A Cartel Affair (First Original Draft)

Chapter 10

Photo to the side - Rain as Xing

Carter's P.O.V.

The intruder was good, leaving no visible evidence of his identity. But Tony was better. He had been able to trace the server that had been used to hack into the system at the Hong Kong house and then access the cameras to the cafe where the intruder had worked from and put a face to the user of the IP address that came up.

Once we knew his identity, we were able to locate the shady brothel he was holed up at and waited patiently for the opportunity to catch him alone. Even after being beaten and bruised, he had refused to cooperate and was now cuffed to one of the chairs in the cabin of the plane.

We had been in Hong Kong for a little less than a week and I was ready to get back home. We were in the air and about four hours from landing at our private airport, but I was restless and pacing steadily, ready to put a bullet in the intruder's head, but I needed to know who he worked for before disposing of him.

The information kept on that particular system had held the names and numbers of our Asian contacts. If that information fell into the wrong hands, we all might as well get ready to walk through the gates of Hell because our associates there were the deadliest people we dealt with. Luckily, Tony had been able to create a current backup and delete the files and any residual information before the intruder had broken completely through our firewalls. We were seriously going to reevaluate where and how our data was stored as soon as possible.

"Boss, for fuck's sake. Would you please sit the hell down." Darrien swiped a hand down his face. "The bastard isn't giving anything up. You might as well just wait until we get back to the house to finish interrogating him."

I spun and glared at Darrien.

"Boss," Tony stood and placed his hand on my shoulder. "We'll be home in a few hours. You should go rest, you haven't slept in days and you look like shit. We'll keep an eye on him. If he decides to talk, we'll let you know."

I slowly tore my harden gaze from Darrien and looked into Tony's eyes, seeing the unspoken words in his challenging face.

I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and stalked to the back cabin and slammed the door. I stripped out of my clothes and threw the covers back. As I closed my eyes, my mind immediately drifted to Lea.

I hadn't been in contact with the house since we left as it was standard procedure for us to forgo contact while we were out. The lack of communication was to keep everyone safer than what they would be if they knew our exact location.

As soon as we were on the ground and on our way, I would be making a call. I needed to hear her voice. Slowly I drifted off to the images of Lea's flushed face and shuddering body as I left her standing in her doorway.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Boss."

"What? " I growled as I rolled onto my side.

"We'll be landing in ten minutes."

I rubbed my hands up and down my face and through my hair as I tossed back the blanket and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Do you need a cold shower, Boss?" Darrien's eyes trailed southward.

I groaned and threw a pillow in his direction. "Get. Out. Now."

Darrien backed out, smirking and shaking his head, his childlike laughter following him out of the room. I stood and made my way to the small half bath and turned on the cold water, splashing the cool liquid over my body and allowing it to trail down my chest and back.