I got the call from my brother as I was boarding the jet to fly to LA for a meeting. “The oil refinery is pushing illegal imports to another terminal. We got a boat full of women over there that the FBI just intercepted.
“I shook that bastard’s hand,” I whispered.
“I know. I think, fuck, man. I don’t know. If I could, I’d kill him myself. They had kids on there that are Ivy’s age.”
“Katie and Rome with you?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Katie spoke first. “I want the whole refinery to suffer. I want to kill one or two of them myself.”
Cade chuckled. “Bastian’s not going to allow that. We need to be discreet and try to work out a solution.”
My gut reaction yanked me one way. The immediate response was to shut it down but instead, I remembered her words. Morina made these quick decisions all the time, she went with the flow. She followed instinct rather than logical reason.
“I want the man dead,” I said quietly.
“What?” Cade asked, his voice high.
“Rome, you’re retired from this, I know that. You tell me the best man to do it, then, or I’ll do it myself.”
“Bastian,” my brother said, “we can’t–”
“Why can’t I, Cade?” He’d been made an accommodating man because of me; now I had to unmake that man. “They’re killing families all the time. Why can’t I?”
“We’re better than them,” Katie announced. “You’re better than them. You do what we can’t. You see the silver lining, Bast.”
“Morina left.”
“I know,” Cade said. “You’ll both figure it out though. She’s an Untouchable now and she’ll understand.”
“Understand that I shook hands with this man? It’s specifically what she told me not to do.”
Someone sighed over the line.
“What do you want us to do?” Rome said it like he was ready to spill blood again. “We’ll do whatever you need.” He had a little girl though and a family that needed him.
“I want his cybersecurity system breached for the oil refinery. Make it known it’s us and infect the networks with ransomware. If he doesn’t agree to pay five times what he’s made on those families back to them, I will crush his whole business.”
“That type of breach will be deemed a national emergency, Bastian. That’s… are you going to call the president?”
“The president can call me, Cade. I’m done fucking around.”
39
Morina
Day two of driving up the coast and Bastian still hadn’t called.
It was probably for the best, a clean break now rather than later.
I stared at palm tree after palm tree on a coastal road and wondered why I didn’t miss my food truck more.
Instead, I was missing Moonshine and him. I missed seeing his face before I went to bed, and I missed waking up and smelling crepes that he’d made for me. It’d been two days away and I was already considering crawling back.
Sighing, I pulled into another parking lot and hopped from my pick up. I’d been surfing from beach to beach, so just wore a bikini. As I pulled my board out, the sun warmed my skin and I took in this new stretch of sand, not crowded with people at all.
When a black SUV pulled up, I sighed again. Security for life was something I needed to get used to. Bastian had said the words so seriously, I knew arguing was pointless. I had anyway.
I wanted Sebastian to take the reins, to tell me he’d just handle everything, that we could be together and I didn’t have to leave, that he wouldn’t make any side deals.