The Mercenary (9 page)

“There is. Keep thinking like Ray,” Kirk said. He really admired her guts and the way she wanted to do the right thing. She was brave and willing to stand up for her family. That kind of loyalty meant a lot in his book.

“Well, I wouldn’t have guessed he’d go public with my kidnapping, but I guess that makes sense. He can’t take the blame for it. I bet the other guy he killed is going to take the fall for his illegal activities,” she said.

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kirk said.

“Why?”

“If it does, you’ll never be free. You’ll be the only one alive who knows his secret,” Kirk said.

“You know it, too,” she said.

But a smart man like Ray would suspect that Olivia would tell him everything, so he’d be searching for the two of them.

“We need to make sure he doesn’t find out who I am,” Kirk said.

“Why?”

“Because I have a long list of aliases, Olivia, and if he finds out who I am, it’s going to make it impossible for you to be believed as anything other than a villain and maybe even the mastermind behind his illegal activities.”

She backed away from him. “Who are you?”

“You know who I am,” he said. And that was the truth. With her, he was a man with a soul. A man with a conscience. A man with hope for a life that might be lived beyond this job that had been his world for too long.

“The one man who makes me feel safe,” she said.

A
UGUST
3, P
RETORIA SAFE HOUSE

O
livia tried not to dwell on the fact that Kirk was the man who made her feel safe. Instead she concentrated on the plan they’d laid out. She had a rough script that she was going to use to contact Phillip. Her cousin was the only one on the inside of the diamond consortium she could turn to. And she realized she was putting not just herself in danger but Kirk, Laz, and Anna.

Charity Keone had arrived early this morning and she looked like no bodyguard or private investigator that Olivia had ever seen. She had long blond hair and stood almost six feet tall. She was stunningly beautiful but she carried herself with the same kind of quiet confidence that Kirk did.

She wore a pantsuit and a shoulder holster for her handgun. Olivia had spent most of the morning just sitting quietly and listening to Kirk, Laz, and Charity talk about the situation. Olivia had answered questions when she’d been called on to, but for the most part she’d let her mind dwell on Kirk.

She was becoming obsessed with him. Last night she’d sat up until he’d come upstairs and asked him once again to sit in her room while she slept. He didn’t argue and she’d found it comforting to have him so close once again.

“Olivia?”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening,” she said.

“Your parents are making arrangements to leave their cruise and come to the city to help look for you according to Ray. I’ve contacted him and told him that I will be providing protection for your parents.”

“Can you protect them?” Olivia asked. “If not, please just tell them to stay away. I don’t want them in danger because—because I made the decision to trust the wrong man.”

Charity nodded. “I am very good at what I do, and I promise you, your parents will be safe with me.”

“Good,” she said. Kirk gave her an odd look, which she ignored for now. “What do you need from me?”

“Things would go a lot easier if we had someone on the inside of the diamond consortium working with us.”

“I can call Phillip,” she said.

“Do you trust him?” Kirk asked. It was the first time he’d spoken to her since she’d told him he made her feel safe.

“Yes, of course I do.”

“With your life?” Kirk asked again. “If you’re wrong—well, that kind of mistake could be lethal.”

She trusted Phillip but this situation was different. Would Phillip betray her? What if he was working with Ray?

“I have no idea if I can trust him with my life—with your lives. He’s a cousin by marriage and he’s always been kind to me.”

Charity put her hand over Olivia’s. “Then call him. If he’s not trustworthy, I can handle him.”

She looked over at Kirk and he nodded at her. She took a deep breath before dialing his number.

“This is Phillip.”

“It’s Olivia. Are you alone?”

“Olivia! My God. Are you okay? We are all so worried about you.”

“I’m—I’m not too sure what I am. But for right now I am safe,” she said, looking up at Kirk.

He just nodded at her. They had used a sophisticated phone that was untraceable, so there was no way that Phillip would be able to find her unless she set up a meeting with him.

“Good. Now what is going on? Do you need me to send a car to get you?” he asked.

“No. Ray tried to have me killed Phillip. I witnessed him killing another man. I am…” losing it, she thought. And she was. She was hyperventilating just remembering everything that had happened.

Kirk put his hand on her shoulder, and she glanced up at him feeling safe once again. “Are you shocked by what I’ve said?” she asked Ray.

“No, I’m not. We have been investigating Ray for a while now,” Phillip said. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you but I never thought you were in danger from him.”

“It’s fine. I wouldn’t have believed you if you had said something,” Olivia said. She didn’t want to dwell on the past or try to assign blame. She knew that she’d made a mistake by falling for a man she hardly knew. As she glanced over at Kirk, she warned herself not to do it again.

“Anyway, Phillip,” she said before he could continue to apologize for introducing her to Ray, “I have a friend who works in the security sector and she has provided me with a bodyguard. Another person on her team is going to start investigating the murder with the cops. I had hoped that you would be able to work with us. To help us catch Ray and put him away.”

“Who is this? You know that diamond consortium business is private. We handle our own problems,” Phillip said.

Olivia felt a twinge of anger. “Well, this isn’t private any more. He tried to kill me, and he is a threat to my parents. I don’t think he’s going to let me live, Phillip. He can’t. I’m the one person who has seen him kill—the one person who can put him away for life, and he knows it.”

“Yes, he does. Listen, I can’t talk here. I have a meeting at Onyx in thirty minutes. Do you think you can meet me?”

Olivia put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “Should I meet him?”

Kirk’s first instinct was to say no. He didn’t care about catching Ray Lambert and taking the man to jail. He cared about keeping Olivia safe and he couldn’t do that if she was out of this house.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Charity said.

“It’s crazy. It could be a trap.”

“That’s why you will be our secret weapon. No one is better at providing cover than you are,” Charity said.

“I agree,” Laz said.

“So yes?” Olivia asked.

Kirk realized she was looking at him. She was waiting for him to make the decision. “Yes, but you tell him where to come to meet us.”

“Here?” she asked.

“No,” Kirk and Laz said at the same time.

“Where?” she asked.

“My place,” Charity said. “I’m staying in a condo near the business district. Give him my address.”

She glanced at him again and Kirk nodded. The condo would be easy to control access to. And they’d be able to cover Phillip and anyone else who entered the building.

“I will meet you, Phillip,” Olivia said.

She nodded and they set the time for later this afternoon. Kirk left the room while she finished up her conversation. He needed to get ready to be the sniper he was.

He needed his weapon and he needed to research the locale. He walked to the panic room, which had monitors, and—hell, it had everything he’d need. Laz was two steps behind him.

“I’m going to go over early and check out the security force that’s already in place,” Laz said.

“Take Charity with you. I’m going to suit Olivia up with a bulletproof vest and I’ll bring her over with me.”

“Sounds good. I’ll send you images as soon as I have them. Do you think this is a trap?”

“I don’t care. We’re good with springing traps.”

Laz laughed. “Hell, yes we are. Savage wants to talk to us both before this goes down.”

Kirk pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Savage’s number.

He put the phone on speaker just as Savage picked up.

“Savage here.”

“We’ve set up a meeting with the diamond consortium and Olivia,” Kirk said, then brought Savage up to speed on where they stood.

“Good. What’s the plan?”

“I’m going over to case the building and check out existing security measures,” Laz said. “Charity is going with me. The condo belongs to her husband, so we’re not expecting too many issues.”

“Good,” Savage said. “Mann?”

“I’ll bring Olivia and protect her until she’s back in the safe house.”

“Sounds like you boys don’t even need me.”

“Well, now that you mentioned it…”

The men all laughed, and Kirk recognized it for what it was. A way to blow off steam before a hairy mission. And this one had too many variables not to be hairy. He knew that Laz would secure the condo and an assailant would have to kill him to get to Olivia. But that still didn’t mean this was going to be a cakewalk. Some of the must fucked-up situations he’d been in had started out as routine.

“Keep me posted,” Savage said.

“What’s your ETA?”

“Late tonight probably two a.m. We got held up in Germany, some problem with our plane.”

“Fixed now?” Laz asked.

“Yes, we’re good.”

They ended the call with Savage just as there was a knock on the door.

Kirk walked over and opened it to find Olivia standing there. “Charity is on the phone with her boss.”

Kirk had realized yesterday that Olivia felt safer with him. Hell, she’d
said
he was the man who made her feel safe. That was good. He could keep her safe as long as she kept her distance. As long as she remembered that he was her bodyguard and not anything else.

“I need you to get changed,” Kirk said.

“I don’t have any other clothes except your T-shirt.”

Kirk led her out of the panic room and into the living area, where a shopping bag sat on the floor. “I think this is for you. Go upstairs and get changed.”

“I…”

He arched one eyebrow at her when she stopped talking.

“I don’t feel safe by myself.”

“I’m right here, Olivia. No one is going to get by me.”

She nodded. “Did I make you uncomfortable when I said you made me feel safe?”

He shook his head. “I’m damn good at my job. You should feel safe.”

She bit her lower lip. “It’s more than just you doing your job.”

“No, it’s not. This isn’t your reality, Olivia. Whatever you are feeling is just your mind’s way of getting you through this ordeal. Once you have your life back—you’ll feel differently.”

She didn’t say another word, just turned on her heel and climbed the stairs. He watched her go, wishing for once he was wrong, but he knew he wasn’t. He had never been wrong about this type of situation. And he knew that wishing wasn’t useful.

Burati wasn’t getting very far with finding the man who’d taken Olivia, and to be honest, that didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have. He just needed to make sure that he kept the problem from getting worse.

He laughed out loud at the thought. What he had to do was keep Ray Lambert from killing Olivia. And that was going to be harder than it sounded. After all, Mr. Lambert was used to killing, and there were times when Burati believed that Lambert may have become addicted to it.

“Any news?” Lambert asked as he walked into the security room at his house.

“Nothing yet, sir. I have all of my contacts working on finding her.”

“Good. Her parents are on their way here, and I want to have something to tell them. I am meeting with the police later today,” Lambert said. “And I’d like to have a name or something to give them so they’ll leave me alone about the thief I had to kill at the mines.”

The thief? Burati clenched his fist to keep from punching Ray Lambert smack in the nose. His brother had been mourned quietly by their family last night, and Burati knew that putting Lambert in jail wasn’t going to be enough.

Why didn’t he simply shoot the man now?

Phillip would have him arrested, Burati thought. Killing Ray Lambert would mean he would be in jail. And Burati didn’t want that.

“Did you hear me? I need a name.”

Lambert’s veneer of civilized sophistication was fading.

“Yes, I heard you, sir. I’m doing my best.”

“Do better,” Lambert said before turning on his heel and leaving. “Nels!”

“Yes, Mr. Ray.”

“I’m ready to go to the mines.”

A few minutes later, Burati was alone in the house and he sat back in his chair. He had been going over books of mug shots, but no one in them matched the man who’d taken Olivia. Burati realized that the man was probably a professional.

So he tried to focus on bone structure and eyes as he looked over the pictures. He knew he’d never forget the deadly intent in the eyes of the man who had taken Olivia from him.

His phone rang and he glanced at the caller ID. Phillip.

“This is Burati,” he said.

“Phillip here. How was the service for your brother last night? I’m sorry I couldn’t be there—did you get the flowers I sent?”

“Yes, we did. Thank you. What can I do for you this morning?”

Burati wasn’t interested in talking too much about Thomas or his death. He wanted to focus on the future and on getting Ray Lambert in jail—that was the only way that was going to be able to truly put the past to rest.

“I had an interesting call this morning. It was from Olivia. She says she is fine and she wants to talk to me about setting a trap for Ray.”

“Do you know who she is with?”

“She wouldn’t say. I am going to meet with her this afternoon. I will mention that I have a man working on the inside. She has hired a bodyguard for her parents. A woman named Charity Keone-Williams.”

“I think she works with Anna Sterling. I did some research into the Liberty Investigations group for Lambert.”

Burati was glad to hear that Olivia had hired a guard for her parents. Lambert was getting desperate as his operation kept coming under scrutiny, and there was no telling what a desperate man would do.

Olivia was scared.

It was stupid, really, given the fact that she’d spent a lot of time in this part of Jo’burg. It was a place she’d visited and she had even attended a dinner party in this very condo building.

But everything here had changed.

She had changed, she realized. She wasn’t the same person she had been before. She couldn’t just walk into a room and not realize that she wasn’t as safe as she’d thought she was. Not anymore.

Her thoughts were not productive, and she knew that she needed to stay focused. She was wearing a bulletproof vest under her clothing. Things couldn’t get much more serious than this.

A bulletproof vest. She started shaking. Oh no, she thought. Now wasn’t the time for a panic attack.

She needed to think. She needed to get her mind off her own fears.

She started humming, and just as she was about to start singing, Kirk reached over and put his hand on her thigh, squeezing tight.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I just don’t want to be distracted by your singing.”

“I’m so sorry. I just feel like I’m going to crack into a million pieces.”