger diamond-mining consortium and Ray had been working for them since he’d come to South Africa nearly twenty years ago. He had started a lucrative sideline of off-the-record mining five years ago. The diamonds he sold on the black market provided a nice extra income that he used for gambling, women, and the good life.

He didn’t have to worry about what he spent and what he lost, thanks to the two-pronged profit stream he had created at this mine in Cullinan. He’d worked his ass off trying to figure how to keep his bosses at the consortium happy and how to take care of the huge debts he had from gambling.

Every single time he got caught up, he’d play a big game and almost win enough to be satisfied and then lose. Luckily he’d always been able to come back here and replenish his bank accounts.

The deal with Olivia angered him. He liked her and had planned to have a family with her. She was going to be the perfect cover to his other life. He hadn’t really planned on getting engaged, but once he’d met her and realized she was the cousin of Phillip Michaels, the idea had come to him. Being in the family with one of the executives of the Diamond Consortium would definitely be a perk.

And now that was all screwed up. Part of it was Olivia. He had no idea how much she’d seen this afternoon. Judging by her pale face and the way she’d gunned her engine to get away from him, he had to assume she’d seen him shoot Thomas and he had aimed his gun at her. If her car hadn’t had bulletproof windows, he would have shot. But wasting a bullet hadn’t seemed like the best idea.

In retrospect he may have been able to scare her enough to make her crash her car or something. He should have thought that through, but he’d panicked.

Killing a man was never an easy thing for him to do. And Thomas had been young, which made it a bit harder. Somehow, for him, if a criminal was older it was easier.

And that was the other part of the problem. His black-market operation worked because he controlled the volume of the diamonds that were sold there. He made damned sure that they were well under the radar of the consortium, but Thomas had been slipping extra diamonds out of the mine to fund some sort of rebel faction in his hometown. That stinking ghetto of Soweto.

And that had been unacceptable. Ray didn’t tolerate thievery.

Now Lars Inglessin and Phillip Michaels were on Ray’s back about the leakage from this mine and were both coming here to personally make sure the operation was back on track.

Phillip was Olivia’s cousin by marriage, which was going to make that entire mess a bit uncomfortable. But he’d deal with it. He always did.

The fact that Thomas had been stealing gave Ray an easy scapegoat for the stones he himself had been funneling out, but he wasn’t sure how much Lars knew and how long he’d have to play along with Lars until the man left.

This mess wasn’t what he needed right now. And with Olivia added to the mix…he had no idea what to do next. Of course, with Burati in the house, he didn’t have to worry too much about Olivia. He’d farm the task of taking care of his fiancée to the bodyguard. Somehow Ray wasn’t sure he could kill her.

Besides, he and Nels had to go back and dispose of Thomas’s body.

Ray didn’t panic because that wasn’t the type of man he was. Instead he sat back in his chair and listed the options in his head. Perhaps getting Olivia out of the picture would be the best option. If she were dead, then he wouldn’t have to worry about her going to the authorities. To be honest, he wasn’t sure what the authorities could do to him. The Onyx Diamond Group policed their own property and their own disputes.

But the diamond consortium would be angry that governments were involved in their business and they might come down hard on him.

His office phone rang and he answered it impatiently. “Lambert here.”

“Mr. Ray, it’s Burati. Ms. Olivia left the desk in your home office open when she left. I believe she took everything in there.”

Fuck
. “Thank you, Burati. Did you follow her?”

“Yes, Mr. Ray. I am in the car now. She seems to be headed toward the airport in Jo’burg.”

Olivia had just helped make his mind up as to her fate. “Don’t let her get on a plane. I want her out of the picture,” Ray said.

“What do you mean, Mr. Ray?”

“I mean that she shouldn’t talk to anyone, do you understand me? She’s in danger. I had some trouble at the mine today and if she should run into the men who tried to kill me…”

There was silence on the line and Ray wondered if the guard understood what he wanted.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Ray.”

“Good. Bring me everything she has on her.”

“Yes, Mr. Ray,” Burati said. “I will talk to you after I find her.”

“Very well,” Ray said. “No mistakes, Burati. I want this matter settled as soon as possible.”

“It will be, Mr. Ray.”

Ray disconnected the call. He didn’t dwell on what Burati was going to do. He couldn’t. He’d liked Olivia, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked her to marry him. And he had enjoyed living with her. She hadn’t been the sexiest woman he’d ever dated, but she had been one of the nicest.

He had a moment of silence thinking of what their life might have been. He would miss her, but she knew too much to live and he knew that she’d never keep quiet.

If he’d learned anything from the past month of living with her it was that she had a strong sense of right and wrong and the gray areas of real life didn’t make sense to her.

He blamed her parents for sheltering her. As a matter of fact, it was their fault she was going to die. If they’d raised their daughter to see that there was more to the world than a cut-and-dried right and wrong, she probably wouldn’t have panicked and ran.

He had a meeting in ten minutes and realized he’d sweated through his dress shirt. Dammit. He took off his shirt and realized he had dirt and dried blood on it.

Where was his head? He went into his private washroom and washed his hands and face. He sprayed on his cologne and then redressed. All the while he watched himself in the mirror.

He made damned sure that the man looking back at him was cool and calm. The Managing Director of Mining Operations wasn’t a man who could be scared or not in control.

Ray had worked his way up the hard way and it took balls to operate a shadow mine under the watchful eye of the diamond consortium and not get caught. Ray had done that for the last few years with no hiccups until one of his workers had gotten greedy. But Thomas was dead now, and soon Olivia would be out of the way as well.

He walked out of the washroom confident of himself. And when he pulled his suit jacket on he realized that this morning was in the past, Olivia was in the past, and all he could do was move on.

And he would. That was what Ray Lambert did. Getting married had seemed like the next step in his plan to make himself into the successful man he’d always wanted to be, but a woman was more complicated. And Ray was revising his opinion on wives.

Mistresses were easier to control and not as needy. That was one thing he hadn’t liked about Olivia. She had clung to him, expecting him to be her social network here.

And the sex hadn’t been that great. In fact, since she’d moved here a few months ago, she hadn’t been able to feel comfortable having sex with him.

She said she didn’t feel safe with the barbed-wire fence around their neighborhood and the guards sleeping down the hall. He bet she really felt unsafe now that she was out there on her own.

It’d be so much easier for him if she broke down in one of the central Jo’burg neighborhoods. A random act of violence would be a nice neat way to tie up the problem.

A
UGUST
1, J
OHANNESBURG
I
NTERNATIONAL
A
IRPORT

O
livia drove into the parking garage at the Johannesburg International Airport. She’d gotten nervous once she’d entered the city limits of Jo’burg and had called Anna. She just felt safer when she was on the phone with the other woman.

“We are sending two men to meet you in Johannesburg. Where are you?” Anna said.

“I’m at the airport.”

“Good. Now get inside and go to the bar. Kirk and Laz are on their way. But their flight won’t land for another hour. I want you in the public with lots of people around you,” Anna said.

“I still don’t know why I just didn’t drive to the embassy.”

“Would you feel safe there? I don’t have any contacts at the embassy and neither does Jack. But if you would feel safer, then go there.”

Olivia had no idea where she’d feel safer. She started to cry, just thinking about everything. “I have no idea. I’m scared, Anna.”

“I know. I am scared for you. I wish I was there with you.”

“Me, too,” Olivia said. She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “Okay, I’m going into the airport.”

“Good. I’ll stay on the phone with you until the guys get there.”

“For an hour? That’s asking a lot of our friendship.”

“No, it’s not,” Anna said.

Olivia grabbed her Louis Vuitton duffel bag and her purse and got out of her car. The parking garage was well lit but almost deserted at this time of the day. She locked her car and then walked quickly toward the airport concourse. She had no ticket. Where was she going to go? She had said D.C., but she really wanted…she wanted to find a safe place where she could just hide out for a long while.

“I don’t have a ticket,” Olivia said.

“That’s fine. Just get inside. Find the armed airport guards and stay near them. If you see someone suspicious, go to the armed guards. I’m accessing the Johannesburg International Airport security cameras, so I’ll be watching you, too.”

“You can do that?” Olivia asked.

“Of course. I’m a whiz with computers.”

Anna had always been a bit of a computer geek when they’d been at school. In fact she’d changed Olivia’s grade in algebra by hacking into the school’s computer network. “I forgot.”

“You’ve got a lot on your mind today. I see you now,” Anna said.

“Oh no. I changed my shoes and they don’t go with this outfit.”

Anna started laughing and Olivia realized how silly she must have sounded. “Well, normally, I would never wear running shoes with a suit like this.”

“I know. You still look stunning.”

“Sure I do. Where should I go? I think that café on the corner looks nice.”

“Yes. That’s good. Just sit someplace where you can minimize your exposure.”

“How?”

“Get a table with your back to the wall,” Anna said.

Olivia walked over to the restaurant and asked for a table in the back near the corner. She had to put the phone down to do so. In Jo’Burg no one would offer service while she was on her cell phone.

She was seated and given a menu. She lifted the handset back to her ear. “I’m sitting down.”

“You’re out of my camera range. Tell me what the place is like,” Anna said.

“Should I move?”

“No, you’re fine there. Just tell me what’s in the restaurant.”

“It’s a regular-looking café. Most of the tables are full. My table is in the corner, so I’ve got walls on two sides of me.”

“Good. Now, where is the kitchen?”

Olivia glanced around the diner. She placed her duffel bag by her feet and put her handbag on the table. The restaurant was typical of airport–type establishments and she saw the usual patrons at the tables: families, couples, and students. Everyone looked so normal and she felt so
not
normal.

“Olivia? Are you still there? Are you okay?”

“Sorry. The kitchen is to my left.” She felt silly and foolish. To think she’d called Anna to get marriage advice a few hours earlier and now she was on the run from a man who was trying to kill her. Her own fiancé.

“Is it close?”

“Less than a hundred yards. Why?” she asked, but all she could think about was Ray waving that gun at her.

“You might need to go that way if someone comes for you,” Anna said.

“Like who? I think Burati was following me, but I haven’t seen him since I left my neighborhood.” She wasn’t cut out for this type of situation. She didn’t want to have to look for an escape route. She just wanted to get on a plane and get out of here. “Should I leave Jo’burg?”

“Not today. Let our men get to you and then we will figure out what to do,” Anna said. “Who is Burati?”

“My bodyguard. Ray hired him for me.”

“What is his full name?” Anna asked.

“I have no idea. I never asked. That makes me seem like a rude person, doesn’t it?”

“Not at all. Just relax while I do some research on men with his name. Jack is monitoring the police communication and no one has reported the shooting you saw.”

“Do you think I imagined it?” she asked Anna. What if she had? She was going to feel like an idiot if that happened.

“No, I don’t. I heard the shot, remember?”

“That’s right,” Olivia said, sighing. “This is the worst day of my life.”

“Don’t say that. Better to find this all out before you get married,” Anna said.

“That’s true. I thought Ray was my dream man.”

“Why?”

“Because he had a good job, he’s good looking, and he paid attention to me. You know?”

“I can understand that. But your life is changing now. And, to be fair, Ray probably is all of those things. He was just keeping part of himself from you.”

“Yes, I know that. It makes me feel stupid that I didn’t realize he would hide anything from me,” she said.

“What do you think he hid?” Anna asked.

“Well, murder, for one.”

“For one? What else?”

“I don’t know, but he had a locked drawer in his desk and I took everything in it.”

“Kirk and Laz will be coming to you soon. They’ll watch over you and help you get the information to us so we can figure out which authorities to notify to make sure Ray can’t hurt you anymore.”

Olivia wanted to believe her friend, but a big part of her felt like she’d never be safe again.

Burati hung up the phone with Lambert and immediately dialed Phillip Michaels. He had to wait until the other man was out of a meeting to speak to him.

“Ms. Pontuf witnessed a killing at the mines today and Lambert wants her killed,” he said as soon as Phillip had answered.

“One thing at a time. Where is Ms. Pontuf?” Phillip asked.

“She’s heading to the airport. I’m in my own car following her.”

“Good. I want you to pick her up at the airport and bring her to my safe house. It’s in Cape Town, and I don’t think Lambert will think to go there to find her.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll need the address.”

“I will send a text message with it,” Phillip said. “Now, who was killed?”

“I don’t know. I spoke to Thomas this morning and he had the rocks we wanted as well as some other information. He didn’t come to our arranged meeting…” Burati let his words trail off.

He didn’t want to think about his kid brother being dead. If Thomas was dead, then Burati wouldn’t rest until Lambert paid with his own life.

“I will find out as soon as I can. I will speak to Lambert as soon as we are off the phone. Did he ask you to kill Olivia?”

“Not in so many words.”

“Damn, he’s good about making sure he never incriminates himself.”

“Yes, he is. About Thomas…”

“If your brother was killed, you will be compensated for his loss.”

Burati made a noise.

“I know that money can’t make up for the loss of a family member,” Phillip said. “It’s just that I have no other way to show you what your loss means to the consortium.”

“Thank you, Phillip.”

“You’re welcome. Olivia is my wife’s cousin and protecting her for me is something I appreciate you doing.” Phillip was a good man, a man who Burati respected. Burati would do his best to make sure Ms. Olivia remained safe.

“I will continue to do my job. If he did kill Thomas, that simply makes me more determined to make sure he is captured and stopped,” Burati said.

“We’ll get him, Burati. I promise you that.”

“I am at the airport and I’ll call you after I have Olivia.”

“Thank you.”

Burati hung up the phone and sat there in the parking lot grieving for his brother. He was almost positive that Thomas had been killed today. He called his cousin Barack because he wanted backup when he went in to get Olivia. If word got back to Mr. Ray that he had taken Ms. Olivia to a safe house, Burati knew he’d be in big trouble. He needed someone who could provide backup in case things went wrong.

Barack waited for him in the departure lounge. “I’m not sure where she is, so we’ll have to search all the departure gates. I’m going to see if she’s purchased a ticket first.”

Barack nodded and was happy to follow orders. Burati didn’t think about anything except finding Olivia. He didn’t dwell on the fact that his brother was dead and he was now going to be a rich man.

Kirk didn’t like airports. He didn’t mind flying, but airport terminals were something altogether different. Public airports were the worst. Everyone was in a hurry and not bothering to get the hell out of the way like they should. Because they were flying with weapons, he and Laz had to go through a special line at security when they arrived in Johannesburg. Laz, being the more heavily loaded down of the two of them, was going to bear the brunt of any questions.

“Stop looking like you want to shoot someone,” Laz said.

Kirk snorted. He didn’t want to shoot anyone. He just wanted to be out of the airport and the crowd. This many people made him cranky. And something that Savage had said on the phone a few minutes ago was making the back of his neck itch.

Regardless of whether they had wanted to do this extraction, it was their mission, and the Savage Seven never failed. And until they got to the girl, the situation wasn’t in his control. He didn’t like that.

“The line isn’t going to move any faster no matter how much you glare.”

“It might. I want the girl with us so we can relax.”

Laz snorted. “You don’t know the meaning of relaxation.”

“That might be true, but I do know the meaning of a locked door in a secure room. That’s what I want.”

“Should be a piece of cake,” Laz said.

Kirk nodded. Laz was fine, but Kirk needed to process the job he’d just done and find his center. Jack would laugh his ass off if he knew that Kirk did that after each kill, but it was the only way he could move on and stay sane. He had a ritual and this was messing with it. He was edgy and ready for a fight. Not the best way to be when he had to protect a friend of Anna’s.

They edged forward in the line. “What the fuck is taking so long?”

“Who knows?”

Kirk took a deep breath. “I’ll get the girl while you get the car. We’ll meet you out front.”

“Fine. We can’t test our earpieces until we clear customs,” Laz said.

“What do you think of everything she saw?” Laz asked. “I know that the fiancé threatened her with a gun, but…”

Kirk shrugged. “That doesn’t have anything to do with our job here.”

“Yeah, I know. But that had to throw her. My sister’s husband turned out to be a pedophile. Maureen freaked out.”

Kirk shook his head. “I’m sorry, Laz. That had to be rough. Does she have to see the bastard?”

“Not anymore. I took care of that problem for her.”

Kirk didn’t ask any other questions. He knew what Laz meant and that was enough for him. He would’ve done the same if he’d had a sister. Despite the fact that he was a loner, he did take care of his own.

Of course the only family he had were the men of the Savage Seven. The line inched forward a few more feet. And Kirk couldn’t take another second. The walls were closing in around him. He needed fresh air.

“You okay?” Laz asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, great.”

They were waved up to the customs agent. Kirk pushed past Laz to go first, knowing his friend wouldn’t care. He handed the form he had and the weapons permit to the man.

“What’s the purpose of your visit?” the agent asked.

“Work.”

“When will you be leaving?”

“In twenty-four hours,” Kirk said.

“You have to claim your weapons with our agent.”

Kirk nodded. “Welcome to South Africa, Mr. Mann. Enjoy your stay.”

“Thank you.”

Kirk took his passport and walked to the area where he knew he’d be able to reclaim his weapon. He wondered if that wasn’t part of his problem. He felt damned naked without his gun.

Laz was right behind him. They collected their weapons and radio communication earpieces, which they both donned immediately.

“Check, check,” Kirk said.

“Gotcha,” Laz said.

“Savage? You on here?”

“Sure am. Where are you two?” Savage asked.

“Just outside bag claim,” Kirk said. “Where is the girl?” Now that they were here, he was ready to get this mission rolling.

“She’s in a café waiting for you,” Jack said. “Laz, there is a car waiting under your name. I think we need to check out Olivia’s car. See if it’s where she left it and put a tracking device on it in case the fiancé comes to get the car.”

“I’ll do that,” Laz said.

“I’m on my way to find the girl. I have her photo. Does she know to expect me?” Kirk asked, reviewing Olivia’s photo on his BlackBerry.

“Affirmative,” Jack said. “Anna’s been on the phone with her since she arrived at the airport.”

“Good. I’ll let you know when I’m in position,” Kirk said.

Laz left to find the car and do his tasks. Jack was on the line but not talking and Kirk didn’t let any of that bother him. One of the things he really liked about his team was that they all pulled their own weight and could be counted on to do their jobs.

He entered the airport departure area where the restaurants were and walked toward the café where Olivia was waiting. He saw a group of students standing in the entrance area as two men who looked like professionals in his line of work pushed past the students.