Chapter Four

Danny peered through his binoculars down at Grant Park from the top of a hotel across the street. "I got eyes on," he said. "The princess is on site."

Val's voice crackled through the handheld radio perched on the edge of the rooftop. "Any suspicious Brit making his approach?"

"Negative. She's sitting alone by the bar per the instructions sent to her." Danny pulled the binoculars down to wipe the sweat from his forehead. "Where are you guys?"

"A block away. I have two agents I hired specifically for today pretending to do a news broadcast at the park, but they're sending a live feed to the van and AVI. We can't risk Rhys recognizing any of us, so Alice promised to stay put at the office, the Hammer is sitting about twenty feet from Zara with a parabolic microphone so we can listen in, and Ben is roaming the grounds."

Danny frowned as he checked his watch. Five o'clock, the time the meeting was to take place. "Why is Ben on site? Rhys is likely to recognize him more than anyone else."

"He promised he won't get made. I didn't get into it with him." Valerie paused. "Just keep a close eye on the princess and make sure she doesn't get like Liam Neeson taken."

"Copy that."

Danny trained his binoculars back onto the park. The princess continued to sit alone at a small stone table underneath an umbrella as she sipped on a beverage. He panned to the right and spotted the Hammer sitting on a bench not far away. The former assassin took in the afternoon passersby with a folded newspaper on his lap while cleaning his sunglasses with a small piece of cloth.

Danny watched as the Hammer made a show of examining his glasses before sliding them onto his face. Once he removed his hand, he suddenly tilted his head upwards, canted his head to the side and mimed firing a pistol at Danny twenty stories above street level.

Danny pulled the binoculars from his face, shaking his head. "He freaks me out."

#

Alice, Agents Diaz and Dao, and Tessa sat in the conference room watching on the monitor Princess Zara continue to sit alone. All four glanced nervously at each other as the timestamp displayed in the corner showed 5:10pm.

"Could we have been made?" Alice drummed her fingers on the table as she stared across at Dao. "I can't imagine Rhys being late for a meeting like this."

Dao shrugged. "I think we're okay. Griffiths isn't familiar with your new associates, and Valerie and the rest of AVI are nowhere in sight. He's more than likely using a cutout."

Tessa nodded. "That would have been the smart thing to do. Use a person no one would suspect. A teacher, or a college student. Someone who wouldn't draw attention to him or herself."

Dao glanced at Alice who shrugged. "What can I say? She's her father's daughter."

#

"Mind if I join you?"

Zara gave herself a mental three count before casually glancing at the time on her phone resting beside her drink. Instead of looking up, she reached for it and took another sip. "If you were serious about what's on my ship, you would have been on time."

A man with short, grayish blonde hair sat down across from her. Dressed in a navy blue tailor made suit, he glanced around the park before settling his eyes on Zara. "A man in my line of work can never be too careful," he said. His deep accent was not American.

Zara realized that the man before her was not the one Ben and his friends were pursuing. He was older, but built for his age with lined, rugged features, and complete with a black patch covering his left eye.

The smile he gave her was bright, kind, and disarming.

She returned it.

#

Alice slowly rose from her chair and stepped closer to the monitor. "Who … who is that?"

The conference room speakerphone at the head of the table rang before anyone could answer. Alice connected the call. "Alice Vaughn. "

"Allie, are you seeing this?"

"We all are, Val. It's not Rhys. More than likely he's working as an intermediary."

"What should we do?"

Diaz leaned forward in her chair. "Agent Dao and I are on our way, Miss Anderson," she said. "In the meantime, continue to monitor, but do not approach. Let's see where this plays out."

"Copy that."

Alice disconnected the call as Diaz and Dao rose and headed for the exit. Alice waited until she watched the two board the elevator before looking down at Tessa.

"Where is your mother?"

"One of the families acquired some of Uncle Rhys' product, and is trying to redistribute it for their own selfish gains, so she's seeing to that. Why?"

Alice turned back to the monitor without answering, gazing at the image before her.

#

The man glanced down at the princess' cup. "You're about empty, my dear," he said. "What are you having? I'll whistle up a round."

"Bourbon," she said. "A friend of mine turned me onto it. But there is no waitstaff, so you'll have to purchase it from the bar."

The man smiled as he rose and walked over to the covered bar several feet away. Zara glanced around until she saw the Hammer sitting in her line of vision on a park bench. He started to rise from his seat, but she gave a small shake of her head, warning him down.

The man returned with two plastic cups in hand. He set the one with ice mixed in with the liquid in front of her. "I saw you had one cube left in yours, so I figured you would like it chilled."

Zara drained her first glass. "Thank you, Mister …?

"Hmm. Let's call me Oliver for now."

"Thank you, Oliver." Zara set the cup aside and reached for the new glass. "Now, do we have business to discuss?"

A frown fell on Oliver's features. "I'm sorry for misleading you, my dear. We do have business to discuss."

He leaned his head slightly forward. "I want you to not go into business with Rhys Griffiths. Trust me. It will be better for all involved if you and your organization stay as far away as you could possibly get from him."

Zara gave him a genuinely confused look. "Why wouldn't you want me to work with Mr. Griffiths? From what I heard, he has cash, and I have product he wants to purchase with said cash."

Oliver gave her a small smirk. "Trust me when I say that Griffiths and his entire family are … toxic, for lack of a better term to describe them. This little business deal he wants to have with you is his way of continuing to build power for himself, and within the Kensington Firm. It has to stop."

He raised his glass to his lips swallowed the contents in one gulp. He set it down on the table and rose to his feet. "Trust me."

Giving her a short nod, he turned and walked for the nearest exit. Zara watched as the Hammer also rose and casually made his way through the crowd to the exit. She started to rise, but a text on her phone from Ben stopped her.

Stay there.

#

Sitting in the backseat of the princess' SUV, Ben slid his phone back into his pocket and turned to Reggie. "So you don't know who that character is?"

"Nope. He wasn't in Rhys' office when Troy and I were there. In fact, we met a nice little chunk of his organization prior to leaving. I tried to get him to go, but he was adamant that I meet with the princess first."

Ben stared through the tinted windows and the metal fence separating the park from the street. "Which means that all of this was for nothing."

#

Everyone gathered back at AVI's conference room a hour later, dejected that progress could not be made.

Valerie, in charge of surveillance at the park, tried to make the most of the situation. "We have great video of this guy, and a description of what he's driving," she said. "The Hammer followed as long as he could, but lost him a couple miles out. Still, with the plate and facial rec, we should be able to get some type of hit."

Diaz waited for further news. When none was forthcoming, she stalked out of the conference room in disgust. Ben followed after her, leaving Alice, Valerie, Danny, Zara, and Tessa sitting around the table.

The princess wrung her hands in worry. "I apologize if I didn't play my part to the best of my ability. Once I realized that he wasn't the one you were after, I was a little lost."

Alice smiled, giving Zara's hand a reassuring squeeze. "You did amazing for your first time. You didn't give away anything, and from the way you warned the Hammer off, you obviously felt you could handle yourself. You were fine."

Zara smiled. "Thank you, Alice. You are so kind."

Everyone looked up as Ben walked back into the room. "Agent Diaz is clearly agitated," he said, sliding into a chair across from Alice. "She thinks that we should have went after Rhys when Troy and Reggie first made contact."

"She knows anything she would have found on Rhys is circumstantial at best," said Valerie. "Piling stuff on him and having him take it to where he's stashing everything else he has was the best play."

Alice nodded in agreement. "Val's right. We have a plan. We stick to it."

She turned her chair to face the monitor where an image of the mysterious visitor rested on the screen. "And find out what this man wants at the same time."

#

Sophie walked over to Danny's desk with two coffee mugs in hand. "You look like you could use a little pick me up," she said.

Danny rubbed his eyes and smiled up at her. "Thanks, but I'm thinking I need something a little stronger."

Sophie said nothing, but gestured down at the mug. Danny picked it up and peered at its contents. "Someone dug out Alice's stash of bourbon," he whispered playfully before taking a sip.

She smiled and sat down on the edge of the desk next to Danny's, looking at the picture of the mysterious Oliver filling his computer screen. "You've been at it with trying to find out who that guy is for two hours. Any luck?"

Danny sighed and shook his head. "Facial rec doesn't have any matches, so I sent a screenshot over to contacts I developed with the FBI. They in turn sent it to Interpol, Scotland Yard, MI6, and any other initialized organization within the UK. So far, nothing."

Sophie took a sip from her mug in silence. Danny pretended to thumb through folders on his desk for a moment before turning back to her.

"Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?"

Sophie frowned. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Earlier today. When Ben was going over the brief with everyone. If looks could kill, he would have been rolled out of here on a gurney."

Sophie sighed and slid down into the seat behind her. "I admit I was harsh with Ben. But don't you wonder what it would be like if Alice had never met him? If he had never dropped into our lives and destroyed them at every turn?"

Danny sat back in his chair, considering his answer while finishing the mug's contents. "I do. If Alice hadn't fallen for him, it would have been very … boring around here."

"Boring?" Sophie scoffed at the notion. "I don't think me getting shot was boring at all."

"No, not that." Danny quickly sat forward. "I'm talking about all the people we had helped. Valerie's sister-in-law. Joey Singh. Your friend, Kelsey. Gwen Ericsson. Nia Brooks. We have done a lot of good here at AVI."

"But none of those cases had anything to do with Benjamin Jones and the Kensington Firm," countered Sophie.

"You're right. None of them did. Those cases were basically 9 to 5 stuff. But trying to find Mr. X, who just so happened to be Christopher Hall, who turned out to be a con man working for a powerful crime family, who turned out to really be in love with Alice, well, it broke up the monotony."

Sophie stared hard at Danny for several seconds. "You're not saying this because of your … relationship with Margot, are you?"

Danny shrugged. "I admit, the circumstances of how we got together could have been a lot different."

Sophie shook her head behind her mug, but Danny glimpsed a hint of a grin. He smiled and started to speak again, but the elevator bell interrupted.

They both quickly rose to their feet, with Danny stepping in front of Sophie while pointing his pistol at the entrance. Sophie's eyes darted around for a weapon, finally settling on staying close behind Danny.

The Hammer stepped into view from the reception area, followed by Margot Bishop. Danny relaxed and lowered his gun. The tension Sophie felt did not lessen at the sight of the former crime lord, but she did not cower in fear from her.

Margot smiled at Danny as they approached, but spoke to the Hammer. "Thank you for escorting me up. I'm sure Alice and Val would not appreciate me walking around here by myself."

"I am happy to help." The Hammer bowed at the waist. Once he straightened, he looked over at Sophie. "Are you ready to go?"

"Wait." Margot walked over to Sophie. "Before you go, I just want you to know that I'm sorry that you were injured that night at my hotel room, and I'm appreciative of what you tried to do for Tessa."

She held out her hand to Sophie, who stared at it for a long minute before slowly taking it.

Margot glanced over at Danny and started to speak but the computer screen caught her eye. She pushed past Danny and leaned close to the monitor, her eyes widening.

"It can't be," she whispered. "It … can't be."

The AVI associates traded glances with one another. "Margot, we were hoping to meet with Rhys today, but he showed up instead," said Danny. "Do you know him?"

Margot fell into the seat behind her, still staring at the screen. "Margot?"

She finally looked at Sophie first, the Hammer, and finally Danny.

"He's … my father."

#