Once the ceremony ended, Dryce was eager to get back on the plane and head for Dubai. As the plane took off, Dryce picked up his phone and called his friend.

“Hey buddy, what’s up?” Dryce chattered into the phone. “Yeah, man… I’m heading your way now.”

Dryce smiled and laughed into the phone, bobbing his head up and down. “Yeah yeah, I love street races. You know I do. Is there anything else going on tonight?”

Dryce continued to chat on the phone, laughing here and there. Erik took his own cell phone out of his pocket and started to text.

Heaving a deep sigh and briefly closing his eyes, Austin looked over at Erik. “You know what this means, right?”

“I’m on it boss. Got it covered. I’m texting the mechanic now.” Erik flashed his phone screen to Austin.

“You remember last year in Dubai? The last time he attended those damn street races?” Austin asked.

“You mean the time we had to haul ass and do damage control when his highness and his friend got caught providing alcohol to all those underage girls? Yeah, I remember that. There will not be a repeat of that,” Erik promised.

“Exactly! Do not let that boy out of your sight.” Austin leaned forward, his elbows landing on his knees, and started to rub his temples. “I’m getting too old to keep cleaning up after him like that.”

“Don’t worry, sir. Nothing like that is going to happen again.” Erik finished up the text and put his phone away. After a short pause, Erik looked back over at Austin. “Wait, are you not going to be with us for this party or whatever?”

“You know the prince… the second we land in Dubai he’s going to want to head over to meet up with that bad influence friend of his. You shadow him. I’m going to try again to contact Yally,” Austin said, still rubbing his temples.

Dryce hung his phone up and tossed it on the couch. “Hey Erik.”

“Already got it. I just got done texting with the mechanic and we’ll have your car at the airport waiting for ya, sir.” Erik winked.

“Tank… my man! You are the man.” Dryce smiled. “Tompika is throwing a massive party at his place tonight. This is going to be epic!”

“Look, you can go. Of course, you can because you wouldn't listen to me even if I told you that you couldn’t go. But I don’t want you actually participating in any races. Your father already doesn’t like you having that thing as it is and he’d have my ass if you raced.” Austin tilted his head up looking at Dryce. “That car is too fast, and you’re not that experienced behind the wheel. No racing, under any circumstances.”

“Relax, Austin. There aren’t any races going on tonight, that’s tomorrow. Tonight there is just a party at Tom’s garage,” Dryce explained.

“Good. No races tonight,” Austin said with a roll of his eyes.

“Besides, maybe I would have more experience if I wasn’t chauffeured all over God’s creation. If I got more practice behind the wheel then it wouldn’t be such a big deal if I wanted to race once or twice,” Dryce said swinging his legs up onto the couch.

“You name me one of your rich prince friends who drives around by themselves? If you can name even one, then I’d consider letting you get behind the wheel.” Knowing Dryce wouldn’t be able to name anyone, Austin leaned his head back down into his hands, hiding a smug smile.

Erik stood up and walked in front Dryce attempting to defuse the powderkeg that was about to go off. “Hey, I got an idea. Your car is going to be at the airport, right? What if we open her up on the runway? I can show you a few things on how to actually handle ol’ girl.” Erik patted him on the the shoulder and winked. “You never know… you might even learn a few things on handling a real girl out there.”

Erik turned around and tapped Austin,“Whatcha think, boss? The airport is long and flat out by the hanger, not much for him to run into. And if he does run off the tarmac, it’s all loose dirt. He’ll be safe.”

Austin waved his hand. “Sure, yeah yeah… that sounds fine.”

Dryce nodded his head and smiled. Getting excited, he laid down and put on a set of headphones. Laying there, he bobbed his head around listening to his music.

Still with his head in his hands, Austin peeked through his fingers at Dryce. The faint thumping sound of the bass from the headphones was muffled by his ears. Dryce’s eyes were closed and his head bounced around on the arm rest of the couch as he hummed the tune out loud. Austin knew he couldn’t hear a word.

“Erik, join me over here for a second,” Austin whispered and tapped the seat next to him.

Erik turned around and took the seat next to him. “What’s up boss? What’s going on? You seem a bit off today. Is it all the traveling and flying?”

“It’s not that. Look, I need to tell you something.” Concerned eyes gazed up at Erik.

“I’m listening.” Erik leaned in closer. He could tell something important was up.

“I received some intel that there’s talk about a possible kidnapping attempt on Dryce,” Austin began to explain as Erik’s eyes widened.

“What?” Erik said loudly and surprised.

“Shhh… keep it down.” Austin motioned with his hand for him to bring his volume down. “This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this.”

“I know this isn’t. When did you find out?” Erik questioned.

“About mid last week or so,” Austin quickly answered.

“And you’re just now telling me about this?” Erik sat up straight.

“Calm down, calm down. This is why I said we need to hire on someone new. Someone that hasn’t been seen by the press and whatnot. Someone we can trust,” Austin continued to explain.

Erik leaned back in, nodding his head. His adrenaline was pumping, his nerves on high alert now.

“Tell me what you know about this Yally?” Austin pulled the file folder out of his briefcase.

“I… Hell, to tell you the truth boss, I only really know him by reputation only. I’ve never actually met him.” Erik’s eyes looked, up and to the left, like he was searching for answers somewhere in his brain housing group. “He’s got like three or four purple hearts.” He shook his head side to side. “Something like four silver stars and two silver crosses. Got out of the military around the same time I did, I think.”

“Yeah, I got all that. I read it for myself,” Austin said, staring down at the file. “I need more. What branch of service was he in? That little tidbit wasn’t in here.”

“Ya know, I don’t think I even know. From some of the stories I’ve heard, he was a Marine… maybe he was a Seal. All I know is that most of the shit that guy did, you’ll never see in any file or any report. He was the master at cover and concealment.” Erik smiled. “We used to joke around about some random person standing in the crowd like it was, in fact, Yally… because you just never knew. Yally could be three inches from you, or three miles. One thing is for sure… we knew the time to be scared wasn’t when he was standing right in front of you; it was when you didn’t know where he was. He was, and is, a ghost, sir.”

“That’s good,” Austin said, his voice sounding impressed. “That’s really good. I think this is exactly what we need. Someone no one knows and can’t be on the lookout for.”

“Oh, I can tell you this as well. The boy can shoot. He took that phrase ‘one shot, one kill’ to the absolute extreme. There’s even a story of him getting three kills with only one shot, and he holds the title for the longest shot in history. Now, don’t quote me on this, but I think it was like over four miles away, on a cold bore barrel as well, myth has it,” Erik explained.

“What’s that even mean? Cold bore…” Austin looked up at him.

“Well, you know bullets travel differently when the barrel of the rifle is warmed up as opposed to cold. The more rounds you put through ‘em, the more and more accurate it becomes. Yally is dead accurate with only one shot.”

Austin nodded, “What else do you know about him?”

“That’s about it. Like I said, he’s a ghost. He’s the Casper that will fuck some shit up if you pay him enough.” Erik shrugged.

Austin went back to reading through the file and Erik leaned back in the seat. After a long silent pause, Erik looked over. “Hey, do we know when this shit is supposed to go down?” he asked.

“No, not really… the good thing about it though,” Austin looked over at Dryce still rocking out to the music, “is him.” Austin turned his head back to Erik. “That boy never stays in one place long enough anymore for anyone to plan anything. You never know what city or country he’s going to party in from one day to the next.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Erik said, leaning his head back.