This was the life she signed up for—bruises, broken bones, blood, and death—but some days, all Bella wanted was to be normal. No guns, no drones, no bugs, and no plots.
It wouldn’t be today, or likely any day soon. Instead, she and Leah dressed up in disguise, yet again, in order to maintain contact with Natasha Blithers. Her social media had gone dark, and it mildly surprised Bella that she hadn’t closed her accounts. But the woman had gone from posting several times a day to absolutely nothing; not that she could blame her.
The mercs had been busy trying to figure out how to bug the Blithers manor without it being obvious or immediately discovered. The idea they’d come up with was a cell phone fastened to the underside of the bed in the primary bedroom, activated using stingray technology, which utilized a false cell tower. That way, they could listen in for a while, but only until the modified battery died. It was undetectable with bug sweeps and could only be found by accidentally locating the actual phone. They’d also bugged Natasha’s phone, since she was less likely to go through security checks than her husband.
So far, they’d overheard a lot of profanity and accusations, which got them nowhere. Derrick wasn’t spilling his secrets, even to his wife. Rather, he was running for cover, trying to explain why the picture of him and the young lady existed in the first place, much less how it had leaked. Fact was, there were zero excuses for his behavior other than to admit he'd cheated on his wife of over twenty years. Natasha was ready to bash his head in for having sex with a woman the same age as their children, then take all his money and divorce him.
It seemed likely she’d be successful on all counts.
Holden and the tech team had drafted an anonymous email to Tito using a newly created and untraceable email account. Finally, he responded with intrigue in the moments before the ladies left the house to console Mrs. Blithers.
“He says he’ll do it for a million,” Dara read from the laptop.
Seamus snorted. “Didn’t expect him to do it for free, but leave it to that bugger face to demand that much cash.”
“I’m sure he thinks he’s worth it, regardless of the usefulness of his information.” Bella adjusted the bits of blonde hair framing her face, turning away from the hall mirror to address those close by. “If we can negotiate, then let’s. Otherwise, pay the fucker and get the info.”
“Perhaps we can take the money back once he’s followed through,” Jasper suggested.
“We’ll have to pay him a portion upfront and a portion after.” Nigel scratched his cheek. “Could simply not give him the rest after we gain the intel.”
“Playing dirty,” Jake said. “As always.”
Frowning, Edward snapped, “What the hell is your problem, Black?”
“I’m sick of all of this! I have another daughter I haven’t seen in ages, who’s stuck in hiding so this shitstorm doesn't fall on her head too! I just want to go back home and return to some sense of normalcy.”
“Be my guest,” Edward growled. “And when the agency discovers you’re still alive, they’ll remedy that real quick.”
Leah stepped over to her husband. “We’re all stressed, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“We could start by not getting involved in more of his machinations,” he replied, pointing at Edward.
“This wasn't me. I was out of the game as surely as you were.” Riled up, Edward paced the small foyer. Bella knew it was either that or physically fighting with Jake. “I turned them down each time they came to call so we wouldn’t ever have to be the men we once were.”
“And look where that got us,” Bella said softly. “Right smack in the middle of it after all.”
Emmett shook his head. “We can’t just return to normal anymore. They made sure of that.”
Dwayne interjected, his hands held up in a gesture of peace. “We’ve all been set up. There’s no rhyme or reason to it except that Blithers wanted us to toe the line and we didn’t.”
“In my opinion, he wanted help covering up his crimes,” Holden said. “And, unfortunately, Tito is now our only hope of hearing anything going on inside those offices.”
“It fucking sucks,” Jake grumbled and walked off.
Leah looked torn, but she joined Bella by the front door. “We need to go.”
They had a car and driver, thanks to the mercs, and it took the entire ride for Bella to calm her nerves. She didn’t enjoy pretending to be some vacuous society maven, having to fake caring about things she found completely boring and pointless. But it was essential to the mission, and she’d certainly learned long ago that the mission came first.
Edward would say that family is everything—teaghlach gach rud—but the mission somehow always surpassed the good of the family.
With no alternative but to love her husband and go the distance with him in his revenge, she would pretend to be Tandee Brown for a little longer. Soon, she would demand he tell her what he was withholding, mostly because his intensity had begun to frighten her. More than the need to make Blithers pay, Edward had something else going on inside him. Perhaps the devil fought an internal war and Edward had yet to find a way to gain the upper hand.
That wasn’t exactly a first either.
“It’ll be okay,” Leah reassured her.
Turning to face her, Bella asked, “Do you ever regret being friends with me?”
“What? No.” Leah frowned, reaching out to touch Bella’s shoulder. “Not even once.”
“I’ve sure caused you and Jake a lot of stress.”
“Life causes stress. I know Jake misses Abby and worries about her, but she’s safe.”
Staring out the window, Bella said, “I know the feeling. Sometimes it feels as if Quinn accidentally steals all my attention.”
Maeve and Caitriona had their own lives, and they didn't begrudge their parents the need to see Quinn safe. So far, Aerinn was their only grandchild, but sooner or later the girls would get married and begin their families. Bella intended to be as involved in that as possible, which meant stopping Blithers now while they could.
When they reached the charity offices, they double-checked their disguises before getting out of the car. Bella imagined Tandee and Rowana as sisters-in-law married to wealthy brothers, left alone all day to entertain themselves in the city to which they’d recently moved. Volunteering time and money seemed to be the default activity for women in the metro area, giving them an easy way to integrate with their peers.
Women gathered in the front reception area, talking animatedly as Bella and Leah walked through the double glass doors. After a quick scan of the surrounding area, Bella couldn't find Natasha anywhere.
“Ladies, what’s going on?” Bella asked as she approached the gaggle of talkative women.
“Tash isn’t coming in today,” one lady with a particularly nasally voice responded with a roll of her eyes. “Says she has a migraine and for us to go on without her.”
A woman on the opposite side of the group muttered, “I’d have a migraine too if my husband was bouncing on some nineteen-year-old slut.”
The others laughed indiscreetly and murmured amongst themselves.
“Have you ever run this place without her?” Leah asked. “Is there anything useful we can accomplish today?”
The first speaker smirked. “Who says we ever accomplish anything useful?”
“If day drinking is useful, then we sure do,” another one said.
They laughed again.
“I’m confused,” Bella said, though she was anything but. “Don’t we set up fundraisers and charity balls all the time? Work with the community to help them access healthcare?”
“No, Mary Sue, that’s just what Natasha wants everyone to think.”
It didn't come as a total shock, but it sounded as though these women didn’t even like Natasha Blithers.
“She does all the talking, all the delegating, and then we phone it in. All of our husbands write big checks for these so-called fundraisers so we can smile big for photo ops.”
Sounded like a scam to her, but at least the charities were getting money. Without their target in the building to make contact with, Leah and Bella had no reason to be there, and gossiping was at the very bottom of her list.
“Has anybody heard his excuse?” someone whispered.
Freezing in place, Bella pretended not to be intently listening in. Perhaps the gossip would pay off after all.
“Apparently Josie said that she heard from Jennifer that Amanda Barrett is only fucking him because her daddy is in deep with Blithers.”
“In deep how?”
Angling closer, Bella pulled her phone out to record the next part.
“Like, Derrick Blithers and Andrew Barrett go way back and have done some bad stuff together. Amanda is the treat Andrew’s dangling in front of Derrick as long as he continues to do the VP’s bidding.”
“Ew. She doesn’t even get to choose?” asked the nasal bitch.
“Nope, doesn’t sound like it.”
“That’s just short of prostitution or some shit.”
When everyone nearby devolved into uh-huhs and other murmured agreements, Bella signaled for Leah to head out. Following close behind, Bella saved the recording and sent it to Edward.
Out on the sidewalk, she said to Leah, “Another bust when it comes to running into Natasha.”
“Who has eyes on her?” Leah asked. “Is she really going to hide out all day?”
Shrugging, Bella replied, “Don’t know, but let’s talk in the car.”
Stephen had left the car idling and looked up when they climbed in. “Where to next?”
“Haven’t a clue.” Bella called Edward. “Did you get that?” she asked when he answered.
“Yeah, it’s basically what we expected.”
“Should we make another attempt at contact with Natasha?”
“She left her house thirty minutes ago, and we presumed she was headed to the foundation headquarters, but she went somewhere else entirely.”
Bella waited for a minute while he talked to himself.
“It looks like the CIA offices are her new destination.” Edward made a sound of aggravation. “We can’t exactly follow her inside.”
“We’ll come back to the safe house,” Bella said.
Once they’d returned, they found Edward pacing and Holden sitting in front of a laptop with headphones on.
“He’s listening to the conversation between Derrick and Natasha,” Edward explained. “He met her in the lobby and hauled her out to the car to argue.”
Dara said, “So far, she’s screaming at him as one would expect.”
“Is she aware of the information we heard today?” Bella asked.
“From the sound of it, that’s the gist of the argument.”
“Maybe someone will finally tell us something we can use,” Jasper said.
The other laptop pinged with a notification, and Dara clicked the mouse a few times. “Bollocks.”
“What?” Edward demanded.
“Tito won’t negotiate. Wants 75% upfront and the other 25% after delivery.”
“Sounds like he expected foul play.” Dwayne circled behind Dara’s chair to read over her shoulder. “Slimy bastard. Wish I’d never hired him.”
“Knew he was a cunt from the start,” Nigel sneered. “No one wanted to hear about it.”
“To be fair, you call everyone a cunt,” Danny pointed out.
“That’s right, ya salty cunt, now shut your trap.”
Bella couldn't help chuckling at them. “We need proof he’s good for the info if we’re wiring him that much cash.”
“Whoa,” Dara whispered, sitting back in her chair.
“What? What is it?” Emmett asked, striding over and standing behind her.
“Tito sent me a redacted letter with all sorts of shit on it.” Her jaw dropped, but she quickly snapped it closed again before speaking. “It’s the proof we wanted that he’s worth the money.”
She turned the screen so they could all see. Bella leaned forward, squinting at the small print, and Edward joined her. The letter was heavily redacted, some of it appearing to have been done with a photo editor, as though Tito took a picture of something and crossed out the vital information with his pudgy finger.
“No shit.” Edward looked at Bella.
She gazed back at him, tears in her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”
“What is?” Quinn asked, descending the stairs and joining them in the dining room.
Edward straightened to face his son. “Tito Gonzalez sent a snippet of information on Blithers.”
“And?” Quinn asked.
“And he was working with the Taliban, not hunting them.”
Dara’s statement caused silence to envelop them all.
“Damn, dude,” Holden muttered, taking off the headphones and scrubbing his hand over his hair. When he turned to the rest of them, he frowned. “Why do you all look like your grandma just died?”
“Did you hear anything useful?” Edward asked him.
“Blithers admitted the girl was sent to him by her father, the vice president.”
“We already know he has zero morals,” Emmett said. “This is nothing new.”
“He made that his excuse, as though his wife would just have to accept the fact that he only had an affair with this girl because her daddy is Derrick’s good friend and he was paying him back for helping him solve a problem.”
Seamus came into the room then, glancing at all their faces. “I thought I had important news, but from the looks of it, so do you.”
“Well, for starters, the vice president sent his daughter to Derrick as a thank you.” Quinn made a disgusted face before continuing. “And, apparently, he was working with the Taliban in some fashion, though we’ll have to pay Tito his asking price if we want the smoking gun of proof.”
Seamus shook his head. “What in the French fried fuck?”
Snorting, Jasper asked, “What news do you have?”
“Ben was trying his damndest to trace the bank account plugging money into Derrick’s offshore account, and he hit pay dirt.”
“Well?” Edward demanded, hands on his waist.
“He confirmed it’s the VP.”
“So, we’ve got him pimping out his daughter as a thank you, payoffs as a thank you . . . what is Derrick giving him in exchange for all these gifts?” Holden wanted to know.
“That’s the million-dollar question, and it looks like the answer is a direct line to terrorists.” Quinn stared hard at Holden. “You really had no idea that your boss is this much of a traitorous piece of shit?”
Holden shook his head. “I had some suspicions over the showdown with Zion, especially since they knew so much about the PEOC and were able to gain entry so easily.”
“That shitty situation turned into a monkey trying to fuck a football real fast.” When no one said anything, Seamus asked, “What?”
Maybe they needed the break in tension, or maybe they were all losing their collective minds. But they all burst into laughter at what Seamus said.
“Now all that’s left is tying it all together so we can prove it and release it to the world.”
Bella knew Edward was right and hoped it would be fast. She was as sick of sitting there in hiding as everyone else. For the rest of her life, she’d be grateful if nothing more interesting happened than weddings and babies. She deserved it.
They all did.
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| Natasha |
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| Dara |
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