Chapter 2

• Carter
• I’m sitting in my office at my estate waiting impatiently for that weak asshole to get here wondering what the hell happened to him and I’m brought out of my thoughts when my right-hand man Xander walks into my office.
• “Preston will be here in less than five with him.”
• I run my hand through my hair, “About damn time, did he say anything?”
• Xander sits down across from me, “He said that his house was a mess, like someone tore through it in a fight.”
• I roll my eyes and shake my head, “He was home all day yesterday so someone did that while he was home?”
• Xander nods his head at me, “Preston said that he looks beat to hell.”
• I smirk slightly and think for a moment about who might have been able to slip past all his security and get out without anyone seeing them then Xander clears his throat bringing my attention back to him, “I don’t think you should go this weekend.”
• I raise my eyebrow at him, “You’re not scared are you?”
• He scoffs slightly at me, “Of course not, but someone who we aren’t aware of snuck into that assholes house and got away with what they were looking for and gave Phil a beating so they are clearly making more aggressive moves towards you.”
• I lean back in my chair and put a hand on my chin, “I still have to be the face of that event, it’s going to take a lot more than a fat asshole getting an ass beating to scare me into hiding.”
• He opens his mouth to say something else but then I hear the front door open and voices getting closer to my office so Xander gives me one his many looks for we’ll continue this discussion later and stands up as Preston and Phil come into view and it looks like Phil got the beating of a lifetime.
• “Jesus he really roughed you up didn’t he?”
• He groans and sits down, his hand looks like it’s broken and one of his eyes is so swollen and purple that he can’t even open it, “I wish it was a man that did this because it would be less humiliating.”
• I raise a disbelieving eyebrow at him and glance at Xander then back at Phil, “Are you telling me you got your ass handed to you by a woman?”
• He looks at me and I see the humiliation in his one usable eye, “Yeah.”
• How on earth did a woman do this much damage to him and get away from him? “What did she look like?”
• He gingerly shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know, she was wearing a mask and had a voice changing device on so I wouldn’t be able to recognize it if I heard it again.”
• I roll my eyes and cross my arms, “How do you know it was a woman then?”
• He sighs slightly, “Men don’t move the way she did.”
• I raise my eyebrow at him again, “What do you mean?”
• He uncomfortable shifts in his seat, “I don’t know, she was just fast and skilled and the one time I was able to get my hands on her I could tell based on her body that it wasn’t a man. Whoever she is has been tactically trained at a high level.”
• I think for a few minutes at his words, “Do you think that the Langley’s brought it someone to help do their dirty work?”
• The question was directed at the room and Xander clears his throat slightly so I look at him, “It’s possible since I’m not aware of anyone they have in their organization that fits the bill of that vague description.”
• I nod my head and look at Preston, “See if they contracted anyone from out of the country, I doubt that if they were to bring anyone in it wouldn’t be international.”
• He nods his head at me but stays in the room because I clearly have more to say to Phil, “What did she get from you?”
• “I’m not sure, whatever she was after though she got it and told me to tell you that she will see you burn in hell just before she knocked me unconscious.”
• I chuckle slightly and shake my head, “So it’s personal. Might not be someone international then, but still pull up anything you can that might have a fingerprint or vendetta against me.”
• Xander chuckles slightly, “That could be just about anyone with your reputation.”
• I smirk and raise an eyebrow at him, “Possibly, but I don’t tend to leave a vengeful impression with women so that might narrow it down.”
• Xander rolls his eyes at me and I just find this rather humorous thinking how I could have pissed a woman off so bad that she wants to see me burn in hell, Preston nods his head at me and looks down at Phil.
• “Well let’s get you to the hospital.”
• Preston pats Phil hard on the shoulder and Phil winces in pain and I just chuckle, “Fuck man, take it easy.”
• Preston laughs as Phil slowly stands up and leaves the room with Preston right behind him and Xander come back to sit down in front of me, “So you still think it’s a good idea to go this weekend?”
• I stifle a laugh, “Do you honestly think that a little woman is going to get the best of me?”
• He rolls his eyes at me, “I think…that women are your weakness and whoever this person is may know that as well, you don’t exactly hide the fact that you love women to the world.”
• My turn to roll my eyes at him, “Women who just need a good fucking are different than women who apparently have me on their agenda for hells list of applicants.”
• He crosses his leg and sits back in the chair, “So you’re saying that you could kill a woman if she was trying to kill you?”
• The idea of that doesn’t sound particularly appeasing so I take a small breath, “Would I enjoy it no, but I also can’t just inherently roll over and let someone kill me.”
• He nods his head me, “Good, we’ve made too much ground in the last year for you to think otherwise.”
• I silently agree with him, “Maybe Preston will be able to dig something up the next few days before the event so we know who to look for Saturday night at the event.”
• He shrugs his shoulders slightly, “Hopefully but you and I both know better than to hold our breath for things to be easy for us, and they haven’t slipped up in the last eighty years that this has been happening and I doubt they’ll slip up now.”
• I nod my head in agreement with him and he stands up, “I’m going to see if we can get some extra security measures in place at the event.”
• I nod my head as he leaves my office and I’m thinking that I need to make sure that Phil isn’t potentially double crossing me, he has thirty years on me and was a young boy when he was first introduced into the organization by my grandfather and worked for my dad as his right-hand man, but I needed someone younger that I trust with my life by my side. He wasn’t particularly happy about the demotion so to speak but understood that it was the best thing for the greater good of our cause that I feel is coming to a head. The Langley’s…a conniving family that has been spreading filth into the city for so many generations before me, they feel like their ideal world has people bending the knee at the snap of a finger or face death, what a pathetic and shitty world to live in that would be.
• How they’ve been able to survive this long without repercussions is beyond me, there are theories that they have a French support system which doesn’t necessarily worry me considering I have reliable contacts in Germany and Russia that are on my side and I trust a group like that a lot more than anyone in France. Back stabbers that will switch allegiance on the flip of a dime as long as it protects their way of life, you can’t trust people like that who will always have their own best interests in mind instead of committing to a cause bigger than them.
• I’m pulled out of my thoughts with the ringing of my cell and see it’s Wes, “Yes.”
• “Hey, so the informant we snatched this morning seems to have a lot of information but isn’t spilling it, what do you want us to do?”
• I rub my hand through my facial hair and think that I will need to trim it before the event, “Keep him alive and if he doesn’t say anything bring him back to the east estate building.”
• “Understood.”
• He hangs up the phone and I text Clint to get one of the barred rooms in the east estate building set up, then I feel myself racking my brain for any woman here or even across the sea that I might have upset bad enough for them to assault someone who works for me in order to get to me. I can’t think of anyone in the inner circle of the Langley’s that might have a finger in this because the head of the family right now lost his wife almost twenty years ago and they didn’t have any kids so it can’t be anything where a child would be trying to appeal their father’s will. I push the thought to the side for now so that I can focus on getting things wrapped up for the event this weekend and the housekeepers know better than to stay past ten here at the estate since I always come back with someone from the event especially since I am going there alone this year unlike past years where someone usually accompanies me.