Page 177 of Stand: Part One

I could only imagine Jaden’s devastation right now. And it was gutting me from the inside out.

Derick grunted. “What’s the point of coordinating our efforts if your resources are unreliable? We just lost a huge advantage because you put your faith in the wrong enemy,” he scolded as he and Anthony released my arms from their hold.

“Like I said, if I had known Spade was going to attack the country estate a day earlier, I would have informed you sooner.”

“And why would they reject our assistance?” Anthony asked, his arms crossing over his chest as he stared Rainer down. “We could have ended that son of a bitch right then and there, and instead, Davis ended 80 percent of Miguel’s cartel the very same night. Some great collaboration that was.”

Rainer shrugged with a heated glare. “Apparently, I miscalculated Miguel’s ego. He was a prideful moron with no sense in his little coked-out brain. He wasn’t exactly a fan of accepting aid from what he considered a bunch of self-righteous gringos.”

I groaned and threw my hands into the air, enraged and in disbelief at the new bit of information. It might have been useful to know before agreeing to work with a drug lord who preferred to personally test his own product every week.

“Now he fucking tells us,” I said, ready to rip my damn hair out. “Why didn’t you warn us of that before?”

“And jeopardize the collab? You all were already suspicious of each other. I didn’t want to make it worse!” Rainer explained.

“A lot of fucking good that did!” I shouted in retort. “Any other surprise reveals you’d like to share tonight?”

Rainer’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Other than the fact that I agree on the self-righteous part? No. Though I don’t think that should come as a surprise to any of you.”

“Self-righteous? Seriously?” Romero challenged, taking a threatening step toward Rainer.

He sneered, blood tainting his otherwise perfectly white teeth. “That’s right. You’re all high on your own heroic nobility, but deep down, you’re nothing but a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers trying to even a score. Just like me.”

“Don’t try to compare us,” I barked. “We’re nothing like you.”

He cocked a brow as the corner of his mouth lifted. “Oh, you don’t think so? I know your body count, Jason. What you did to Darren’s surveillance team in Chicago? Even I didn’t anticipate that. Your bloodlust is getting out of control.”

I advanced on him, ready to knock his head off his fucking shoulders. I didn’t care how many bodies I had to stack to end this, I would not be deterred.

“Careful, Rainer, or I’ll add you to it,” I snarled, loving nothing more than to follow through on it.

I didn’t give a single fuck what this manipulative piece of shit thought of me. His judgment was meaningless. I wasn’t doing this to prove something to anyone, including myself.

I was doing it to get my fucking woman back. And if that meant I had to get my hands dirty, then I’d stain them until they were good and black before I let myself give up on her.

“Please,” Rainer taunted, dropping his chin. “You’ve accepted my weapons, my intel, and my funding. I doubt it’ll be much longer before you start accepting my employ once this is over.”

“Once this is over, you better pray we never cross paths again,” I shot back.

“This is just a means to an end,” Anthony interrupted, side-eyeing me. “You need our skills and ambition, and we need your resources and connections. Anything else outside of that is insignificant.”

“Fair enough,” Rainer stated, his gaze unwavering. “But we’ll need to come up with a new strategy now that Spade is out of the picture.”

Romero tilted his head as he narrowed his gaze. “What did you have in mind?”

“We need to attack more of Darren’s bigger resources,” Rainer answered. “Bleed him dry. Disrupting the auction and rerouting the funds was good but not enough. There’s a small cartel in the Colombian jungle called the Lobos. Darren supplies them with money, guns, and women, and they supply him with the best cocaine crop there is. If we take them out, that’s a serious chunk of income gone, and it will rattle his other suppliers.”

“And you want us to be the ones to take them out,” Derick stated with an eye roll.

“No, I’ll handle that operation,” Rainer answered. “Consider the information a sign of good faith.”

My mouth formed a straight line while my gaze narrowed, my suspicions solidifying in my brain.

“And how exactly do you plan on executing that?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

“I’ll be calling in a family favor,” he replied, his eyes meeting mine.

“You’ve got another resource we don’t know about?” Romero asked, his brow arching.