Outlaws by Matt Rogers (phonics books TXT) 📕

had talents, and he’d worked impossibly hard to hone those talents, and if he didn’t use them he was practically committing a sin.

But when was it enough?

Would he ever be done?

Could he choose to be done?

Those thoughts had slowly crept in over the last couple of months, and now he had someone in his life he knew would be devastated if he died.

He’d never had that before.

He shifted in his seat so he could see Alexis. She was fixated on the road ahead, her green eyes quietly determined. There was something fundamentally genuine there. She had planned this trip to the nth degree, all for him. He realised it was a foreign sensation to him. He couldn’t remember the last time, outside of King repeatedly saving his life, that someone had done something kind for him. That had never been his world.

He turned back and stared out the window.

Maybe it could be.

9

By the time King and Donati’s conversation reached its natural conclusion, it was well and truly dark outside.

They’d gone round in circles for most of it. Donati pried, and King kept his lips firmly sealed.

Now, the billionaire gave it one final attempt. ‘I can’t pay you if I can’t trust you.’

King shrugged. ‘Then don’t pay me. I’m doing a favour for an old friend.’

‘I’ve spent an hour trying to get your past out of you,’ Donati said, as if that meant something monumental.

King didn’t bite.

Donati followed it up with, ‘Do you know how much an hour of my time is worth?’

‘Not as much as mine’s worth,’ King said. ‘Because my time will keep you alive. And that’s something you can’t buy.’

‘I need something. Jack gave you his strongest recommendation, but he wasn’t any more cooperative than you’re being now. I can’t make decisions based on murky implications. That sort of impulsiveness isn’t something that carries you to the heights I’ve reached.’

‘Okay,’ King said.

‘Well?’

King rubbed a hand through his hair, sat forward and placed it firmly on the table. ‘Are you not following?’

‘I mustn’t be.’

‘I don’t care what you think about me,’ King said. ‘You need me for Close Personal Protection work. I can tell you I’m probably the most qualified person on the planet for that, but I can’t tell you what those qualifications are. You can draw your own conclusions. Truth is, I don’t need to be here, and I don’t need the money. So either accept me or don’t.’

‘You have a lot of money,’ Donati said. ‘You live here in Manhattan, and you weren’t impressed in the slightest by the view from this office. You can’t talk about the work you’ve done in the past. So it was lucrative, and it was off the books. Am I understanding what you’re getting at?’

‘I don’t care what you think I’m getting at.’

Donati stared. ‘I never get treated like this.’

King said nothing.

Donati said, ‘I kind of like it.’

King stayed quiet.

‘You’re not a pushover.’

‘I’m the furthest thing from a pushover. Now am I working for you or not?’

‘You are,’ Donati said. ‘Did Jack fill you in on the details?’

‘You’re going to Moscow. You’re not exactly revered over there. You think your competitors might try removing you from the equation.’

‘I don’t know how much Jack told you on top of that. But I’m hated because I’m doing things the right way. I’m not exactly playing by their rules. Because their rules involve media disinformation campaigns and disappeared officials.’

‘He mentioned something about that.’

‘Do you believe him?’

‘I don’t believe anything unless I see it for myself.’

‘That’s the way. Well, I hope I can prove it to you.’

‘Sam,’ King said, and the bigger man bristled at the use of his first name.

Donati raised an eyebrow.

King said, ‘I don’t need you to put on a show for me to prove you’re the good guy. You could be corrupt a dozen different ways. I don’t have the time to investigate. This isn’t my usual field. I’m sure you could get more men from a private security firm to guard you, but Jack brought me in because I offer something a little different than your standard protection officer, no?’

Donati nodded.

King said, ‘So let’s get to specifics. How many men do you have?’

‘I’ve contracted six to come to Moscow.’

‘From where?’

‘Veloce Security Services.’

King didn’t know them, but he imagined they were the usual ex-military crowd looking for a consistent paycheque. He said, ‘Do you know them all?’

‘Yes.’

‘How well?’

Donati said, ‘I’ve been using the same core crew for every overseas trip since I established Donati Group. If you’re asking whether I can trust them, the answer is yes.’

‘You trust them completely?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then why am I here?’

‘Call me extra paranoid.’

‘You don’t think they’re competent?’

‘They’re perfectly competent. Jack suggested that you’re a different level of competent.’

‘If your competitors wanted to get to you,’ King said, ‘then private security would be their first port of call. Men who are in the trade for profit over decency. The easiest way to get rid of you is to buy off someone close to you. Have any of your men been approached?’

‘No.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘They haven’t mentioned anything to me.’

‘That doesn’t mean they haven’t been approached.’

‘You seem overly suspicious of them.’

‘It’s my job to keep you alive.’

Donati mulled over that. King looked past him, at the twinkling skyline and the dark void of Central Park. He didn’t want to admit it, but without Slater in New York, the city felt empty.

Neither he nor Slater were the sentimental types, but he couldn’t deny he’d formed a bond with the man. Everything was habit, and he realised he’d made a habit out of having someone equally talented in his corner. Now, operating on his own didn’t have the same ring of freedom to it.

It was hollow.

Dull.

Donati finally said, ‘Okay. They’ll still come, but you’re staying closer to me for the entirety of this trip. I have to warn you—’

King raised an eyebrow.

‘—that might rub them the wrong way.’

King didn’t answer.

Donati said, ‘They’re alpha types. They’ll see you as an enemy if you one-up them by coming in and taking over their