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  “Ah,” Catherine said, “but, as you heard, my mother won’t care.”

  “The only reason she’s giving in right now,” he said, “is because you forced her hand, and you used the element of surprise, so she doesn’t know what to do with you. But very quickly she won’t care, and she’ll take you and Kano out of the equation too.”

  She smiled at that. “You know something? I think you’re probably right.”

  “And you’re not bothered?” Michael asked.

  “No. I’ve been living with the specter of my mother killing me for all my life,” she said. “It hasn’t happened yet.”

  “Keep on this line,” Michael said roughly, “and it will.”

  She said, “Noted, thank you. Have you ever noticed or known her to have a weak spot?”

  He stiffened at that.

  “Listen. I’m not asking you to give away trade secrets,” she said, “because I know you’re too loyal for that.”

  “If we’re not loyal,” he said, “we’re dead.”

  “I get it,” she said, staring up at the warehouse above her. “I guess I was just hoping that I was a weak spot for her.”

  “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

  And that was the best she was likely to get from him. She smiled, gave a small laugh, and said, “That’s the truth, isn’t it? I’m still alive, so I am the weak spot. I always wondered if it would come to that.”

  “As I said, please don’t push it,” Michael said. “I don’t want to see you dead too.”

  “You’ve known me a long time, Michael,” she said. “You’ve got to see that the only reason she’s after Kano is because I fell in love with him years ago.”

  “But he hurt you,” Michael said, looking back at Kano, who remained silent.

  She smiled, looked at Kano briefly, then turned back to Michael and said, “No, not like my mother would have you believe. He stepped away to give me room to grow up and to realize who and what my mother is. But that had to happen. Mother just didn’t like the way Kano did it.” At that, Catherine gave a laugh, turned to Kano, and said, “See? The past still comes back to bite us in the ass.”

  *

  Kano hated to say it, but it was as simple as that. They’d fallen in love, hard and fast, and DeeDee hadn’t approved. In stories like this, usually the father would express such displeasure, and he could see from Michael’s face that he understood. But Kano didn’t expect Michael to turn on his boss over something like this. Particularly if Michael were justifiably terrified of what the end result of such a betrayal would be.

  “It doesn’t matter if he believes us or not,” Kano said. “That time has come and gone, but DeeDee has hung onto that same anger.”

  “Because I changed after that,” she said, with a gentle smile. “It wasn’t your fault. It was a little slow in happening, but I finally grew up and became aware of just exactly what my mother’s world consisted of and what the role was that she played in it. And, because of that, I had to take a very hard look at who she was and how much I wanted to do with her.”

  “I wouldn’t judge her too harshly,” Michael said.

  She looked at him in surprise. “No? What would you like me to think of her as?”

  He was stumped at that.

  “How would you like your child to see you?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t have any kids for just that reason.”

  “Good point,” she said, “because would you really want your kids to know what you did for a living?”

  He frowned at that. “I’m not doing anything illegal,” he said.

  “You’re not doing anything morally correct either. I think it depends on whether you are actually killing for her or whether she’s doing that all on her own.”

  His face closed up at that. “I don’t know nothing about anything like that.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said. “We all do. It’s just that she’s never been caught or never had to be accountable, so whatever.” She turned and looked at Kano. “I don’t know if he’ll even help us.”

  “He can’t,” Kano said, “because that betrayal would get him killed, just like he said earlier.” He looked back at Michael. “We’re here for Fallon,” he said. “Are you planning on stopping us?” He could see the indecision on Michael’s face. “The trouble is,” Kano said, having guessed correctly, “if you help us, you’re in trouble, and, if we overpower you, your pride will take a hit.”

  “That’s somewhat true,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll take that big of a hit. But she’s also got cameras, and she’ll be watching. Even now she’s watching.”

  “Ah, so that makes sense. She knew that we came inside, so she’ll wonder what exactly is going on right now.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I can’t let you go.”

  “So she’s on her way or what?”

  “I don’t know that,” he said, frowning, obviously uneasy at being placed in the middle.

  Kano looked at Catherine. “How well do you know Michael?”

  “He was like a surrogate father to me,” she said warmly. “He watched me grow up, attended some of the school sessions that she wouldn’t show up for because she was ‘busy’ or some such thing,” she said, with a smirk.

  Kano turned and looked at Michael. “Are you really ready to kill Catherine, with all that history behind you?”

  “No,” he said. “But just because I’m not ready to doesn’t mean other people aren’t available to do the job,” he said. “And honestly, if your mom knows you’ve walked in here, and, knowing our relationship already, chances are she’s not expecting me to do that. She’s probably already sent somebody else to do the job for her.”

  “Are you safe, Michael?” Catherine asked immediately. “I don’t want you dead over this.”

  At that, a rare smile touched his face. “You see? That’s why you need to give your mom some slack and stay out of her world,” he said. “You’re far too nice to be touched by all this.”

  “I was raised in it,” she said sadly.

  “Not really,” he said. “You were always kept out of the darkest parts.”

  “And yet somehow it feels like I’m still stained by it all,” she whispered.

  “You can still get away from it all,” he insisted.

  “I wonder,” she said. “It seems like, from the time I found out, my life has been a struggle.”

  “No,” Michael said, “you’ve gone on to do amazing things. You’re helping all kinds of people, and that’s where your heart and soul align. You’re nothing like your mother. Don’t get caught up in it.”

  “I don’t want to,” she said. “But, at the same time, I can’t have you or anybody else killing Fallon or Kano. Because that will be on my soul, and I would never forgive myself.”

  “It’s all part and parcel of your mom,” he warned. “You go down that pathway, and things could get ugly.”

  “I can guarantee you they’ll get ugly,” she said sadly. “I’m not sure that we both haven’t been heading for this exact same place.”

  Kano reached out, grabbed her arm, and, with a harsh voice, asked, “What do you mean by that?”

  She just shrugged, then looked at Kano and said, “I always felt like, because we didn’t have this confrontation last time, that it’s been out there, just waiting for us,” she said. “So Mom needs to come.”

  She looked up at the camera and lifted her finger and pointed at herself. “I don’t know if she’ll come on her own, but I think Michael’s probably more correct. If she’s planning on something happening to Kano, then she won’t want to get her hands dirty.”

  “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” Michael whispered. “So please just leave.”

  “I can’t do that,” she said sadly. “These are my friends. I can’t have her killing them.”

  “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Kano muttered. “How many families live like this?”

  “Too many,” Michael snapped. “
It was fine when Catherine didn’t know too much. But when she did? Well—”

  “Did you ever warn my mother about that?” Catherine asked.

  “All the time,” Michael said. “But, in case you hadn’t noticed, your mother doesn’t listen well.”

  She laughed at that. “Oh, I’ve noticed. Trust me.” She turned to look at Kano. “You should probably go get Fallon.”

  He raised an eyebrow and looked at Michael, who shifted uneasily. Kano asked Catherine, “But what will you do to keep Michael from getting into trouble?”

  “My mother knows Michael won’t hurt me,” she said. “And I think he’s right. Probably other men are on their way.”

  With that, Kano nodded and stepped back ever-so-slightly, watching Michael—who half lunged forward but then stopped because Catherine stepped in front of him and said, “Michael, you’ll have to kill me to get to him.”

  “Don’t do that, please,” Michael whispered.

  She reached up, gently patted his cheek, and said, “I can’t do anything else. I can’t let you kill him. I can’t let her kill him. They’ve done nothing. He’s been after her because she has been trying to kill their boss. I don’t know if she actually succeeded or if it’s somebody else at play. But she’s got no reason to hold all this against Kano. And, if she blew up that plane to get back at Bullard, that’s unacceptable.”

  “I don’t know anything about that,” Michael said, “but I don’t think she’d hurt Bullard.”

  “No, not to hurt Bullard, but what do you think she’ll do with Kano?”

  “She’ll kill him,” he said, “tonight. And you won’t even see it coming.”

  Kano could feel the ice settle down his spine. He was already back in the shadows, as he searched the darkness around him. He had to save Fallon from this because it had nothing to do with him. And, if Kano got himself killed tonight, so be it. He wouldn’t go to his grave with the stain of killing his friend too. All because of a mistake he made a long time ago.

  But since when was falling in love a mistake?

  She’d been an adult, single and free. He hadn’t even known about her mother. But sometimes things just happened that way. With one last look at Catherine, Kano disappeared into the darkness.

  Chapter 11

  “Thank you,” Catherine murmured to Michael.

  He shook his head. “I’m dead now,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “And yet you always knew that was possible, even likely, if you kept working for her.”

  “I thought about not working for her,” he said. “I’ve been approached a couple times.”

  “But always by people who wanted you to turn against her?”

  “Exactly,” he said, “and I would never do it.”

  “Of course not, and she’d never forgive that. But she might forgive just walking away.”

  “I don’t have that much money saved,” he said.

  “Don’t you?” she said, with a chuckle. “You’re a pretty cagey guy. I imagine you have your retirement well and truly set aside.”

  “I wasn’t planning on retiring just yet,” he said, studying her carefully.

  “No, and how about now?”

  “Still not,” he said, starting to get a little angrier.

  She looked at him for a moment and said, “Then I accept that whatever you have to do, you have to do,” she said quietly. “Obviously I’d like to live, and I’d like my friends to live. But if you feel that you have to kill us all to keep this great job, then it is what it is,” she said, with a shrug.

  “How can you be so complacent?” he said, his voice rough. “That would be a betrayal of everything.”

  “Finding out what my mother was like, and why she even had me, training me to just accept her role in this world, was a betrayal of everything,” she said. “I became very fatalistic after that, knowing that my death was always at the whim of her days.”

  “It’s just wrong,” he murmured.

  “And I don’t think anybody cares,” she said. “In some ways, it might even be a relief to be killed because then I don’t have to worry about that constant threat of hers, blowing down my back,” she said.

  “That’s not a good way to raise a child either.”

  “No, it’s not. And that’s why I’m so grateful you were there,” she said quietly. “You gave some semblance of normalcy to my life. An adult who wasn’t always there to try and take me out.”

  “But you didn’t feel that way growing up, did you?”

  “No, not like that, I didn’t know what it was, … not until I found out,” she said. “Then I looked back over the years and realized that everything was a lie. That was pretty hard to handle too.”

  He frowned at that. “I guess. But the truth of the matter is that she is who she is.”

  She stopped and then looked at him and said, “Oh, God, you’re in love with her yourself, aren’t you?”

  He gave an awkward shrug. “I care. Is that against the law?”

  “Of course not,” she whispered. “But it certainly isn’t easy.”

  “No,” he said, followed by a hard laugh. “Nothing about your mother is easy.”

  “It must have broken your heart to watch her get married time and time again.”

  “They didn’t mean anything to her though,” he said. “That was the hardest part.”

  “No, I don’t imagine they did,” she whispered. She shook her head. “Why did she even bother marrying them?”

  “Because she could. Something inside her needed to be the one in control. The one who could use them and toss them aside.”

  “Did you ever consider that you’d be dead if you ever married her?”

  “I know,” he said. “As much as I’d like to say it wouldn’t matter, it does matter.”

  She didn’t even know what to say, but she stared at him in shock. “I guess that answers a lot of the questions though, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe,” he said. “And maybe not.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that, after our first affair, she’s never looked at me twice, so I never had a chance. I’ve just kept it to myself all these years.”

  She nodded sadly. “Then maybe you understand what it was like when Kano came into my life,” she said. “We both fell in love. You know how you feel about DeeDee, so imagine how it would be if my mother felt the same way about you?”

  *

  From his lofty position high up in the warehouse, Kano walked along a catwalk on the side, noting where ladders were, where ropes hung with great suspension rails. He wasn’t exactly sure what had gone on in this warehouse over the years, but this part of France was old; so it could have been anything from the illegal booze trade to farm equipment.

  Down below in the far corner, he saw Fallon sitting quietly tied up, his arms behind his back and his feet together. He was also blindfolded but not gagged. Kano slipped across, so he had a much better view of everybody around him. He could see Catherine and Michael, still talking off in the far corner. Kano had a view of one door, but behind Fallon was a second door. That one was of particular interest. Either it would herald the entrance of new people into this craziness or it would be expected to be an escape route for him. He wasn’t sure he was willing to do either.

  If he could hook Fallon to a pulley and could timely bring him up here where Kano was, that would be best. But wouldn’t that take a lot of time and equipment? He suspected it would take more rope than he had available. But, as he studied the ropes coming and going up and around the place, he wasn’t so sure about that. It was definitely something he should look at. He pondered on the necessities of ropes. The pulleys and beams could go up and down. He thought about it quietly for a moment, his mind racing for possibilities.

  He had no time to study this in detail, but, if he could swing down, hook up his friend, and get him out of there, even if it included raising the chair and Fallon to the catwalk, it would give them a working chance. But then h
ow would they get out? His gaze quickly searched the catwalk.

  A couple potential exits at the top probably went to the roof. He also had to watch out for the fact that Catherine was here. The last thing he wanted was to get her involved. Then his gaze found a beam that lowered with some swing attached. He looked at that, judged the distance of the rope, and then went back to the lever system, smiling. He could drop it, shimmy down the rope, and set a delayed time to lift it up again. With that, he set it for five minutes, then walked over and released the rope. He watched as it swung down into the darkness, behind where Fallon sat, and then Kano skirted right down the rope beside his partner.

  As soon as Kano hit the ground, he dropped and immediately lowered the blindfold and cut through the ties holding Fallon’s feet and wrists. In a quiet voice he said, “The ropes are behind you. Head straight to the top.” Fallon got up, grabbed the rope, and started climbing. Right on his heels, Kano raced up behind him. As soon as they reached the top girder on the catwalk, he pointed to one of the exits off to the side. “Go, go, go.” But he didn’t have to say anything because Fallon was already opening up one of the windows to the rooftop. It looked to be more of an air vent than anything, but, as soon as Fallon jumped and went for the window ledge to hold himself up, Kano followed. Up on the roof in the darkness, they both searched for another way down and found it off to the right—a whole pile of HVAC systems and fire escapes. Knowing that time was against them, they scooted all the way down to the ground level and hid in the back alley.

  “Catherine’s still in there with Michael,” Kano said quietly.

  “Shit,” Fallon said. “I was hoping she was somewhere safe.”

  “She insisted on coming. And she’s the reason I managed to get in to get you out of there. I highly suspect that she’s not as safe as she’d like to think.”

  “That mother of hers is nothing but a viper. I heard some of the plans the other guys were talking about before they left.”

  “How many men did you hear?”

  “Two, and something about Michael having used up her patience too.”