Bitter Arrangement: Chapter 40

I put on my best suit, load my favorite gun, and tie my most comfortable shoes. I check myself in the mirror, strangely calm despite everything riding on this meeting.

I have to trust that the plan will work.

One week ago, I nearly got my ass caught hanging off a drainpipe. Now I’m heading over to drop off a dossier to the local Mantis operative who took over for Jeremy Fong. And who most likely cut off Jeremy’s head.

“Riley? Where’d you disappear to?” I walk down to the kitchen, but she’s nowhere around. I want to say goodbye, just in case. “We have to go over the contingency plan.” If Mantis murders me today, Riley has to run to the McGrath leader, Liam McGrath, as fast as she can. Only he’ll be able to keep her safe. Daron has orders to make sure she stays alive, no matter what happens to me.

My wife appears from the downstairs powder room. She looks pale, and I can’t blame her. A lot can go wrong, and the stakes are impossibly high.

“Alexan,” she says, her voice trembling.

“It’ll be okay, baby.” I go to her, but she holds up her hand.

Clutched in her fist is something white and pink.

I stare, not comprehending at first.

“Alexan,” she says again. “I just took this.”

Then it hits me.

“That’s a pregnancy test.”

“I know. I should’ve said something sooner, but—” She chews her lip and stares into my eyes. Tears roll down her cheek. “It’s positive.”

Fuck.

My world stops.

Everything goes completely still.

The outside doesn’t exist anymore. Riley is the only person in the whole world. I reach for her, my mouth working.

Then joy floods me. It’s so intense, I can barely control it. I crush the distance between us and wrap my arms around her. I hug her close and lift her into the air, laughing like a maniac.

“You’re pregnant!” I yell, flinging her around. “You’re fucking pregnant!”

“Alexan!” she says, laughing too. “Put me down, you crazy person! You’re going to break my spine!”

I lower her back to her feet and bury my mouth in a kiss. My hand moves to her stomach, even though I know I can’t feel the baby yet. But they’re in there. My little child is in there.

“This is perfect,” I whisper, forehead pressed to hers. “God, I love you, Riley.”

“I love you too.” She strokes my cheek, grinning through her tears. “But what if this doesn’t work out? What if⁠—”

“You know what to do. Brenden will get you to Liam. From there, Daron and Liam will help you disappear. You’ll raise our child and have a good life. You’ll be happy.”

“Alexan,” she says, shaking her head. “I can’t do this without you.”

“You can if you have to. But I promise, baby, if I can come back to you, nothing in this fucking world will stop me. Because you’re mine, and that baby is mine, and I won’t ever lose you.”

I hold her tight for a while. I don’t want to be late to the meeting, but I need to sear this in my brain. If this is the last happiness I ever feel in life, at least I’m going out at the absolute peak.

She walks with me to the car. I can tell she doesn’t want me to go alone, but she knows the deal. Brenden will come over shortly, and they’ll sit together while they wait. Her brother knows he has to keep her from doing anything impulsive and stupid.

“I’ll be home soon,” I say, kissing her.

She nods, crying again. “You better be.”

I start the car and drive away. I don’t look in the rearview because if I do, I don’t think I’d be able to keep going.

My wife. My pregnant wife. Fuck, this changes everything.

A cold determination fills me. I don’t give a damn about Mantis or Los Sombras or any of them. Fuck them all. I’ll kill a thousand Mantis operatives and a million cartel soldiers if it means being here for my wife and my child. To hell with them all.

I reach the meeting point. It’s an hour outside of the city at an abandoned-looking construction site. I’m guessing they’re putting in a warehouse or something based on the size of the place. The back gate was left unlocked, per the Mantis instructions, and I head through the fence on foot.

The structure is concrete, exposed rebar, and cinderblocks. Muddy puddles lurk like a minefield. There’s nobody around, only quiet equipment and a broken-looking radio. I keep the dossier tucked under my arm as I find the entrance to the half-constructed building and go inside.

The floor’s bare poured concrete. Standing midway down is a group of ten men, all of them armed to the teeth and wearing black combat fatigues. I stop moving and stare, but three more armed men appear to my left, talking fast.

“No weapons,” the lead guard says. He’s in a black combat helmet, and I can’t see his face, but his accent is American. I’d bet these are mercenaries.

“I have one gun in my jacket.” I pull it open to show the holster.

The guard reaches in and takes it. He releases the magazine, removes the bullet from the chamber, and hands the weapon off to his assistant. Then he pats me down quickly and efficiently but finds nothing else.

“Go ahead,” he says, nodding.

I walk toward the waiting group.

A folding card table is set up, and a small man is sitting behind it. He’s wiry and older, with a bald head, dark eyes, and a hard frown. I’ve never seen him before.

“I brought what you’re looking for,” I say, holding out the folder.

The man doesn’t move. “My name is Fungal Spread. Do you know me?”

My eyebrows raise. “If that’s true, then you’re the most notorious hacker in the world.”

“And you are Permafrost. One of the best I’ve ever seen.” Fungal Spread watches me with a cold, ruthless stare. “But you took too long.”

“I wasn’t given much to work with.”

“I’m aware. My predecessor, Iron Head, was a desperate, stupid man. You never should have been brought into this process from the start.”

“We can agree on that.” I hold the folder up. “Do you want it?”

He frowns at me. “Did you really find the watch?”

“Take a look and find out.”

He seems intrigued and gestures sharply. One of his soldiers walks over, takes the folder, and hands it off. Fungal Spread sifts through the documents, reading them quickly. His eyes dart from side to side, and his lips move as if he’s vocalizing to himself.

“And all this is correct?” he asks.

“Everything in there is entirely accurate.” I’m extremely aware of the high-powered weapons all around me. I’d bet there’s a sniper or two up on the partially finished roof as well. One wrong move, one gesture from Fungal Spread, and my brains will be a fine pink mist. “It wasn’t easy to find.”

“This is a very disturbing revelation. How did you even think to look here?”

I have to be very, very careful here. I need to skirt the line between true and false. If I make up too much bullshit, Fungal Spread will grow suspicious. But I can’t just say I guessed.

“Iron Head’s records indicated he was meeting with a wide variety of people on the day the watch went missing. We noticed he stayed with several known associates of Los Sombras. My wife’s brother was involved with one of their heists—” I hesitate, running right up against the edge here. “And he told me about a rumor he’d heard. That Los Sombras had come up on an even bigger score. Something massive and dangerous.”

“And that was enough to make you hack their systems.” Fungal Spread nodded to himself as he flipped through the pages.

“I found the conversations first. As you can see, they’re mostly in code, but they all keep referring to some massive score. But they were having trouble figuring out how to access it. That was one huge clue. We kept digging after that and monitored Diego Navarro’s communications. The smoking gun finally showed up two days ago when he directly referenced an encrypted watch. That’s on the last page.”

Fungal Spread grunts softly and leans back in his chair. He watches me, his face giving up nothing. If he realizes that every single conversation in that dossier is a forgery, I’m fucked. He’ll kill me and everyone I know. But I don’t back down, and I don’t show fear. I stand strong for Riley and our future child.

“And if I direct my people to hack Navarro’s system as well?” Fungal Spread asks. “What will they find?”

“Exactly what’s in that dossier.” Which is true, thanks to my crew. We worked day and night to set it all up right under Navarro’s nose. He’s got no clue the incriminating evidence is on his computer system now. And unless Fungal Spread himself does an extremely deep and detailed investigation into Navarro’s logs, which is possible but very unlikely, nobody will ever know the evidence was planted.

Fungal Spread nods slowly and closes the dossier. “Very good,” he says. “Very, very good. We were aware Los Sombras was unhappy with our organization; however—” He stops himself as if suddenly realizing he was saying too much. “At any rate, you did good work, Permafrost.”

“Thank you.” I hold his gaze, not moving. “I had an arrangement with your predecessor.”

“You will get paid. Once the watch is back in our possession, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Then our business is finished.” I turn away, heart hammering. I’m so close. I start back toward the door.

Fungal Spread calls out. “One more thing.” I hesitate and look back. I keep seeing Riley with a swollen belly and a smile on her lips. I have to get home to her. “Congratulations on your marriage and your new alliance with the McGrath family. I hope this successful joint venture will allow all of our organizations to work well together in the future.”

“I think we’d all like that.”

He nods and gives me a smile.

A chill runs down my spine.

Fungal Spread looks like a wolf pretending to be a human.

I get out of there. The soldier hands my gun back, though he keeps the magazine. “No offense,” he says.

I shrug and don’t argue.

Each step I take toward my car is one more step on the path back to my wife.

I know there are still a dozen ways this can go wrong, but for the first time since that watch came into my life, I’m starting to feel hope.