Page 133 of The Wrecked One

Carter waited for their quick hug to end before sharing, “Nicholas agreed to our proposal. In his words, ‘two sharks are better than one.’ It wasn’t an offer he’d have considered with myself and Soren, but with a man known as the devil of Dublin—who happens to have hotel-owning experience—he was sold on bringing Renaud in as well.”

“Not to mention he’s getting double the price tag with Renaud in the picture, right?” Jack piped up from his position between Gray and Jesse. “So, we’re really co-owning the bad-guy hotel with Renaud, huh?”

The light laugh that left Carter’s mouth caught me off guard. We were probably all overtired. Or Carter was starting to loosen up given the weight was finally beginning to lift from our shoulders after being crushed by it for so long. “I don’t know about you owning the place, but yeah, by the time my son is born, I’ll be a hotel co-owner with?—”

“Your doppelgänger,” Jack finished for him, getting him back with his own jab. It was doubtfully the word Carter had planned to use. “You know, we should change the logo to something involving a fork.” He waved his hand in the air. The classic I can see it now gesture.

“Or a leaf,” Gwen teased, drawing a few chuckles from the rest of us. The man would also never live that down, courtesy of the jungle dating-game op that had brought Jack and Charlotte together.

I wasn’t quite sure yet what Falcon would be doing with the hotel, but I was game. New beginnings and all required new changes. New doors and new roads to take.

“I see my dramatic eye rolling is rubbing off on you.” Mya elbowed Carter in the side. “But, um, back to the serious stuff, what are the next steps? What’s POTUS want us to do? We can’t holed up here forever, right?”

Carter and Gray exchanged a quick look, Carter deferring to Gray with a lift of the chin. While Carter had been managing the hotel deal, Gray had been on a call with his father figuring out next steps for taking down The Collective.

Gray folded his arms, looking around at all of us with small nods as if saying, Good fucking job, everyone. “POTUS likes the plan about the headline story revealing everyone’s name. He has a few concerns about the ripple effect it may cause, creating some fear and anger among people as they learn how we’ve had our strings pulled for quite some time. So, we have to do this cautiously. But ultimately, the President and his administration believe this is the right move, particularly going after those we can’t simply arrest or freeze their assets.”

“We definitely don’t want people to panic, or have a major stock market crash from this. Need to protect people’s 401ks and the like, but we also can’t give these assholes time to reorganize and restructure,” Sydney noted, and yeah, I was in agreement with that.

“I forgot to tell you with everything going on, but Raymond Pecker was intercepted at the border trying to escape,” Gray revealed. And thank fuck for more good news.

“Almost disappointed about that.” Jack grinned. “I would’ve enjoyed watching Carter hunt that bastard down and giving him a taste of his own medicine.”

Yeah, me, too.

“Until the vault has been cleared out, and some of the dust settles after Mya’s story is published,” Gray cut back to the main focus of our conversation, “I think we should all maintain a low profile. Stay off-the-grid.”

I hadn’t realized Wyatt had joined us until I heard his quick, “Agreed.” He pinned his daughter with a sharp look as if worried she might object.

She returned his stare with an innocent smile and shrug, holding her hands in the air. Poor guy. I didn’t envy him.

“I’ll be sticking by Diana’s side in Dubai until my son is born, letting the SEALs and POTUS’s Delta guys handle the target list,” Carter said decisively. “Then my family will come with me to The Sapphire during the transfer of ownership in October.”

“That’s about three months from now. Glad you could convince Nicholas to hold off until then.” Another win for us, I supposed. And after everything we’d been through, we deserved it. “Does that mean no operating for the next ninety or so days for any of us?” I was good with that. I had time to make up for after being away from Mya for so long. And I needed time to finish the process of healing both mentally and physically.

“I’m down with that plan,” Jack agreed. “My son’s due soon, and Gray, well, your baby is still newish.”

“Newish?” Gwen chuckled. “You really will be a fun dad, won’t ya?”

“Damn straight.” Jack eyed Wyatt. “Still as overprotective as your old man, though.”

“You’ll all understand what I go through when your kids get older,” Wyatt grumbled. “And what I’m going through now with my youngest, too.”

“Well, there’s plenty of room at my place in Dubai if anyone would like to stay there. Otherwise, move your asses somewhere else until we can guarantee everyone’s safety with everything going down.” Carter’s order was one I could get on board with. Well, the second part of what he’d said.

“No plans to go to Dubai. Not on my bucket list to revisit, but thank you.” Not even for therapeutic purposes.

“A safe house in Florence might be nice?” Mya shot me a pleading look, as if concerned I might not agree about a meeting with her family before the so-called dust of our problems officially settled.

“Listen, we’re never truly safe, are we?” And that’s the truth. “In our line of work, we’ll always be looking over our shoulders. It’s the consequence of what we do, so I’m on board with Italy. As long as it’s as safe as possible for us and your parents and sister, then?—”

“Wait, I’m confused,” Mason cut me off, and oh shit, that was right. He hadn’t been at base to learn about Tony’s other shocking revelation. I supposed no one on the team wanted to deliver that message to him, knowing it was only Mya’s to share.

“We’ll give you some space.” Gray gestured toward the group to move away.

Mya tugged my shirt to stop me from following that order. “Stay.”

She grabbed an iPad from her desk, and shared with Mason what she’d learned about her parents and sister.

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