The Meeting

ZANE

We pulled up to the warehouse and made our way into the meeting room. The men we were meeting were already there, dressed in sharp suits, their eyes tracking us as we entered.

With Conner and Noah at my sides, we took our seats at the head of the table. I kicked off the meeting.

“Apologies for missing the last three meetings. I had something that demanded my full attention.

“My guys told me I needed to be here for this one, so I wrapped up my business to be here. What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

A tall man with dark hair rose from his seat.

“I’m Mark Knox. I’m the one who asked for you to be here.” He glanced at my men, then his own, before sitting back down.

“That’s fine by me,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I hope my men treated you with the respect you deserve while I was away.”

“They did exactly what we’d expect from men loyal to you.” He nodded at them.

“They’re my top guys and I trust them. My second- and third-in-command should represent me in a way that makes you feel like you’re dealing with me directly.” I leaned back, lacing my fingers behind my head.

“Close, but they’re not the ones calling the shots. They might be right under you, but it’s not the same as being the top dog.” He looked me in the eyes, as if trying to measure me up.

“Were you satisfied with my products?” I sat up straight, resting my elbows on the table and crossing my arms.

“Yes, they exceeded our expectations. We were impressed with the high quality. We haven’t found anything that compares to yours.”

I nodded and leaned in. “So, how many items do you want and which ones?”

He opened a briefcase and handed a piece of paper to Conner. Conner glanced at it, then passed it to me. I quickly scanned the list, nodded, and handed it back to Conner.

“How soon do you need these supplies?” I asked, still trying to gauge him.

“When can your trucks start moving them?” He looked out the window at the warehouse, where my men were working on a truck for another client.

“By tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I need to get a few items that aren’t here in this warehouse, but I can have them by early morning, no problem.”

I was still curious about how he knew about a few very secret items that he’d included on his list.

“Sounds good,” he said, smiling. One of his men handed him two briefcases, which he opened slowly. My men watched him closely.

He handed the briefcases to Conner, who quickly counted the money. Conner nodded at me, closed the briefcases, and handed them to one of my men standing behind him. I smiled and stood up.

But before I could leave, Mark spoke up again.

“Zane, there are a few more things I want to discuss. I know you have connections all over the country,” he said, pulling out a large stack of cash and sliding it across the table.

“I have a big problem that needs to be handled by one of the best assassins money can buy.”

I glanced at Conner and Noah. They shrugged, and I turned back to Mark. “What do you need done?”

“I have a family that keeps slipping through my fingers. Every time I think I’ve caught up with them, they vanish again before my men can get to them.

“Perry owes me over two million dollars, and he’s on the run with his wife and two kids. I need them taken care of as soon as possible.”

I frowned at him. “You want an entire family killed over a debt?”

“Yes, is there a problem with that?” He sounded like he expected me to accept the job without question.

“Usually we leave the family out of it. They’re usually innocent and have no idea what the man has done,” I explained.

“They just do what he tells them as he moves them around.” I felt a twinge of unease about what he was asking.

“If you can’t handle it, I guess my sources were wrong about you,” he said, reaching for the money.

“Where were they last seen?” I asked, trying to get more information.

He grinned at me and pulled his hand away from the money.

“They were in Washington state a week ago and then they disappeared. They’ve been trying to lay low in places where no one would think to look for them.”

I nodded. Noah took the money, counted it, and handed it to another man. “I’ll get my best man on this for you.”

His grin told me something was off, even though he tried to hide it.

“Thank you, Zane. Here’s my contact number if you need anything. Let me know when the job is done,” he said, sliding a black card with gold lettering across the table.

Conner took it and put it in his pocket.

Mark stood up, and I followed suit. He extended his hand, and we shook. “Pleasure doing business with you. I’m looking forward to your call.”

“Likewise, the pleasure is all mine,” I replied as we headed for the door. He and his men got into their cars and were escorted off my property by fifteen of my men.

“Conner, I need you to dig up all the information you can on this Perry guy. I have a bad feeling about this deal.”

“I noticed it too. It’s like he was hiding something or trying to set you up with this job,” he said, heading off to get his computer. I followed him, and within seconds he had pulled up information on Perry.

“Looks like he’s a broker and an accountant. It doesn’t say who he last worked for, but he’s been in and out of jobs at big corporations for the last eight years.

“Boss, he has arrest warrants for embezzlement. At his last three jobs, he stole over thirty million dollars. The money was transferred to an offshore account.”

Connor’s fingers danced over the keyboard, digging into the mystery of the account.

“Mark’s the owner, no doubt about it. And now, it seems like our friend is trying to give him the slip.

“Maybe he saw the arrest warrants coming and decided to grab some cash and bolt?”

He pulled up a video from a bank security camera. It showed Perry withdrawing money from Mark’s account and moving it elsewhere.

I turned to Noah. “Get Max on this. But instead of taking Perry out, bring him here. I don’t want to make a move on someone who might have a good reason for running.

“I want to hear his side of the story first. If it checks out, we’ll hunt him down in the maze.”

Noah left the room and came back a few minutes later with Max.

“Max, I’ve got a job for you. It’s a bit different from the usual. This guy Perry is trying to outrun the man who just left. I need to know why.

“Track him down, and his family too. Bring them here. We’ll keep his family safe until we figure out what to do.”

Max studied Perry’s picture and nodded. “Anything else, boss?”

“Just bring him here. I want to hear his story before we take out a potentially innocent man and his family.”

Max left, and I started my rounds in the warehouse. “Noah, something else is nagging at me. How did he know about these secret items that we don’t usually carry?”

“He asked if we could get them. I told him we probably could. But how he knew about them, that’s a mystery.”

“We need to keep a close watch on him. Something about him doesn’t sit right with me. Did we have some guys tail him when he left?”

“Yeah, Tom and Drake are on it. They’ll call as soon as they have something.”

“Connor, dig up everything you can on Mark. I need to know what we’re dealing with. My gut’s telling me something’s off about this order.

“He knew about items we don’t usually advertise, items only a few of our customers know about. We’ll start there. And tell our guys to be extra careful when they deliver his order.”

“Understood, boss. They’ll be warned.” Connor nodded and left to spread the word.