Page 70 of Coup De Grâce
“Over here, asshole.” Thumper was leaning against the counter without a care in the world.
Kavanaugh jerked his chin at him, stalking over. “Got any liquor in here?”
“It’s a vineyard. What the fuck do you think?” Thumper asked. He shoved a mug in Kavanaugh’s direction before walking over to the table and taking a seat.
Kavanaugh slammed back the mug of coffee, grimacing as he swallowed. “That is not alcohol.”
“No shit. It’s the middle of the night. It’s coffee.”
“Terrible coffee,” Kavnaugh muttered.
“I made that coffee,” FNG grumbled.
“And it’s still fucking terrible. Now, what’s the plan?”
“Easy. I need to get out of the country.”
“Nope!” FNG grinned. “No can do. In order for you to get back to your life, we need to clear your name, which we can’t do from the good ol’ US of A. Nope, we need to run toward the problem.”
“There’s just one issue with that. Running toward the problem will literally put me in the middle of a fucking war,” I argued. “Besides that, I have a whole bunch of terrible assholes hunting me down that would love nothing more than to wipe me out and anyone on my side. Which puts you in a pretty fucking dangerous position.”
“Yeah, but just a little danger,” FNG scoffed. “I mean, what are we talking here? A few baddies. Money-grubbing, power-hungry animals? I got that.”
“Worse. These are men without morals. They won’t fall easily, and they seem to know every fucking move I’m going to make.”
“Because they’ve been tracking all of us for years,” Kavanaugh said. “Lock called when I was on my way here. Apparently, the three J’s and Libby broke into one of their offices?—”
“Libby?” I cut him off. That wasn’t fucking good. The one decent thing that came out of all this was that Libby had walked away. She was no longer involved, and one less person was a hell of a lot of weight off my mind. Especially since they would target her since Rafe brought this all upon us.
“Yeah, she?—”
“Call Lock and tell him to get her the fuck out of there.”
“No can do,” he answered. “Lock isn’t at the home base of operations. He’s over here. Well, notover here, over here, but on this side of the planet.”
“Then who the fuck is with Eva?”
Kavanaugh winced, glancing down at his shoes. “Um…not sure you have to worry about Eva.”
Because she was gone. That’s what he was going to tell me. She had left and taken our kids. Not that I could blame her. It was actually better if she was gone—away from me and the disaster I brought upon them. Still, it fucking hurt to think about ending this, only to go home and find no one there waiting for me.
“Anyway, the three J’s took off with Libby not long after. Something about finding some asshole.” He shrugged lightly. “There are a lot of assholes out there. It might take them a while.”
“They’ll protect her,” I said to myself. Libby was the last link I had to Rafe, and I would make sure she stayed safe, even if she didn’t want me to.
“So, as I was saying,” FNG cut into my thoughts, “we need to get on over to where you just escaped from and find this supposed evidence they have against you. We can’t prove you didn’t do it if we don’t have that rifle.”
“We would need a hell of a lot of help.”
“Well, you’re in luck,” Kavanaugh grinned. “Because I just happened to bring some of the craziest men in the world with me. Though I’m not sure you’re going to like who I chose.”
“Please tell me you didn’t bring IRIS,” Thumper sighed.
“Okay. I didn’t bring IRIS.”
“Seriously?”
“No, but that’s what you wanted to hear,” Kavanaugh chuckled. “So, when do we leave?”
