Page 28

Chapter 27

“You’re good to go,” Cash said over the phone line.

Cash, aka Constantine Pierce, worked out of Redemption Harbor Security’s North Carolina office. The same one Bradford had worked out of for a couple years. And everything the man touched turned to gold. Or cash, as it was, hence the nickname. But he didn’t just hoard it away like a greedy dragon; he gave to more charities and scholarships than Bradford had even known existed. He’d completely changed the landscape and future of a handful of small towns around the country.

“Really?” Bradford asked. He’d called the Colorado aviation company that Ackerman flew with most of the time and tried to get an appointment to simply talk to someone. And he’d been rejected. Twice.

“Yep. Told them that you’re a friend of mine and wanted to go over specifics about a new contract. They said no problem.”

“Money really talks,” he murmured. Knowing it was one thing, but it still amazed him sometimes to see it so blatantly in action.

“No kidding. The woman I spoke to was an asshole though, for the record. I don’t think she wanted to agree to the appointment, but someone must have flagged my name. The appointment is this afternoon. You’ve got an hour to be there.”

Yeah, that wasn’t a surprise. When someone like Constantine Pierce called, people listened. “Thanks. We’re not even sure if this will matter but Berlin wants me to talk to them in person, get a feel for their operations. Maybe hack into their systems.” With Berlin, you never knew.

“And what Berlin wants, she gets,” he said with a laugh. “How are things going with this case?”

It wasn’t an official case, but Bradford knew what he meant. “Confusing, mostly. Someone is trying to kill Mari. Or scare her. Though at this point I’m pretty sure it’s kill, considering the two people with guns in her motel room. And we still haven’t figured out why.”

“And you can’t find this Ackerman guy?”

“No, but we’re working on it. I’m going to mention him at the appointment today, then Berlin has an idea.”

“Does that idea involve explosives?”

“I really hope not.” Or maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Only time would tell. Sometimes blowing shit up really was the answer to everything.

***

“How’s the connection?” Bradford murmured as he pulled into the parking lot of Five C’s Aviation. He was undercover, using one of the many fake IDs that Berlin had created for everyone, including a bit of stage makeup to change the shape of his nose, ears and jawline.

He preferred more basic covers, but understood why sometimes they had to use deeper ones. They had no idea who really ran this aviation company—there were too many LLCs to sift through to figure out the original owner, and they were under investigation by the DEA, which told him all he needed to know. So he couldn’t walk in with his normal face even with a fake ID. Because if they were really some cartel or a similar criminal organization, they’d be able to run his face and figure out who he was later.

“Loud and clear,” Berlin said into his earpiece. “I see and hear what you do. And if anything goes sideways, we’ve got your six.”

He knew that they did. Berlin, Chance, Adalyn and Ezra were waiting in an SUV a mile down the road. He’d had to drive into Biloxi since it was the closest location of one of their satellite offices and the company was about to close. According to the website, the actual airport was open 24/7, but the main office shut down at five. Which seemed early for an airport.

But he’d made it right before four and just in time for his appointment.

Once inside, he was blasted with the icy artificial air that must be turned down to sixty-five. He smiled at the woman behind the counter, a redhead with ivory skin and a deadpan expression. “How may I help you?” Even her voice was expressionless.

“My name is Reginald Overby and I’m here for an appointment with Blanca Stein.” Seriously, where did Berlin come up with these names? Reginald Overby? He sounded like some snooty British guy.

She looked at the sleek computer in front of her and simply nodded at him. “This way, please.”

He’d been in enough private airports over the years, first with the Marines and then once he started working with Redemption Harbor Security, and this was one of the nicest. Normally the airports he’d been flown into had been under the cover of night in planes with blacked-out windows and no one had known he and his team had been there.

Everything was all sleek marble and chrome, something he wouldn’t have known from outside. On the outside it looked like a giant warehouse.

She opened a glass office door for him, then left without another word. Just to be a dick, he said, “If you’ve got sparkling water, I’d love some. ”

She gave him a tight smile—or what might be classified as a smile—and nodded at him. “Of course, sir.” The sir dripped with disdain.

The woman behind the desk stood, with a much warmer smile, and motioned for him to sit. “Mr. Overby, I’m Blanca and it’s lovely to meet you. But first, let me apologize for our receptionist. She’s related to the owner and unfortunately I can’t fire her.”

Bradford blinked at her blunt honesty, then laughed. “I thought maybe I’d done something to piss her off.” According to his background, he was from Georgia, so he leaned into his accent. There were some fun things about being undercover, and becoming someone else was one of them. Most days he just wished he could be someone that his wife wanted to stick around for.

“The world at large pisses her off.” Blanca’s tone was dry, but there was a slight edge to her words.

And something told Bradford that the receptionist might end up fired after all.

“But at least she is good for some things, like fetching.” Her words were coated in ice as the woman delivered his drink.

Bradford couldn’t miss the tight clench of the receptionist’s jaw or the angry glare she shot Blanca.

Okay, so this was just plain weird and uncomfortable. “Thank you,” he murmured, taking the drink, wondering if he should actually drink it. It actually seemed plausible that she’d put something in it. He set it on the glass table next to him and smiled pleasantly at the woman across from him.

She had dark hair, skin as pale as the woman out front, and while her smile was pleasant, her eyes were flecks of ice. It was a strange combination. “So what can I do for you today?”

“I’m interested in diversifying who I work with. Right now I use WILCO Aviation for work and pleasure, but I’ve been with them for so long I thought it wouldn’t hurt to shop around.”

“And you’re doing this personally?” She arched a perfect eyebrow.

“Since I’m the one who’ll be flown around, yes.” He laid on his accent a little thicker. “I was raised to do some things myself and I like to know who will be flying me. I need to trust my pilot.”

She gave him a faint smile. “The company you work with is a solid one with a good reputation. And I’m afraid you’ll find our rates are quite a bit higher than theirs, so you won’t be saving money if that is your intent.”

That wasn’t true, something he knew from Berlin’s research.

He barked out a laugh. “Well I do appreciate your honesty. So no deals for new customers?”

She gave him the same faint smile as before. “No. My boss doesn’t believe in discounts. And if I’m being transparent, I took this meeting because of Mr. Constantine Pierce. We’ve been hoping to snag him as a client for years.”

Bradford nodded, glancing around the office curiously—and also so Berlin would be able to see everything he did, thanks to his glasses. “I understand that. The man’s got enough money to burn a wet mule.”

She blinked at him. “I’ve never heard that expression before.”

He just chuckled politely. “Something my daddy used to say. Well, I do appreciate your honesty and taking the time to meet with me. Even if things aren’t going to work out between us, would it be too much to ask for a tour of this place? It’s one of the nicer private airports I’ve been in.”

She gave him a real smile then. “Thank you. I actually designed this place,” she said, pride in her voice as she stood. “I’ll give you a quick tour.”

The tour was only twenty minutes, but he made sure to look at everything they passed. He didn’t think it would give them much in the way of finding Ackerman, but there was a chance Berlin had been able to hack into Blanca’s computer or cell phone since he’d been near them both. Though he wouldn’t know until he got out to the SUV.

Once they were done touring the office and the two hangars, she walked him out to the parking lot, her steps a little more brisk than before.

“Thank you,” he said, shaking her hand. “You’ve got a great place here. And I promise to pass on how kind you’ve been to Cash. Maybe you’ll get him as a client one day.”

He got another small smile. This one looked real too. “I appreciate that. And I’m sorry we couldn’t accommodate you.” She looked over her shoulder at the airport and it seemed like her gaze flicked up to one of the cameras, but he couldn’t be sure. Then she turned back to him. “Right now we’re booked solid with new clients and our pilots’ schedules are completely full. A good problem to have, I know. But I’m going to save your information and hopefully in the future we might get to work with each other.”

“Thank you kindly.” He shook her hand before heading to the SUV. “So what did you think?” he asked Berlin as he shut the door behind him. The windows were tinted so no one would see him talking.

“That she’s going to do a deeper dive into you and see if you’re legit. From what I can tell, whoever actually owns the company has some clients with legal businesses and some who are suspected to be dealing in illegal things. Namely drugs and weapons. If they want to keep their portfolio diversified—and to make it harder for the Feds to pin shit on them—they might want to expand their clients with legal business interests.”

“The exchange between Blanca and the receptionist was weird though, right?”

“Oh yeah, and very interesting. I’m running the receptionist’s face to see if I can get a hit. If Blanca was telling the truth about not being able to fire her, this might lead us to someone else. ”

“Definitely… If Blanca was telling the truth,” he tacked on. And he hadn’t been able to tell. He was relatively good at reading people. He’d had to be, to survive, but the woman’s eyes had been…off, for lack of a better description.

“Agreed. So what does this mean for Mari?”

“Nothing yet,” Berlin said.

Then Adalyn came over the comm line. “You up for another trip tonight?”

“Of course. Where to?” Anything to keep his mind off his estranged wife. Where she was and if she was in danger.

“We’re going to go back to the source of all that shit. That little airport where Mari took Ackerman the first time. She said there were a couple cameras outside but no huge security presence. So we’re going to fly in close to there, then drive in and see if Berlin can hack—”

“I can definitely hack whatever they’ve got,” Berlin cut in, clearly insulted.

“Yeah you can,” Bradford added.

“That’s why you’re my favorite.” He could hear her smile through the line.

“Suck up,” Adalyn muttered, but he heard the laughter in her voice. “Head to the airport. We’ll leave directly from there.”

They’d flown into a small airport in Ocean Springs, then driven over to Biloxi. “What about Mari? She’ll be pissed if we leave her behind.” Though Camila would be pissed if they took her.

“We’re picking up her and Colin on the way,” Adalyn said.

“I don’t know what I think about that Colin,” Berlin added.

“I like the guy.” Bradford hadn’t been sure at first, but the man looked at Mari like she hung the moon.

“Me too,” Chance chimed in .

Adalyn just grunted, which could mean anything. Then she said, “Okay, enough of this shit. We’ll see you at the airport. If you think you have a tail—”

“I know. I’ll just head out on a different flight.” On the off chance he was followed as Reginald Overby, he wasn’t going to lead anyone back to his crew. No way in hell.

They were his family in a way his biological family had never been.