Page 104 of Coup De Grâce
Easing down in the chair, I tried to sort my thoughts, to figure out the next step, but I was lost as to what had happened over the last few days. I didn’t know how long I had been out even though it felt like only hours.
“Where do we stand?”
“Your guys have been leading Shadow agents all over the fucking place for days. So far, we’ve taken out fourteen of them. However, your good friend from the other night has vanished. No idea where he is. We haven’t been able to track him since he nearly killed you.”
“And you’re not likely to.” Iron was as slippery as they came. “What about Michael?”
“He hasn’t shown his face anywhere.”
Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face, remembering my last conversation with him. “We can’t trust him.”
“We never could,” Knight mused.
“He’s not just part of the Shadow Government,” I told Knight. “Right before I left for the job, I found out he’s the one in charge. He’s fucking running the Shadow Government.”
The shock on Knight’s face was nothing more than a flicker in his eyes. “No, that would mean?—”
“Exactly.”
“That would mean what?” IRIS asked as he walked into the room, picking up the tail end of our conversation.
Kavanaugh and Thumper followed, all of them watching curiously.
“Michael is running the Shadow Government,” Knight explained. “Which means he knew all along what Rafe was planning, and he never fucking tried to stop him.”
“Wait, if he controls them, why the hell didn’t he go in and get Izzy back?” Kavanaugh asked.
“Because it would fuck up their plans,” I surmised. “Everything the Shadow Government does is for some supposed bigger reason. If they felt Izzy needed to stay with Zavala, they wouldn’t have lifted a finger to do a damn thing.”
“But that’s his fucking daughter!” Thumper exclaimed. “She was being raped and beaten, and he just allowed that?”
I didn’t have any answers for him. The anger was dull in my head as the meds started to kick in, and I was barely able to focus on more than making my eyes stay open. Exhaustion swept over me swiftly, making everything around me slow down to an annoying crawl.
“We can’t trust him,” I said, the words sounding slow and drawn out even to my own ears.
“In order to take down the Shadow Government, we have to take down Michael,” Kavanaugh said. “Are you okay with that?”
It was odd that he was asking me. After all, his old man had been shot right in front of him as he was being told about the very group that was running the world. Now, he was asking permission to go after my old man and take him out.
I chuckled at the humor of the situation, but no one else seemed to find it that funny. “Bet this is fun for you,” I murmured.
“What’s that?”
“Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?” My eyes drooped as I tried and failed to keep them open.
“This isn’t about payback, Cash. I don’t take any pleasure in knowing what has to happen if we want to end this.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. After all the shit I’d done, I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to shove a knife between my ribs.
“Sorry, man,” I slurred, wishing I could keep it together long enough to tell him how fucking horrible I felt about the whole thing.
“Let’s get you to bed before you pass out at the table,” FNG said, shoving his shoulder under my arm. “Kavanaugh, grab the other side.”
I stumbled with them to the bedroom, barely aware of Eva undressing me after I was gently plopped in bed.
“You’re burning up,” Eva whispered.
“No less…than I deserve,” I forced through cracked lips.
