“Sounds good,” Adrian said. He crossed the hall and pulled down another painting, running his knee through it. “This was the DeGasse. Russ Coleton paid seven point three million for this at a private auction in Dublin thirteen years ago. Add that one to my tab, asshole.”
I put my hand to my mouth to cover my smile. The look on my father’s face was almost worth as much as it would’ve been to see his whole company destroyed. I’d never once seen someone stand up to him like that. And I could read the absolute rage in my father’s eyes.
As soon as Adrian was gone, my father got up from the table. “In your room, Juliette. You will do as I command, and you will redeem yourself for your family as soon as I decide on a suitor for you.”
“Yes, father,” I said.
38
Adrian
The apartment felt wrong without Jules. Noah, Travis, and Jordan were gathered around the couch with drinks in their hands. We’d all had a few by now.
“Man,” Travis said. “I can’t believe that bastard out-smarted us.”
“He wasn’t trying to catch saboteurs,” I said. “He got lucky. He was just being a creep and trying to vet the guy he thought he might want to set his daughter up with. But we need to figure out if he’s already locking us out of his computer systems. Now that he knows what we’re trying to do, he could shut us out, right?”
“Not quickly” Noah said. “I won’t bore you with the technicalities. To put it simply, I opened digital doors. If he knew what doors I’d opened, he would have closed them. But…” he pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times, waiting. “They’re still open. I expect we have at least a few days before he can get someone to trace my work and start undoing it.”
“That’s good, right?” Jordan asked.
“If Jules gets us the laptop, yes,” Noah said. “Without the laptop, I still only have half of what I need. If she doesn’t get that, there’s nothing we can do.”
“I can’t believe you asked her to stay there,” Jordan said, shaking her head at me.
“Jules knows what she’s doing. Besides, I didn’t say anything. I just gave her a subtle signal and she made her own choice. And I know her. She wants the chance to help us do this. I know she does. And,” I added, “If she takes longer than twenty-four hours, I’m going in after her.”
“How are you going to do that, Rambo?” Travis asked.
“However I have to. I’m not letting her stay there a day longer than that. One day.”
“And what happens if she doesn’t get the laptop?” Noah asked.
“Then I failed all of you. Russ Coleton gets to keep on being who he is and doing what he does.”
Travis nodded. Noah looked solemn, and Jordan took another swig of her drink. This was the most personal for Jordan and I, but Travis and Noah had sacrificed just as much as all of us. We’d all sunk years of our effort and millions of our dollars into this mission. Nobody wanted to watch Russ Coleton get away unscathed, and I hated knowing I was very likely the one who brought this all about. If I hadn’t been willing to risk everything for Jules, we’d probably still be in the clear.
And yet I couldn’t make myself regret it. No matter how many ways I looked at it, I would’ve selfishly done it again if I could go back. I wouldn’t trade her. Not even for this. Not even to destroy Russ Coleton.
Jules was worth more than that. Revenge wouldn’t keep me warm at night. It wouldn’t help pull me back from the brink when I was at risk of losing myself. It wouldn’t make me smile or make me feel the way Jules did. If we failed, it’d be on me to find a way to make it up to the others.
“How are you holding up with all of this?” Travis asked. “We know how much this meant to you.”
“I’m more concerned about screwing this up for all of you, to be completely honest,” I said.
“Seriously?” Travis asked. He blew a raspberry. “I don’t know about Noah, but I’ve just been doing all this to help you out. You brought me into Terranova Holdings and made me filthy rich, man. Feel free to bring me along for another impossible mission and then fuck it up at the last minute if you want. We’d still be good.”
I grinned.
Noah shrugged. “I’ve been retired for ten years, Adrian. I’m thirty-two. If I had anything better to be doing with my time, I’d be doing it. I think Russ deserved to be brought down, but we did a lot of good along the way, even if we don’t wind up getting the final prize.”