“Why’d we pick this place for the meet?”
One, it was fucking cold. These guys were mostly based out of South America. They were used to heat and humidity, not frigid temps. And two, because it was on the north end of the States. They had to make the trek around and through Canada, and I had friends up there. They were looking out for me, so I’d been getting reports on their progress.
I didn’t say any of that to Josh, instead saying, “Because I wanted to inconvenience them.”
He grunted, going before me as we left the plane. We arrived early on purpose, and as soon as we touched down, a fleet of cars were leaving Missoula and would be arriving in thirty minutes.
Josh glanced at me, frowning. “I know you keep things close to your chest, but maybe share the connections here? You’re Mr. Badass in fighting, but I am one of your guards. You die, I’m outof a job.” A dry grin was on his face when I frowned at him. “Humor me?”
My frown deepened, but he was right. I had been keeping things too close to my chest.
“I grew up with these two guys from my mom’s family’s neighborhood. Robbie and Ace Mistroni.”
“The fighter?”
“He has a manager that is a retired military guy. He specialized in covert op missions, worked as a mercenary for a long time, and has connections deep into that world.”
“And that’s how you got in touch with the guys who were doing security for your grandfather?”
I nodded.
The night was clear, but cold. We had men positioned around the airport by now, and we could see the faint glow of headlights approaching from the north. I was guessing those were the guys we were meeting, but my men were coming from the west and they’d be coming in dark.
Josh shivered, blowing on his hands and shifting his weight. “Fuck. I didn’t think it could get colder than Chicago.” He paused a second. “Wait. What’s this guy’s name? The leader.”
“Harden.”
“Mike Harden?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’ve heard of him?”
He whistled, nodding. “If you have him on your side, you’re good to go. He’s known to be the best of the best, if you get my drift.”
I did. It was why I reached out to him.
“Why are we meeting with him now?”
Josh wasn’t usually this inquisitive, but the cars were nearing the airstrip from the road. I stepped forward, my hands coming out of my pockets, and I waited to approach as the cars pulled one by one onto the airstrip. It was small and private, so theydrove right up to us. Three trucks in all. All black. The doors opened on each one of them, an entire team of men stepping out. They were large, muscled, and each wore a bulletproof vest with visible shoulder holsters.
One of the guys from the last truck moved forward. He wore a hard face, dead eyes, and he was just as large and imposing as the others.
He was also their leader. “You’re Colello.”
“Harden.”
He nodded, looking around, scanning the perimeter. Then he faced front, his hands going to the sides of his vest. “We weren’t alerted when Bastian moved on your woman’s mom. We made the trip to let you know that in person. Clocking your second security team trying to sneak up on us is insulting, but we’re still here. We’re trying to impress upon you that we didn’t double-cross you. That should say everything to you.”
His jaw clenched. His eyes flashed.
A few of his men shifted in their stances, similar expressions on their faces.
It was telling me they didn’t like hearing how their target killed an unarmed woman on their watch, because it was their watch. It was the whole fucking reason we were having this meet.
“You are a member of my grandfather’s security team. I understood that and understand that’s why it took this long for a face-to-face, but I’d like to know how you got away from him for this meeting?”
His eyes narrowed on me, staring long and hard. “I’ll say this much. We didn’t like your grandfather before you reached out. Now that we’ve been working for him, we activelydespisehim. Your mission to take him down has become our mission, too, but it’s not that simple. He’s got multiple teams of security. We were dispatched because someone from your grandfather’s family cut free. This was all kept under wraps. When we were roped in, it was thirty-six hours ago, and we were told that the men higherthan us on Calhoun’s trusted list tried to contain the situation. They failed and they were letting us loose to search him out.” His eyes were steady, tracking my every movement, the slightest emotion I let through. He wasn’t reading anything from me, and his mouth turned down. “Why do I think you already know about this person?”
Fuck that.