“Everyone out.”
Mike jumped up, glanced back at the prisoner, then got out of there. My boys know not to question my orders.
Rocco shut the door and locked it.
The prisoner stared. He looked like a tourist. Shorts, polo shirt. Clean shaven.
But I knew a player when I saw one. He should’ve been terrified—but he was eerily calm.
“You want to skip the games and start talking, or should I take my time?”
He tilted his head. “I guess you’re Erick.”
I pulled out the chair and sat. “And you are?”
“My name’s Roger. Well, one of my names, anyway.”
“Okay, Roger. I appreciate you not trying to pretend like you’re some lost bird-watcher.”
“I thought about playing that game with your men, but I doubt I’d fool you.”
“That saves us a lot of time. So here’s the thing, I’m most likely going to kill you, but you can save your life if you’re willing to work with me.”
“I understand. I need money and an escape route.”
“I can provide cash but the escape’s on you. If we’re caught working with an Oligarch’s man, then we might have some serious problems.”
He hesitated, calculating. “Alright. I can handle that.”
“Good. And thank you for confirming that you’re from an Oligarch.” He grimaced. I smiled and waved a hand. “Don’t feel bad. It’s a high-pressure situation. Easy to make a rookie mistake.
“Half a million and assurances. Then I’ll talk.”
“Done. Half a million and my word that you’ll leave the grounds alive.”
He sucked in a breath and let it out. “Darren Servant sent me.”
“Well fuck.” I drummed my fingers on the table. Not professional, but I couldn’t help it.
If Darren Servant knew about this location, we were going to have a massive problem.
The Bunker was Roman’s favorite home. It was his most secure place in the entire world. It was his freaking fortress of solitude, and nobody knew about it, especially not the other Oligarchs.
Now we had a breach.
And worst of all, it was Darren fucking Servant.
I hated that guy.
“He doesn’t know what’s inside, if it makes you feel any better. He knows there’s something underground, but the place is pretty well shielded, which is why he sent me.”
“Looks like you weren’t much help.”
He shrugged like it was no big thing. “You have good security.”
“Damn right I do.” I pushed my chair back. “Alright, you got anything else for me?”
“One more thing.” Roger, or whatever his name was, glanced up to the camera in the corner. “Turn that off.”
I arched my eyebrows. “That serious, huh?”
“Please.”
I poked my head outside. “Turn off the cameras,” I called out.
A second later, the red LED winked off.
I gestured for him to go ahead.
Roger cleared his throat. Now the fucker looked nervous. “Darren’s taking this whole thing pretty seriously. I’ve never seen him arm up like this before and I’ve worked with him for a few years now on some very deep shit. I think he intends to do your boss harm, and I think he intends to do it soon.”
“How soon? What kind of threat are we looking at here?”
“He bought a shipment of very illegal gas from some shady men from the Balkans last week.”
I whistled. “Gas? That’s pretty intense.” But wouldn’t work: the bunker was equipped some of the most insane air scrubbing technology on the market. The first sign of gas would shut the whole system down until the stuff could be filtered out before it ever reached anyone’s lungs, even assuming Darren had some way to inject it, which he wouldn’t. So the gas was a red herring.
“He also knows about the girl, and I think he plans on doing something to her.”
Now that was more interesting.
We knew that, of course. Roman wasn’t hiding Cassie.
But if Darren wanted to target her, that might be a problem.
She was a liability.
“Thanks for the information. I’ll take it under advisement.”
Roger nodded at me, glanced at the camera, then down at the table. “Darren’s weak right now. Whatever’s going on with the Irish, they’ve been pushing back against his orders. If you wanted to strike, now’s the time.”
I stared at him for a long moment. “I’ll consider about it.”
“Sure. You do that. And hey, if you ever need another guy to help out around here, I’m looking for a job.”
I smiled and left the room.
Rocco met me outside. “What do you think?”
“Take him out beyond the fence and shoot him in the skull.”
Rocco nodded. “Yes, boss. But, uh, didn’t you promise to let him leave?”
“I promised to let him exit the grounds safely. That fucker in there’s trying to bait me into attacking Darren. This whole fucking thing’s a honeypot. Put a bullet in his head and be done with it.”
“Yes, sir.”
I walked off, pissed as hell.
Roman needed to know, but not yet. I had to do a little research first before I burst his bubble. Let him have some time to clean the blood off his hands, at least.