Page 321 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

“Where the hell have you been?” Fariq growled.

“Taking a nap,” he snapped back. “I just spent the night on a bloody raft in the middle of the ocean. I was tired. How is it you’re not exhausted?”

“This.” Closing the distance between them in three long strides, he grabbed Reid’s hand and slapped a small microchip into it. “Look at that and tell me what you see.”

The lead weight in his stomach grew a lot heavier. He knew exactly what it was. He’d planted it months ago when they’d bought this place with the intent of using it as a safe place, a just in case sort of place. Like it had become when the yacht sank.

“Looks like a computer chip,” he said reluctantly.

“And what, apart from our private business, do you think is on it?”

Everything that had passed through Fariq’s computers since he’d installed it. Every communication, every banking transaction—everything NATO needed to put this man in prison for the rest of his life.

“Let’s plug it in,” he said. “Maybe I can crack it.” He’d have to corrupt it and dreaded trying to do it with Fariq hanging over his shoulder.

Fariq barely let him finish before snatching the chip from his hand and sticking it back in his pocket.

“So, now you’re a computer wizard, are you? You think you can do better than the three men who’ve already tried?”

“Do you want to know what’s on it or not?” he shot back. It was like baiting a tiger. He could only let the man walk on him for so long before the tiger started thinking he was prey and could only stand up to him for so long before he thought he was being challenged. “Who else do you have?”

“No one I can trust,” Fariq said pointedly. He glared at the mercs crowding Aliya’s room, everywhere but at him, but Reid got the point. “So,” Fariq decided, “I may as well get someone I already know I can’t trust, albeit one who’s capable.”

“You’ve got someone specific in mind?” He was almost afraid to ask.

“Get me Thom Lyndon.”

Reid stared at him and was sure the ‘are you fucking crazy’ was perfectly evident in his tone when he said, “You want me to kidnap one of the Wild Mustang men?”

“Take two men with you. Get him tonight.”

Jesus.

As he watched the other man stalk from the room, the relief knowing he hadn’t yet been found out, never came. For the last few years, every second he’d lived without suspicionshining directly on him had been another second he could still twist things to his advantage. This didn’t feel like that. With his microchip in Fariq’s pocket, all he felt was the clock ticking down the seconds of the time he had left.

He looked at the closed bathroom door, but there was nothing he could do about that itch between his shoulder blades that begged to check on her.

There were too many men here, and by the looks of them, they were planning to stay awhile.

His time was almost up. He had to get out of here.

If it killed him, he had to find a way to get Aliya out of here first.

“You and you,” Reid said, thumbing at the men who had escorted him down here. “Meet me at the helipad in twenty.”

Twenty minutes was more than enough time to get ready in Fariq’s employ. When he gave the order, you dropped what you were doing and did it. Hungry? Tough, eat when you get back. Just on your way to the shower? Nobody needed to be clean more than he needed to just be there. Twenty minutes was the length of time he figured anyone would need to arm-up and get on the chopper.

Twenty minutes wasn’t anywhere near enough time while also trying to plot the immediate coup of a king and keep one very important person from falling into the line of fire. Still, from the moment Fariq ordered him to kidnap the Wild Mustang Security Group’s resident computer geek, a plan began to form. It wasn’t a good plan, he’d be the first to admit that. There were major problems, the biggest that none of the Wild Mustangs knew he was working undercover; not even his sister knew. The old saying, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ didn’t amount to a whole hell of a lot when everyone thought he was loyal to Fariq.

He went to his room, shutting and locking the door before shoving the heavy four-poster bed a good three feet over. He had to use his knife to pry up the false stone top on the hidden compartment he’d installed all those months ago, just on the off chance.

The wireless computer system he’d tucked into it with its microchip recorders and twin signal boosters he hoped might combat all the stone in this place were still there, feeding off the electrical wires of the ceiling light one floor below. He had no idea if any of the information he’d partitioned from Fariq’s personal computers had actually made it onto the microchip, but he took it, slipping it into his pocket.

From there, he made his way to the armory, loading his weapons—two extra mags for the Glock in his chest holster, a 9mm tucked into the back of his pants, and a smaller Colt Mustang for his boot. He wasn’t expecting too much trouble, so long as they caught Thom off-guard and alone.

He gave the rest of the Wild Mustangs until tomorrow morning before they were fast on his tail like a swarm of angry hornets, ready to take the whole place out. Faster, maybe, if he could figure out where and how to leave the microchip where the rest of Thom’s crew was sure to find it.

As it turned out, that was both easier than he thought, but sure to circle around and bite him in the butt.

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