Page 29 of Unfulfilled Promises
I went to turn, but when she said my name, I gave her my full attention. “Seth . . .” Raising my eyebrows, I waited for her to explain. “I . . . I was going to attempt homemade pasta for lunch, if you want to try some when it’s finished.”
Giving her a genuine smile, I nodded as I replied, “I’d love to try it. I have no doubt it’s gonna be delicious.”
She shrugged. “If it sucks, I’ve got dried in the cabinet. Now, get back to your meeting. I need to start the sauce.”
“Damn. Homemade sauce too?” I whistled as she grabbed three large jars of canned tomatoes from the cabinet and began to pop the seals on them. “I’ll let everyone know an amazing lunch is on the way.”
She smiled at me, and I gave her a wink before turning and walking down the hallway toward the war room. James was standing outside the closed door as I approached, and he looked down the hallway and back to me before he asked, “Are you sure about this? I really don’t want to destroy her just to find out we’re wrong.”
Lowering my voice, I explained, “I showed you the video from her outburst at my house, and after pouring over the journal, there are too many similarities between the two to be mistaken.” He still seemed unsure, so I continued. “And what better way to get back at Rhys, Lucian, and Devlin than tokidnap Rhys’s sister and keep you all spinning in circles while he plotted his rise back to power?”
“Why didn’t we see any of this before?” James asked as he shook his head.
“She’s been very good at keeping herself closed off enough for you to think you were protecting her, and I don’t believe it to be anything other than self-preservation.”
“Explain.”
“She said something to me a few months ago that kept scratching at the back of my brain. She said, what if I tell you something so bad that you can’t look at me without disgust?” His forehead drew down as he thought about what she said, and I added, “Think about it. If she was with Sergey and made a choice to save her life . . .” I shrugged, and he gave a defeated nod.
“We need to get in there,” James suggested, and I followed him into the war room.
Rhys had installed a hidden camera outside the room, and we would be alerted if anyone got close enough to eavesdrop. We didn’t want Regan to uncover our plan, so we took precautions. The only person who wasn’t involved with the plan was Hannah. Rhys believed she would tell Regan, blowing any chance we had of getting to the bottom of this.
After securing the door behind us, James and I took our seats as Rhys pulled up some of the court transcripts from Sergey’s testimony and we continued to go through them, the FBI reports that Rhys was able to acquire, and the journal.
“There’s one family we haven’t been able to track down or even connect to any of the workings of the Syndicate. Besides the crazy son Devlin took care of, there’s no trace of the others. I think we need to start there,” Lucian started, and he looked at Devlin.
The madman sat back and sighed heavily. “I don’t know what to tell you. Marco was crazy in a rubber-room kind of way. Hewas constantly watching everyone, and James and I were just pawns in his paranoia. I don’t know anything about the rest of the family.”
“Well, to start, his name wasn’t Marco,” James began, and Devlin gave him a look like he was crazy. “His name was Marcora, Marcus Marcora, and he was the second son of a now-dead Syndicate boss.”
“And why haven’t we tracked down any other sons or potential inductees?” Rhys asked, only for Lucian to shake his head in frustration.
“I’ve been looking for this unknown Marcora for years now and I’m no closer to finding him. The man is a fucking chameleon, and as far as I know, he wasn’t ever officially a part of the Syndicate. He wasn’t one of the members Sergey protected, from all indications,” Lucian replied. “So, if you have any ideas where to locate someone we have no pictures of, no idea where he is or has been for years, and doesn’t appear to be involved, then by all means, tell me.”
“Stop being a smartass,” Devlin warned, and I could sense the tension level in the room starting to grow.
For weeks, we’d debated on how to approach this situation with Regan, and as much as I hated the idea of setting her up with John, one of Devlin’s associates in Portstill, that’s what we were going to do. The meeting was set up, but we let the two of them work up to a date. Tonight, Regan would go to the restaurant to meet John, he’s going to stand her up, and when she left the restaurant, she would have a flat tire. Frustrated and on edge, she would need help.
And that’s where Booker and Caldwell came into play. They were going to stage a kidnapping of Regan, and when they got her to our house, the three of us were going to interrogate her. Masked, of course, with voice changers so she couldn’t recognize us. After a few hours, we were going to allow her to escape,contact Rhys, and from there, Devlin, James, Lucian, and Rhys were going to finish her questioning.
With her ‘able to escape’, they would be able to pull information from her and, hopefully, not break her in the process.
“I still think this is a mistake,” Rhys stated directly to everyone, and I could tell from the expression around the room that everyone was feeling the same way.
“What other choice do we have?” Lucian asked. “There’s still a threat to our families, and if pushing Regan past a point gets us the information we need, then what else can we do?”
The silence spoke volumes as everyone kept cutting their eyes back and forth, having silent conversations about other options. Without any other ideas, we were going to have to go with what we’d discussed and pray we didn’t destroy the last good parts of Regan in the process.
I WATCHED THE MONITORin my vehicle as Regan and Hannah spoke outside of the car she was taking to her date tonight. Hannah was giving her a peptalk about having fun and keeping things casual, and again, I felt like an ass for what we were about to do.
Regan looked beautiful in a pair of black slacks, a nice top, and a pair of sandals. Her makeup was perfect, highlighting her sexy eyes, and a part of me got pissed she was getting so fixed-up for a first date.
“Keep it together,” Booker said to me through the earpiece, and I wanted to call the whole thing off.
He knew how hard it had been for me to step back from Regan, watching her move on from me, even though it wasn’t real. Just seeing her put in effort and being excited about a datewas making me antsy. There was no guarantee this was going to work, and if it didn’t, I just damned Regan to a life of mistrust and fear.
The cameras inside the vehicle captured her checking herself in the mirror before pulling away from Rhys’s house. She was listening to some music, and I could see her lips moving slightly but she wasn’t saying anything.
