Seth
Switzerland was colder than Russia had been. The weather was a mere twenty-seven degrees. At least the sun was shining and they were indoors. The Embassy of the United States was located in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. Otherwise known as the gateway to the Alps. Seth wanted to come back when he took a vacation.
Four of them flying to Switzerland was a bit on the excessive side, but Stefano had reasoned more backup was better than not having enough. He’d gotten over his anger at Asher during the flight over. Truth be told, he was glad Asher had insisted on coming along. Still unsure of where they stood as lovers, he couldn’t deny he was wildly attracted to the man and decided he’d take it one moment at a time.
Under the guise of an auditing team, Seth entered the embassy, followed by Asher, with Noah and Reggie bringing up the rear. He snickered beneath his breath when one of the clerks looked skeptically at Asher. Asher scowled and the clerk swallowed hard before hastily leading them to a tiny office in the back of the building.
Asher prowled, the man’s muscles flexed, and he looked dangerous. Wearing dark fatigue pants and a tight black T-shirt, Asher Grayson looked more like a freaking bodyguard than an auditor. Seth stifled a laugh when Asher aimed another hard stare at the office clerk. The guy gulped and hurriedly left, closing the door.
Seth slapped Asher on the arm. “Be nice.”
“This is nice,” Asher grumbled.
Reggie giggled, and then yelped when Asher scowled at him. Seth rolled his eyes and pulled Reggie along to find two computers sitting on two desks toward the back of the tiny room. Noah dropped into a chair next to the desk and perched an open laptop on the surface.
Asher took a chair near the door. Long legs splayed, he scrolled through his cell phone as if engrossed, but Seth knew the man was far from preoccupied. He’d witnessed many times Asher coming up and out of that position with the speed of lightning.
“Yakov’s contact spoke with someone located in the Wauwilermoos Central Switzerland prison in the Canton of Lucerne,” Reggie confirmed, drawing his attention.
Seth pulled up the prison website. “Great, the website is completely in German.” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
“Don’t worry.” Noah chuckled and rolled closer. “The language genius is here.”
Seth gladly handed the tablet to Noah, who began reading it quietly to the group.
“It’s like a ranch,” Noah murmured, browsing through the website. “The prison has several programs. From stabling horses, community wood working, local mechanics, to a library. Oh look, the place even has a farm shop that sells fresh organic vegetables to the public.”
“Since the prison services the public, the inmates must not be considered dangerous to the community,” Seth speculated.
“Or perhaps, they have to prove themselves worthy before working in a department that deals with the public,” Noah volleyed back.
“True. I’ll access the online cameras and see who Yakov’s contact visited.” Seth turned to the computer. The contact was a woman, it shouldn’t be too hard to find her entering an all-male prison.
“Okay. Reggie and I will access the visitor’s logs, there’s a shit ton,” Noah replied.
Seth started hacking into the prison camera system. It wasn’t going to be easy. Since the creation of Swiss Cyber Storm, Switzerland now knew of and employed some of the best young hackers in their country. He’d heard that the creation of the organization had originated in 2017, and had come about after Switzerland fell victim to global hackers in 2016. Having the hard line helped, but it still took a while for him to access the cameras.
“There’s nobody named Lakhonin in the data base.” Reggie said.
Seth rubbed at his temple and saved the screen shot of the contact just inside the prison doors. “There’s no photos of who she was meeting.”
“There’s over two hundred inmates in the prison’s system,” Reggie said. “I’ve downloaded it to my phone.”
“We need that visitor’s log. She could have seen any one of them,” Noah said.
“I snagged all the mug shots.” Seth finished transferring the prisoner mug shots to his phone. Two hundred and sixty-one, it could have been much worse. Still, it was going to take time to figure out which one was their guy.
“Someone’s coming,” Asher drawled deeply from his spot near the door.
Seth flipped his screen down, as did Noah and Reggie, before turning slightly toward the others to go over a printed report of the embassy’s financials Stefano had given them.
“Um, I was just checking to see if you guys want food. I’m ordering from a local place.” The clerk stood hesitantly in the doorway.
“No thanks. We’re going out for lunch,” Asher stated, not looking up from his phone or acknowledging the wide-eyed look the office clerk gave him.
Well, that was news to Seth, but he actually wanted to get out and stretch his legs. Putting on the tourist act helped their being here seem genuine.
“Yeah, I want to see the local scenery while we’re here.” He smiled at the nervous man, which for some reason, deepened Asher’s scowl. He chalked it up to the operative having jet lag, plus Asher’s ever present, all-around grumpy disposition lately.
“That sounds good.” Noah stood and stretched. “I could use a break.”
“Any place you can recommend?” Reggie chimed in.
“Oh yeah, sure. There’s a cafe close by if you like Asian food.” The clerk rattled off the address.
Asher looked slightly horrified and Seth bit back a smile. “Do you have something that serves breakfast food?”
“Um, we have a steak house. I don’t think they’re serving breakfast right now, but you can get a burger and fries.”
“How’s that sound?” he asked Asher, ignoring the curious looks both Reggie and Noah threw him.
“Steak sounds good. What about you two?” Asher turned to Noah and Reggie, and they both agreed that steak sounded fine.
“Alright, then steak house it is.” Seth rubbed his hands together and smiled at the embassy man. The guy nodded in relief and gave them the address before he hurriedly left the room.
Huddled in his coat, he was glad the drive was short. Thinking about checking out the area and actually being out in the cold were two different things completely. The weather wasn’t nice at the moment.
The restaurant ended up being a large hotel-style building with tables and chairs set outside. Why anyone in their right mind would want to sit outside in this weather, he could never understand. A heat lamp stood nearby but it was still hella cold to him. He hadn’t been able to get warm since they had arrived. Thankfully, a fire crackled in a massive stone fireplace that pumped warmth through the inside dining area. The scent of burnt wood drifting along with spices and grilled meat filled the air and his stomach growled. The low hum of conversation made talking impossible until they were seated at a booth near the back.
“What’s the name of this woman, the contact?” Asher asked.
“She left the country as Sara Bunker. It could be an alias. Why?” Seth shot Asher a questioning look.
“I’m just thinking about what we found in Russia.” Asher rubbed at his chin and stretched his arm along the back of the booth’s seat. The warm contact of Asher’s arm along his shoulders sent his pulse humming.
“What are you getting at?” Seth’s brows furrowed.
“Call it a hunch, but who is this Sara Bunker, other than Yakov’s contact?”
Following Asher’s thought process, realization dawned. “You’re thinking family?” Seth’s eyebrows lifted.
Asher shrugged and took a drink of water.
“Okay,’ Seth said suddenly, nodding emphatically. “Let’s lay it all out. Every bit of information we have. Starting from the point Asher and I were in Russia.” Seth kept his voice low. “Even if it’s a repeat, let’s go back over it.”
“Yakov has a wife.” Reggie pointed out. “We located her in Russia, living with an ailing aunt.”
“And we found out that the woman on the balcony was the mistress,” Seth murmured.
“Or ex-mistress,” Asher said, sounding jaded.
Seth glared and almost kicked the man beneath the table.
“Yakov’s son’s name is Vladimir,” Reggie read from his phone.
“Right.” Seth nodded.
“How involved is he?” Noah asked
“It sounds like he doesn’t want anything further to do with his father’s business.” Asher repeated what Vladimir had said about doing nothing further for his father.
“One less asshole to worry about at the moment,” Reggie piped up.
“So, that leaves three women, the mistress in Russia, the ex-wife in Russia, and this woman, one Sara Bunker, here in Switzerland,” Noah said. “What’s the chance this Sara Bunker is the wife?”
“The wife is Aria Lakhonin,” Reggie said. Reading from the information on his phone, the techie held up a picture of the woman. “Sara Bunker and Aria Lakhonin look nothing alike.”
Seth leaned forward to study the picture and then sat back. Reggie turned and showed Noah the picture.
Asher, who had also looked at the phone, said, “True, Bunker could be a new mistress.”
“Aria Lakhonin doesn’t look Russian,” Noah said after studying the picture on Reggie’s phone.
Reggie snagged his phone back. “No, the report I pulled says she’s American.”
“It appears that Yakov prefers American women,” Asher said around a bite of steak. Seth supposed that it was as close to breakfast food as they were going to get when it was almost night time. Maybe he’d research and see where there was a good breakfast place in the morning.
“Apparently.” Seth lifted his phone and brushed his finger along the face of it, scrolling through the list of prisoner names Reggie had sent him earlier. “There’s no Lakhonin on the list, but let me check for Bunker.” Bunker came up empty as well. “Another dead end.”
“Wait. What’s the wife’s maiden name?” Noah leaned forward, taking a bite of his burger.
Seth motioned to Reggie’s phone. “Start checking. You’re the one with the data on her.” Reggie put down his fork and quickly scrolled through his phone.
Seth took the opportunity to dig into his food and watch Asher. Lately, watching Asher had become his favorite thing to do. He couldn’t deny how much he wanted the man. The only thing keeping him from asking Asher to go back to the hotel room and make love was the presence of Reggie and Noah.
Seth looked away from Asher. Perhaps he should do what he was thinking earlier. Maybe they should just cool it. It could be that seeing Asher hadn’t been a good idea to begin with. He wasn’t sure what Asher’s agenda was or if the guy even had one. The man continually boasted about keeping things casual. Seth even overheard Asher telling Noah he didn’t date. So what exactly were they doing? Okay, yeah, when they were together, it was out of this world, but was it just sex to Asher? Each time, Seth felt like they were making love. He was falling for the powerful man sitting next to him. And that was another thing, Asher did the craziest things sometimes. Earlier, when Reggie went to slide in next to him, Asher had given the guy the death stare. Reggie had gulped and quickly switched sides, sitting next to Noah.
Right now, Seth could feel the press of Asher’s thickly muscled thigh against his own and his cock was having trouble behaving.
“Seth?”
He blinked, looking away from Asher’s muscled chest. Had they said something to him?
“What?” he asked, and took another bite of burger to cover up his spacing out.
“Here it is.” Reggie held up his phone.
“What’s her name?” Seth swallowed the bite.
“Gibson.”
“Gibson?” Noah said suddenly, looking up from his plate in surprise.
“Yeah, why?” Reggie asked.
“I just use to know someone named Gibson.”
“What does the inmate roster say?” Asher nudged him.
He jerked his gaze from Noah and down at the list on his phone. Scrolling all the way to the G’s. “There’s a Belton Gibson serving ten years.”
Noah suddenly choked on his food and starting coughing hard.
“Are you okay?” Reggie asked, patting Noah on the back.
“What’s wrong?” Seth asked, concerned for Noah.
“A Belton Gibson lived at the compound where I was held captive,” Noah growled.
“Is this Gibson Aria’s and Yakov’s son? Her brother? Or what?” Reggie fired off, but none of them could answer the techie’s questions.
Seth’s mind reeled. He pulled out his phone and showed Noah the photo he’d downloaded from the prisoner mugshots.
“Is that him? Is that Gibson?” Seth asked.
Noah nodded and plunked his fork down. “How the fuck did he end up in a Switzerland prison?” Noah’s whisper was harsh.
“More importantly,” Seth tucked his phone away, “how did he end up in the compound you were held at?”
“I don’t know,” Noah rasped.
Seth tipped his chin at Asher. “You don’t look shocked.”
Asher sighed. “Nothing surprises me. Let’s go back to the hotel room. I think we need to get the commander and the chief on the phone.”
They all agreed and quickly finished eating, although Noah was done. Seth worried about his cousin, those were some very dark times Noah had spent living on that compound beneath the tyranny of Terrance Manning and Noah’s own stepfather, Ricky Stevenson. Thankfully, both were now dead, but apparently not all of Noah’s tormentors were gone.
They walked silently through the hotel lobby. Reggie had called the embassy and told the guy they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. They’d shut down the computers before leaving for lunch and wiped all traces of what they’d really been up to, so they were in the clear.
The door shut and Noah turned on Asher. “Do you know anything?”
“Hey.” Seth stepped between them and placed a hand against Noah’s chest, not holding him back, but rather preventing him from stepping into Asher’s space. “Let’s call the commander.”
Noah nodded abruptly and stepped back to drop down into one of the chairs in the suite’s common area.
“Stefano?” Asher said into the phone, and then punched the speaker button. “You’re on speaker. We found out the name of the prison inmate Yakov’s contact has been talking to.”
“Okay?” The commander sounded puzzled.
“It’s Belton Gibson,” Noah said before any of them could.
Another deep voice came through Stefano’s speaker phone. “Who’s that?”
“Dad?” Noah inquired with surprise.
“Hello, son.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Having a drink with Stefano.”
A short silence followed.
“Tell me what you found out about this Belton Gibson guy. And who the hell is he? Why do you think Yakov’s contact met him?” Stefano ordered.
Seth took a breath. “There are no cameras in the prison visiting area, so we couldn’t see who the contact met with. But Reggie found out that Yakov’s American wife’s maiden name is Gibson. I checked, there’s an American man on the list by the name of Belton Gibson.”
“Belton Gibson was at the compound where Terrance Manning held me captive.” Noah’s words rang out. The room dropped into dead silence.
“That’s a pretty big fucking coincidence,” Asher growled.
“This Gibson could be the wife’s brother.” The commander sounded thoughtful over the phone.
“That’s one scenario,” Seth agreed.
“Or Gibson could be Yakov and Ari’s son,” Asher pointed out.
There was silence on the other end of the phone. The silence extended into the room as they all processed what that might mean.
“I just don’t see how that’s possible! Gibson is scum,” Noah charged, appearing to lose his cool. “He was unkempt, unclean.” Noah scowled and Seth stood and moved over to place a hand on the man’s shoulder. Noah looked at him. “He was a thug.”
“So is Yakov,” Stefano said.
Rossi’s voice came through the phone. “Even a thug is related to somebody.”
Seth silently agreed. Asher had become awfully quiet and Seth would have loved to know what the operative was thinking.
“Son, I think you, Seth, and I need to have a talk,” Giovanni Rossi said suddenly over the phone.
Seth jerked his head up. Could his uncle mean what he hoped?
“Okay…” Noah drew the word out, looking at him. Seth shook his head. If Rossi was ready to tell Noah they were related, the story should come from his uncle.
“Get back here as soon as possible. I’ll put Allison on researching into Belton Gibson,” the commander ordered. “I just booked a flight for the four of you in two hours. That’ll give you enough time to get to the airport. Hopefully, by the time you land, I’ll have more information on Gibson.”
With not seeing Switzerland at all other than Bern, he vowed to definitely make a trip back there. Maybe once his cousin knew of their relationship, he’d want to take a trip. His gaze followed Asher as the man disappeared to pack. A trip back here for leisure certainly wasn’t in the cards for them. When they got back to the States, Seth was going to have a heart to heart with the frosty man.