Page 53 of Fallen Hero

Did she have a man in her life, did she have actual real-life friends, did she go to the grocery store like a normal person, did she own a house or car? I knew next to nothing about Atlanta, because that’s how people who did the work we did stayed safe. We didn’t form connections. We didn’t divulge secrets that could be used against us.

“Jason Anderson landed in Dubai thirty minutes ago.”

My heart rate ticked up.

This was it.

He was here.

“Tell me,” I prompted, uncaring I sounded like an eager five-year-old on Christmas morning.

“He has a reservation at the Bvlgari. Two suites. Arlo, Bodhi, and Archie are with him.”

His three favorite guards.

Arlo Brown and Bodhi Lee were both ex-Australian Special Air Service Regiment. Archie Evans was ex-British Special Boat Service. All of them were deadly in their own right. Together, they were formidable in a way that meant no one in their right mind would go near Jason.

Luckily for me, I was not in my right mind.

I hadn’t been since he’d driven away with my sister and handed her over to his father.

Was I supposed to be delivered too? Were Lili and I supposed to be a package deal? A two-for-one special to impress Big Boss Anderson?

“Predictable. What else?”

“Sources in Berlin say there’s murmurings of a takeover. This being hostile from inside.”

“He’s got a traitor?”

I leaned forward, rested my elbow on my knee, and stared at the marble. On the surface, a traitor could be exactly what I needed. It’d be risky as hell, but if I could make contact, I could offer my services. I’d take care of their problem in exchange for access to Jason. However, that would do nothing to save the girls in his brothels.

“I hear your excitement, but no word on who the traitor is or confirmation. Sit tight on that and stick with the plan.”

The plan. Right.

“You do realize with the shit you pulled, the plan’s got a few kinks now. There is no way Mason, Fallon, or Pete will let me out of their sight. Mason will be glued to my side anytime I step foot out of this penthouse. And they’ve called in the rest of their team.”

Hell, he’d checked on me three times while I was working out in the apartment’s gym, even though if the front door was opened they’d all get alerts on their phones. I was good at sneaking around, but I wasn’t Spider-Man and couldn’t rappel down forty-two stories. Or I could, but not without my gear. I wasn’t Tom Cruise and this wasn’t Mission: Impossible.

“I already thought of that. New plan is, you read them in and they can help you—”

“Absolutely not. This is mine. Mine, Atlanta, and if you breathe a word to any of them about it, you’ll find my red dot on your forehead—and that’s a promise.”

“You’d have to find me first, Calli. And just because they help doesn’t make it any less yours. You can still pull the trigger, but you’d be safe doing it. There’s no reason for you to go down with him.”

Yes, there was. If it meant Jason was dead, I’d gladly go down with him.

“We’ve always known that was a possibility,” I reminded her.

“Your endgame doesn’t have to be the end of you,” she argued.

Life was not a promise of longevity and happiness. There were no guaranteed days on this earth. There were no guarantees in life, period. I’d learned that when my sister lost her life. I’d learned it again when I lost my mother to grief. I’d learned that when I started working with Tom.

“Keep me updated on Jason’s movements, and if you would, contact Tanner and confirm he has my kit ready. Also, in the Meena Bazaar, on the corner of Seventy-Fourth and Al Fahidi, there’s a building called the Atheryat. It’s run by Deepak Bashu, street name Sparkle. Work your magic, and get someone there to clean house and make it messy.”

I heard Atlanta clacking away on her keyboard. “Does this have anything to do with the girl Drexel wanted?”

I had no idea how she knew what Shepherd wanted. And I didn’t ask, first because she wouldn’t outright tell me, which led to my second reason: I didn’t want another lesson on how the underground web of information worked. Atlanta could get long winded when she blathered about dark-web chat rooms and encrypted this or that, and once she got started, it took forever for her to burn out.