Chapter 64 Percy
Percy's POV
"Let me protect my family the way I know how," Richard says, leaning forward. "Let me take the burden off your shoulders. I will keep her safe. I will kill the Russian, and when it is over, I will bring her back to you."
"I said no, Richard." My voice is firm, but the absolute certainty I felt ten minutes ago is wavering.
Richard nods and closes the dossier. "You have forty-eight hours to change your mind. My plane is fueled and ready to go. If you do not put her on that plane by Friday night, I am recalling my contractors. I will not waste my resources fighting a war you are determined to lose."
"Richard..."
"You own your firm, Percy. You are a self-made king, but a king who lets his heart dictate ends up with his head on a spike. Get out of my office."
Since the damage is already done, I take Adeline’s hand, and we walk out of the office in silence. Tiny falls into step beside us as we enter the elevator.
As the elevator descends, I realize that Richard might be right. My current strategy is failing, and my desperate need to keep Adeline close might be the exact thing that gets her killed.
Twenty-four hours later, the watch on my wrist lets me know it's a few minutes past 3 in the morning. I know this because we are parked in an alleyway in Queens, sitting in total darkness while the rain is coming down in sheets, blurring everything outside the bulletproof window of the car we are in.
I can't even begin to hide how nervous I am. We have only twenty-four hours left on Richard’s offer of protection, and since I refuse to put Adeline on that plane to the island, it means I have to end this tonight.
Mason’s lawyer, Vance, finally broke. The threat of burying Mason in federal solitary confinement was enough to loosen his tongue. He gave Detective Miller a location, an abandoned warehouse that Ilya Kozlov was supposedly using as a home base.
"NYPD tactical is moving into position," Tiny says from the front seat, his voice a little bit higher so I could hear him over the rain as he monitors the police radio. "Miller has the perimeter locked down. They are breaching in sixty seconds."
I grip the door handle and chant a silent prayer for him to be there, whatever God was listening to me right now.
Through the rain, I see the dark form of the warehouse at the end of the block. There is a sudden flash of light, followed instantly by the sound of whatever they used to break the door open.
"Breach, breach, breach," a voice barks over Tiny’s radio.
I hold my breath, and finally, the radio crackles.
"Clear. Building is secure." It’s Miller’s voice. but it’s heavy with frustration. "Akilov. You can bring him up."
Tiny puts the SUV in drive and pulls up to the shattered door of the garage. I step out into the freezing rain, pulling my coat tight around my shoulders. The inside of the garage smells even worse than the NYPD investigation room. Officers in tactical gear sweep the corners with flashlights, but it was obvious there was no human in the space.
I walk over to Miller, who is bent over a metal workbench.
"We missed him," Miller says as I approach, his jaw ticking. "He was here, but he packed up in a hurry."
I stare at the workbench and make out a half-eaten sandwich wrapped in foil, some bullet casings, and a map of Manhattan pinned to the wall with a knife, but the most eye-catching thing on the table is a burner phone that has been smashed to pieces.
"He knew we were coming." I say what we're both thinking. "Mason must have had a failsafe to warn him if Vance flipped."
"He didn't just run," Miller says, picking up one of the smashed pieces of the phone with a gloved hand. "He's wiped his digital footprint and left his gear."
"What does that mean?"
"He's gone into hiding; Percy and men like him don't pop back up on the radar for months, years even." I stare at the shattered phone. I understand what he's trying to say; the chase ends here.
Two Weeks Later
The plane my father offered took off empty. I stood in the penthouse with Adeline, and we both watched as the time elapsed. We made the choice together; we agreed we wouldn't let my father lock her in a cage in the name of safety. and we wouldn't let her father dictate our lives.
Richard made good on his threat by pulling his shadow operatives and washed his hands of the mess, leaving us to rely on Tiny and the NYPD. Except the war Richard predicted never came.
Days passed and a week became two, yet there was nothing. There were no mysterious packages or suspicious people lurking around. Even the cops that were assigned to the case slowly moved on when the trail went cold.
"The trail is dead, Boss," Tiny told me, looking deeply uncomfortable. "It’s like the man evaporated into thin air."
And so, the world kept turning until we slowly returned to our normal lives.
Presently, I am sitting in my office, and my desk is covered in merger documents, quarterly financial reports, and a stack of wedding venue brochures that Adeline left for me to review.
The door opens without a knock, which is how I know it's Adeline without looking up.
I'm right. She looks breathtaking in a sharp, tailored navy suit with her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. The exhaustion that haunted her face two weeks ago has faded, replaced by the fierce and beautiful woman I fell in love with.
"The TechStar contracts are fully executed," she says, dropping a heavy folder onto my desk with a thud. "They caved on the intellectual property clauses. We got everything we asked for."
I look up at her with a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "You absolutely gutted their legal team, didn't you?"
"I was polite," she smirks, leaning against the edge of my desk. "But yes. They didn't know what hit them."
I reach out to grab her hand. and pull her around the desk until she is sitting on my lap. She laughs, and it hits me that I haven't heard it nearly enough lately.
"You’re a menace," I murmur, kissing the side of her jaw.
"I’m a valuable asset to Royal and Associates," she corrects, running her fingers through my hair.
For a moment, it feels perfect. It feels exactly like the life we were fighting to build before Mason got out of prison, before my mother showed up with her hand out and before her psycho of a father got out.
I look over her shoulder to see Tiny is still standing outside my door. We are going back to normal by planning a wedding and immersing ourselves in work, but the unspoken threat that is Ilya couldn't be ignored.
"What are you thinking about?" Adeline asks softly.
I force a smile and look back at her. "Just thinking about how lucky I am," I lie smoothly. "What do you say we get out of here early? Go look at that venue in Tribeca?"
"I’d love that," she smiles, leaning in to kiss me.
I hold her tight and hope the dread in my stomach is false.