Page 54 of Jacking Jill

The parking lot where Kay Steffen was just getting out of her black BMW SUV after making a very interesting—and very fucking disappointing—phone call.

That treacherous bitch, Romeo thought savagely as he gulped down his whiskey, wiping his mouth on his jacket sleeve and watching two of his guys meet Kay in the lot to inform her that she’d been summoned to the boss’s office immediately, right fucking now.

“Thank you for making it easier for me, Kay,” Romeo muttered as he watched a streak of uncharacteristic panic flash across Kay’s pale face. She glanced up at his window, and when their gazes met, Romeo knew that Kay knew.

She knew that Romeo had heard every damn word of her betrayal.

Thanks to the unexpected—and somewhat suspicious—help from IMG Corporation.

“That worked out perfectly, Romeo,” came the robotic-sounding AI-generated female voice from his phone on the desk behind him, making him turn and stride over to finish up the call before Kay got dragged in here. “It took some doing to trace that Darkwater phone. We couldn’t get the GPS coordinates on that first call, when Kay was talking to Benson. But when that clueless Jill Hennessy called back, it gave us another chance, and we’ve got their location now.” A pause, then the voice came back on but now as a male voice, the third time the IMG person had switched the AI voice during their long conversation. At first Romeo was thrown off by the changes, but soon he got the sense that it was just one person throughout, and she or he was almost certainly running things at IMG. This wasn’t some underling. It was Mister or Miss IMG themselves. “Interesting,” the voice continued. “It appears Darkwater is constructing their own facility somewhere in Virginia. John Benson appears to be putting down roots, preparing for the long haul.” The IMG voice made a chuckling sound dripping with contempt even the AI couldn’t mask. “That’ll make it all the sweeter. If only I could be there to watch Benson burn in the flesh just like his soul will burn in hell for all eternity. Oh, well. Maybe I’ll be able to watch the fireworks in night-vision if we can hack into a nearby surveillance drone or spy satellite. Let’s see. Here we go. Tracing the route now. Ah, Benson has picked a nice secluded spot, tucked deep in the woods. Excellent. It means you don’t have to worry about being quiet, Romeo. And you’ll have plenty of time before any reinforcements get there—though I suspect Benson will not call the authorities for backup. Getting police and FBI caught in the crossfire just complicates the cover-up, and a CIA snake like Benson is always thinking ahead to the cover-up.”

Romeo frowned at the venom being spewed at this guy John Benson. There was clearly a personal vendetta at play here. Diego had expressed a similar level of hatred for this mysterious former CIA guy, and Romeo almost wanted to meet the old dog Benson, congratulate him for inspiring such strong feelings of bloodthirsty violence.

Of course, none of this was funny in the least, and Romeo gulped down another whiskey in silence, then placed the empty glass on the table and poured himself another from the wide-hipped bottle. He swallowed it in a single gulp, then sat down heavily in his chair and rubbed his eyes as he waited for his guys to drag Kay’s skinny ass up the stairs and into his office.

They were sure as hell taking their time, but Romeo was in no hurry to have that unpleasant conversation with Kay. Yes, he’d been planning to put Kay down anyway, but he hadn’t expected to have to do it so soon.

Because although her betrayal had gutted him, Romeo still had a tender spot in his savagely selfish heart for that tragic butterfly whose wings had been ripped to shreds by the dark violence that had broken her, turned her into this cold creature who lived to visit violence on those kinds of men, maybe even all men.

“You are in agreement that Miss Kay Steffen cannot live to see the morning, yes, Romeo?” The IMG voice switched back to a woman’s again, and now it occurred to Romeo that perhaps the cold robot-like cadence was more about the oddly formal construction of the sentences, like perhaps the IMG person was not a native English speaker.

“Kay’s a dead woman, don’t worry,” Romeo said grimly. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. I just need to work out the logistics and timing. I’d rather not have any more people dropping dead around the Carmine Mansion tonight. I’ve got cops on the take in the local Police Department, but there are limits to what they’re willing to overlook.”

“Take Kay with you to the Darkwater facility and do it there,” came the smooth female AI voice’s response. “Burn the place down with all the bodies in it. That should cover your tracks well enough. Enough to give you plausible deniability, at least. With any luck, the surviving Darkwater men will blame Diego and go after him with renewed vigor. That works out perfectly. We need to cut Diego loose anyway. He is too exposed now, too much of a risk to our future plans.”

Romeo blinked twice and raised an eyebrow. “But without Diego, how will I coordinate with the Zeta Nation on the shipments?”

“I am working on it. For now, understand that Diego is compromised and we have to distance ourselves from him, cut him loose and hope that Darkwater or the CIA take him out quickly and quietly,” came the response. “It is too late to save Diego. Benson has dragged him into this confoundingly powerful Darkwater vortex of energy. I fear it has scrambled Diego’s signals, made him irrational and unpredictable—especially when it comes to that woman Mercy and her daughter Cari. He is drawn to them, will eventually find his way back to them even though he knows Benson has got his Darkwater men watching and waiting for Diego to do exactly that.”

“Diego has a woman and child in the United States?” Romeo frowned. “That’s news to me. Well, all right, that’s a major vulnerability. I can see how it makes Diego a weak link. If he’s got his family somewhere in the States, it’s only a matter of time before Darkwater or the CIA gets him while he’s visiting them.” He thought a moment. “Hell, why haven’t the wife and kid already been picked up as accomplices?”

“Because they are not his wife and child. They have nothing to do with Diego or the Zetas,” came the response. “He only met them a few months ago in Baltimore. The woman did not even know his name until after that mess with the bomb outside the Senator’s home. It is this Darkwater thing that Benson has spun up. Diego cannot play that game, certainly cannot win at it. Sometimes you have to cut a drowning man loose before he pulls you down into the spinning whirlpool.”

Romeo felt a stab of pain behind his left eye, like nothing was making sense. “If they aren’t his wife and kid, why does Diego give a shit about them? He’s wiped out entire families with the Zetas. And what’s all this crap about whirlpools and vortexes and Benson spinning up games with Darkwater?”

Silence deadened the line, then a computerized glitchy sound came as the AI-voice switched again. “It’s complicated. Trust me when I say Diego is now a liability. He might be of some use to my larger plans if he manages to stay alive more than a week, but as far as the Zeta Nation shipments of Fentanyl to the Carmine-controlled docks are concerned, Diego is history. I am already in touch with one of the Zetas down in South America, a gentleman named Ernesto. He knows his way around technology and the modern banking and financial systems, will be a much more reliable partner going forward.”

Romeo furrowed his aching brow. “Does this guy Ernesto know you’re cutting Diego off? Isn’t Diego the leader of this Zeta Nation? They aren’t going to just cut their leader out of the damn loop.”

“They’ll have to if Diego is dead.”

“That’s a big if. The guy has eluded Darkwater, the CIA, and every other agency hunting him in the U.S. for months now. He’s former Mexican Special Forces, knows how to be a ghost, disappear into the shadows, survive on his own.” Romeo snorted. “I hope you aren’t asking me to kill Diego Vargas too. I’m not your damn errand boy.”

“Diego is no longer your problem,” came the cold response. “You cannot understand this the way I do, but believe me when I say Diego has been drawn into Darkwater’s path—a path that will lead to a dead end for him. Especially if Benson dies tonight along with Wagner and Jill and whoever else is at Darkwater HQ. The remaining Darkwater men will blame Diego and redouble their efforts to hunt him down—with the full support of CIA Director Kaiser and possibly every other federal agency. Even if Diego survives in the shadows, he will have so much heat on him that the Zeta Nation will have to cut ties if they want to avoid being bombed back to the stone age.”

Romeo shook his head. “If I kill Benson and a bunch of his guys and gals tonight, won’t the surviving Darkwater guys want to take out my ass too, along with Diego’s? Not sure I want to go to war with some ex-military guys in cahoots with the damn CIA, all of them out for revenge.”

“You are already at war with them, Romeo. This is your best chance to win. Remember, you ordered a hit on Jack Wagner, and now you have to finish the job on him anyway to preserve your standing in your macho mafia world. Wagner is at the Darkwater facility right now, so you need to go through Benson and the others to get to him anyway. Besides, Darkwater is Benson’s own little project, has nothing to do with any U.S. government agency. Yes, CIA Director Martin Kaiser has a long history with Benson, has been covering for Darkwater the past eight years. But even Kaiser is rumored to be on rocky ground. It’s by no means certain he remains in place as Director after the Presidential Elections—even if Robinson wins the White House.” A long pause, followed by a hissing breath that made Romeo wonder if he was talking to some kind of a snake-demon. “Look, Darkwater has only about a dozen men in total, and many of them are long-retired and well past their fighting prime, with wives and kids to think about. Darkwater is not as formidable as it sounds. Benson and Kaiser do not have wide support in either the Intelligence or Military circles of the U.S. government. In fact, it’s entirely possible that some in the U.S. government will be privately relieved that John Benson and Darkwater have been eliminated. You strike tonight, under cover of darkness, with superior manpower . . . you can win this, Romeo. Everything is laid out before you. Your fate is there for the taking. Your destiny shimmering like a prize. But you have to make the choice, Romeo. Fate will respond if you make the choice. That is how the great game is played. And like it or not, you are in the arena now, Romeo Carmine.”

Romeo stayed quiet, his head spinning through the options, circling around the obstacles. It was a twisted mess with no clear path through. Retreat was possible, but it would be more than just retreat—it would be defeat. His standing in the mafia world would erode. He would start to lose his influence with the dockworkers unions and the customs guys.

And without those connections, Romeo was useless to IMG.

Which, Romeo considered with an uncharacteristic shudder, could very well put him on this mysterious Miss IMG’s kill list.

All right, so there was some logic to going forward, to attack and not retreat.

But Romeo had to admit there was something else driving him onward too.

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