Two days later...
Gabbie looked up at Tobias as they sat in the kitchen eating breakfast. “Your men took care of the people who came too close to the house a couple of days ago?” She had been sleeping with Tobias and they had suddenly been shocked out of sleep when one of his people slammed into their bedroom with full battle gear and head covered in the ski mask as well. All he had said was that they had problems. She hadn’t known what the problems were until Tobias came back hours later bloody. She had been terrified for him but thankfully none of it had been his.
“And you, are you okay?” He had taken a blow to the jaw but other than that she was pretty sure that he was okay, at least she hoped so. He’d had a big bruise on his jaw but he seemed to be eating okay so that must not have affected him as she had figured it would. “Has there been any word from my father? I know that he’s now called the contract on my head as a dead or alive, but do you know anything more?” Thankfully, his team had found the caverns and thought they found a weak spot to use to take out her father but she was still fighting it. She was hurting because he was her dad, after all.
“I’ll live,” he said. Taking a sip from his glass he watched her over the rim. “Your father has been calling in all his associates for meetings. There has been much yelling and even more ranting. He also killed three yesterday. We’re assuming it’s a message to the others not to trifle with him. We believe it’s to do with the searches he’s conducting in country believing you are still here. While we tried to make it appear you’ve left without any choice with federal agents he’s obviously covering his bases since he has nothing but a paper trail to follow. That way he thinks that you were taken by the Feds and not taken because of slipping out of your house to go clubbing. And since it was all done under code names and smoke screens and he’s a paranoid sort with a psychopath, as his right-hand man, he’s not going to stop searching any time soon. And no, we didn’t use any real identities on agents. All the agents were fashioned after my team which means that Juan can’t find them because they don’t actually exist.”
“Good.” She said with a smile. “And if he’s killing his people then he’s slipping even more. That means that either someone will take over from him or else they will kill him. He’s seriously gone off the rails.” She reached out and found herself touching his hand. “Who knows, maybe one of them will do the job for you?” She smiled wanly, because she knew the truth. They were going to have to do it. “What if,” She trailed off. No, no she couldn’t say anything like what she was thinking. She was thinking of very bad things, like a bomb that would explode and contained inside of her father’s glass tomb he built for himself.
“We couldn’t get lucky enough, and we’d still have to deal with them. While they could ravage the company, we all know that without you, they can’t get everything. There are certain items your father has tied up the access yo. If you were married to one of them then they would have that access, yet another reason we need them all taken down. At least the top dogs need to be put down. Anyone that comes up after to replace them will be too concerned with keeping their turf and won’t be all that worried about coming for you. It’ll take them years to get back into any kind of condition to mount such an operation, and by then hopefully they have other concerns that keep them occupied even longer.”
“I certainly can hope and pray that they completely forget about me. It’s my hope that maybe, just maybe, he will call a meeting in his rooms and,” There she was thinking bad things again. “Please don’t think that I’m bad.” She whispered. “What if on that thin space, they were able to put a bomb there and blow all of them to bits? The room would keep the explosion localized, right?”
He was staring at her, his fork hovering an inch below his mouth. Blinking slowly, he nodded before setting the loaded utensil down. “If your details about the rooms are correct, and I’m totally inclined to believe they are, then yes the rooms would contain the blast. At least the initial blast. There would be massive structural damage, and that section would probably collapse but there would be little to no damage beyond the confines. I’ll have to confirm with my bomb guy and we’d need to run some simulations to be better informed, but yeah it could work.” Tobias frowned at her and reached over to take her hand. “Why are you suggesting this?”
“It would be the easiest way to take him and his head men out, including Quan. Do I like it? No. God, I’m talking about patricide right now but everything that I’ve been learning about him,” She hesitated. “He’s not the father I knew. He’s been unraveling more and more over the years and I never realized it. If this will ensure that his dealings would be in chaos for a time, I’m all for it. Especially if it will take out most of his upper echelon of men.”
“We’ll run the simulations to see if it’s plausible. If we can get it to work consistently on the computers then we’ll put it into play. Only problem is, we’ll need to also come up with a way to have all his associates there and their seconds. You know him better than we do, what might occur that could draw them all in while leaving their men out of reach?” He was rubbing his thumb to her knuckles slowly like he was attempting to soothe her. She’d noticed he’d done that several times over the last couple of days. Whenever he was either tense or she thought too hard about her father he would reach out to touch her.
“If he thought that I was coming home to marry Quan.” She whispered. “I won’t, of course, but if he thought that I was coming home to marry his second in command then he would gather everyone so that they would witness who would be taking over for him.”
“No, not happening, not even the thought that you’d go back. Think of something else, Gabriella. Besides which, as far as he knows you are under federal protection somewhere in the United States. A situation they would not be letting you free from nor one you could get out of without your passport to get home.”
“Money missing.” She said suddenly. “I can get into his money and if suddenly there was money missing, and it was routed into his men’s accounts, I have a feeling that he would quickly call them into his house. Trust me, that would be something that would piss him off to the nth degree.”
“Now you’re thinking smart instead of reacting, much better.” Squeezing her fingers, he stood to clear the table. When he was done, he took her hand in his and drew her up. “If he discovers money missing, how long would it take for him to call the others in for a meeting to finger the guilty party? And I’m going to assume we’ll be splitting the money up between all of them to ensure he draws them all in.”
“Twenty-four to thirty hours. He wouldn’t sit on it, he would call them as fast as possible so that he could get them off their game. And yes, we will split the money evenly between them with one unknown, who took a much smaller percentage, as the person who actually took the money, or so he will suspect. It won’t take him long to find the money missing, so when I do it, you guys will have to be ready as soon as humanly possible. It might not even take twenty-four hours if he has his men there now.” She admitted.
“We don’t want them there, we need the time to set up for it. We’ll wait until they have all left this time to return home and then start to get things into place.” Cupping her face in his palm, he stared into her eyes. “I have to ask this again, Gabriella. Are you really sure this is the way you want to go? If not, we will pass on all information to another team, and pray they do it the way we would have, to end this. I’m willing to let this one go, for you, if that’s what you want.”
She was confused. “Why would you let it go for me?” She asked softly even as she leaned into him. “But I’m sure. If you passed it off they might miss the chance.” She looked at him, she let him see her hurt and pain because she couldn’t seem to hide that from him. “I don’t like it, I really don’t, but it has to be done and it has to be done right. I understand that. I really do. It needs to happen, and as much as I hate it, I know that the burden must fall upon you and your team. All I can do is give you the information needed to ensure that he’s taken down and never harms another small child again.” That’s what she needed to keep in mind, she was protecting children by doing this. Protecting their innocence.
“I would do this because you asked. I don’t like thinking I’ll be the reason you are hurting. I definitely don’t want you looking at me and seeing one of the people responsible for killing your father.” Stroking his thumb to her cheek he leaned in until their foreheads touched. “Especially if we’re going to continue to be in one another’s lives.”
She closed her eyes and moved so that her nose could brush against his. “And is that going to happen?’ She whispered softly to him. “I don’t understand it, but these last few days have been far more than I could have ever expected and it’s because of you. I feel as if I’ve known you all of my life and that’s very strange.”
“I suppose it depends on what you want, Gabriella. You’ve had too many choices taken from you and I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything. This hasn’t exactly been an ideal situation either, between the stress and the unknown. When everything is settled here I think you need to take a few days, alone, and consider your options. If you realize it was all the intensity of the situation I’ll make sure you are looked after and safe.” His hand slid down to curl around her nape, his fingers gently working the muscles there.
“And you will take a few days and figure out if this was all just the heat of the moment as well? If you are asking for me to take time to figure out if this is what I want will you also please take those days or whatever it takes to ensure it’s what you want as well? I like you, Tobias, very much. I feel as if I’ve known you forever and it is so very confusing to me. I have such a sense of deja vu when I’m with you that it stuns me. It’s not bad, it’s good. Very good, which is why I think that you need time to ensure that being with me is what you would want as well.”
“For you I’ll take those days, but I’m used to making decisions on the fly and knowing they are right. I couldn’t be in the position I am without that ability. But I will take a couple of days, like you will, to think it through fully. Don’t be surprised if I am impatient for your answer though. It has never been my strong suit. Amazing really, given all we seemed to do in the service was hurry up and then wait for days.”
“And how long are you making me take to decide?” She asked with a grin. “Because I would like to know how long I have to be away from you, not sleep with you, not have you close. I have to tell you, I’m not liking this, at all. I’m not enjoying the idea of being away from you for a long period of time.”
“Two days, minimum, but we really should take a week to be absolutely sure. Like you, I’m not happy with the plan. The thing is, we both need to be sure it’s what we want and not the heat of the moment. You and I have been closeted together with you having no other contact. There is a term for such situations, especially when the individual in question has been kidnapped, which we did do to you. Stockholm Syndrome. Best you have the time to clear your head, focus on everything around you and then choose.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “And how will I be safe? Where will I be to take this time to clear my head and so on? Are you going to send me on an Alaskan cruise for a week so that I am safe and I am keeping myself busy and thinking if this is what I want or not?” She knew however, she knew that this was what she wanted.
“Something to that effect, yeah. If that’s the route you want to go, that’s what we’ll do. You’ll have security with you because we can’t take any chances, slim though they will be at that point if the op goes according to plan. And on that note, I need to update the team. We’ll have to acquire some materials, double check the caves and footings. We’ll also need to figure out how to drill the floor to help with the collapse, all without being detected. Should have brought the ninjas,” he muttered. For a second Gabbie wasn’t entirely sure he was kidding.
“The ninjas? I don’t understand. Please tell me that this is just you joking? You don’t really have ninjas on your payroll, do you?” She took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m good with having security with me on a cruise. I figure it will be safest but where will that leave you?” She was curious what he would be doing while she was on a short cruise trying to figure out what to do with her life and how he was a part of it.
“Probably trying to figure out what our next job will be. And sadly, we don’t actually have any ninjas, wish we did though. That would be sweet.” Breathing out he lifted his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Why don’t we go watch a movie for now? I can’t update the team until later, which leaves us with a little time to kill.”
“That sounds good to me. Pull out your laptop and get us whatever you might have on there so we can watch something. Anything.” She had no idea how they got the things that they got there but she wasn’t going to argue it at all. “Your team, they are good at what they do, right? For the explosives and so on?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod. “We have someone that, while not officially an explosives expert, is damn close. We’ll need to get the materials to take out that section which will take some time to collect. It’s not like we can go into the local store and pick up several bricks of C-4. We’ll have to create our own mix, something with a big bang but that won’t go wild on us. I don’t want to set the forest on fire. My team will know how to make it happen and we’ll figure out where to get the materials. Best guess we’ll be ready to go in three days, less if they already have some supplies marked as part of a different plan.”
“And as I said if you put it in the right place the glass enclosure that he’s built inside of the house then it will be contained by the bullet proof glass and so on. Add that to the concrete that’s in the floor. I would however have them possibly use a depth detector to ensure that there isn’t thick steel or whatever between the thin part of the ground and the house.”
“We’ll be drilling the concrete. Enough that when the first blast occurs the slab breaks up and drops to allow the secondary blast to take out everything in the space. If we didn’t do the drilling, given the information you provided about the space and our educated guesses, all they’d feel would basically equate to a three or four on the Richter scale. A rumble and not much else, they’d scatter so far and so fast we’d never get them all. With the concrete compromised and a two stage blast we ensure that anyone within the space is taken out of the equation.”
“Smart, very smart.” She replied to him. “You guys have everything together and that’s good.” She nodded, couldn’t help herself then from sighing. “Do what you need to do, just tell me when you need my help. As I said, I know how to get to his money and will be able to get it to all the players that you are telling me that we need to point to so please make sure to get their names so that I can get it into all of their accounts and of course a dummy account for the so-called hacker.”
“I think we can set up an account for our hacker to have. We’ll want it looking new and shiny and unused, it’ll raise his suspicion more. It’ll appear disposable, like the money is going in and then out again in no time. Or maybe we set up a couple and route the money through them to a final account somewhere relatively secure but not impossible for him to track down. Think on that part, we want it to appear believable to him in every way. Any suspicion he has could end this before it gets started.” Tobias pulled out his laptop, a high end seriously durable piece of hardware, from under a stack of maps and went to the sofa along one wall. He got it set up and then sat back to watch her. “Do you want horror, action, comedy, or romance? Not entirely sure how the last ended up in my account but I have an idea and the guilty party may well pay for it for years to come.”
“I think a comedy would be best. I don’t want anything else because I’m living in an action-horror movie right now and later I really hope that you will show me romance.” She stated simply. She didn’t touch anything he said about the dummy account because she knew what he was saying. While her father didn’t know it, Gabbie was actually fairly brilliant with computers and hacking courtesy of a boyfriend she had who went to MIT and wanted to impress her and taught her all he knew.
“Well then, we have several choices. Get over here and give me some input into what you want to watch.” Tobias patted the seat cushion next to him. Leaning back, he rested his arms along the sofa back. “Come on, Gabriella. Time’s a tickin’.”
one.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Starting the movie, he cuddled her in and pressed a kiss to her hair. “Well, this may be a horrible idea if we both end up passed out, snoring and drooling while the movie is still playing. My team members will gladly take advantage, at least a couple will.”
“I doubt that they would dare because they haven’t met me and they wouldn’t take the chance of me waking and seeing them.” She once again yawned. “I like you, Tobias. Odd, I know, but I really do like you. It’s not Stockholm Syndrome, it’s you being you.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” he said quietly. “It’s part of why I’m insisting on our few days apart. To ensure that we’re both on the same page with everything. You know, before I strip you naked and lick you into orgasm and then fuck you hard, deep, and long. Need to make sure we’re playing by the same book.”
She pulled back from him and gulped, literally. “Dear God, you have no idea how much I want you to do just that. I would do anything to be able to have you doing just that.” She could just pray that he would be all she needed because she knew she needed something more than just sex.
“That’s only for starters, to burn off that desperate sexual edge. Then we can settle in for a long night of playing. But enough about that, watch the movie and definitely do not think about all the possibilities of what may come in the future. No need to think about that, it’ll only put you on edge and make it harder to focus on the here and now.”
“I’m already on edge.” She admitted freely to him. “I’m trying not to think about it, I really am so yes, the movie.” She turned to look at the screen again and yawned when she did so. She felt herself drifting off again and tried desperately not to think about sex with this man and instead simply relaxed enough so she could drift off.
“Good girl, the movie is what we both need.” She felt him rest his cheek to her hair, his fingers coasting up and down her arm lightly. A couple minutes later his hand drifted down to rest near her elbow and she felt his large body relax more going loose against her.