“He was completely vulnerable to her.” Kayla’s eyes shone with tears. “I’m going to kill that bitch, Josh. I know I promised…”
Josh wrapped his arms around her. “You’re going to do whatever you need to do, and let me and the others handle Bernie. I’m going to go meet with them right now and discuss how to ensure none of this disrupts Bernie’s family. You figure out why she wanted him dead.”
It was clear to Deke. Drake wasn’t the only one who could see a pattern. “She’s a former patient. Look, she’s clearly not the Jane Adams her background check shows. These Consortium operatives have to find ways to pass background checks. Even if all the paperwork is done perfectly, someone like MaeBe can figure out if it’s likely faked. She can do it by checking social media footprints and looking at the code on the paperwork. So what’s the best way to fake it?”
“To not fake it at all,” Kyle said, his mouth a flat line. “You take over someone else’s life. You find someone without much of a family, without many friends, and you become that person. The real Jane Adams is dead. Your doctor helped whoever the fuck is wearing her face.”
“Bernie wasn’t into anything criminal,” Josh argued. “He was one of the best plastic surgeons in LA. He worked on celebrities and models, not criminals.”
“He might not have known what he was doing.” Deke’s gut was in a knot. Maddie was at the mercy of this woman who seemed to have none.
“Did he specialize?” Drake asked.
“Nose jobs,” Kayla replied. “He was known as one of the best in the world when it came to nose jobs.”
“Jane has…had an interesting nose. It’s thin and slightly tilted up,” Drake remarked. “It would have taken a pro to get it right, and I would bet it was the first thing she had done. Your doctor was likely the last person to see her true face, and she had to get rid of him. This has been one long setup, and we didn’t see it coming.”
“Why take MaeBe and Maddie?” Kyle asked. “She killed the guy she wanted to kill. What’s the point of taking them?”
Drake’s eyes finally came up. “You know why.”
Deke didn’t have time to play Agency games. He’d put together a lot in his head in the last few moments. Sometimes dead didn’t stay dead. “Is Jane the woman you worked with? Is this about getting revenge?”
He needed to understand what Maddie was up against.
Kyle had paled. “No. No. I killed her. She’s dead.”
“Did you bury her?” Deke asked.
“No. I had to leave very quickly. There was a fire.” Kyle’s eyes had gone blank as though he’d turned inward. “I fucked up. She didn’t die. She’s alive and she’s going to kill MaeBe.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Drake stood. “We can’t be sure. And even if it is Julia, she’s working. She took Madeline for a reason, and we need to figure it out. I’ve got Byrne’s Ferrari turning out of the parking lot. I’m trying to track him.”
Deke’s cell buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket because Kay had been right about one thing. He was going to have to call Ian. He looked down and Boomer’s name flashed across the screen. “Hey, man. Come on inside. We need to talk.”
“I can’t, brother,” Boomer said. “I’m following Byrne. I noticed him sneaking out the front and figured you would want me to follow. I took the car. We’re on the freeway right now, but I think he might be heading back to his place.”
He was going to buy Boomer all the hot dogs he wanted. “Hang back. Don’t let him know you’re there. His girlfriend turns out to potentially be Kyle’s ex.”
“The one he killed?” Boomer asked with a whistle.
“Yeah, she might not be as dead as he thought, and she’s got MaeBe and Maddie. They’re very likely in that same SUV you saw earlier.” If Boomer had the car, then Boomer also had their provisions. “I need you to find a perch.”
Boomer’s sniper rifle was in the trunk.
“Tell him I’m going to send him schematics of Byrne’s property,” Drake said, moving back to his laptop.
“Drake’s sending you an email. Open it before you get to Byrne’s. It’s a big property and it’s got a lot of trees on it, but I need you to evade his security.”
“No problem. I’ll text you when I’m in place, and I’ll let you know if I see the girls,” Boomer promised. “I’m going to assume getting them out is our mission now.”
“Absolutely,” he replied. “You get them out if you can, and fuck the rest of the op. But be careful around Jane. She’s not what she seems.”
“Not if she’s back from the dead she’s not,” Boomer replied. “I’ll check in when I can.”
The line went dead.
“She’s going to kill MaeBe.” Kyle looked like he was about to be sick. “If that woman is Julia, she’s going to torture her and kill her. She’ll do it to hurt me. She’ll do it because she’s been watching and she knows MaeBe is everything to me.”
“The key word there is torture,” Drake said. “She won’t kill her right away. She’ll take her time. Julia is a monster, and she likes to play with her prey. So the question now is what will they do with Madeline.”
“He needs Maddie to integrate The Consortium’s weapon with her AI.” Deke could see how this would play out. “But he also wants to get rid of her. He’ll have to because she’s going to know what he’s doing. They’re counting on Kayla not bringing in the cops.”
“You know why I can’t,” Kayla said. “They know it, too. And sending the cops out to Byrne’s place could be risky, as well.”
“I’m going to get a call soon,” Deke explained, his panic starting to calm because he was right about this. The whole plan fell into place for him, and that meant he could counter it. “They’ll tell me to come out to his place but to come alone or they’ll kill Maddie and MaeBe. When I enter his house, he’ll shoot me, but not until I’m securely inside. He has to stage this properly. He’ll then kill Maddie but make it look like I did it. Like I found out my girlfriend was cheating on me with him. It’s a scandal but one the company can weather.”
“If Julia is involved, then she knows exactly who you are and what we’re all capable of,” Kyle pointed out and then groaned. “Unless that’s the whole fucking point. Byrne doesn’t know. She hasn’t told him. She’s playing every single one of us. She wants us to take him out.”
“I think so,” Drake agreed. “She wants the tech, but she doesn’t want Byrne. I’m going to assume he wanted a seat at the table, but he’s a wild card. He’s too much in the public eye to be involved. He’s a risk for the whole group. She wants us to take him out for her. She might even be planning exactly the scenario Deke put forth but with Byrne dying as well. If she can set it up so Deke kills Byrne, she’ll kill Deke and Maddie and make it look like Deke went insane with jealousy, killed them both, and then committed suicide. She walks away with everything, and no one is looking for her.”