Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
I leaned forward. “Look, you put this thing together to help people.” I stabbed at the tabletop with my finger. “She needs our help. Right now.”
Kian looked me in the eye and…it was as if he understood. He knew what I was feeling. I looked away, embarrassed.
“Okay,” said Kian quietly.
I relaxed. It started to sink in. Ten years. I was signing up for ten years with this Irishman’s boy scout troop. Three years longer than if I just stayed in here. Three more years until I could be free, and go and collect my reward. But I’d do it, for her.
And then my world fell apart for the second time in twenty-four hours.
“There’s one more thing,” Kian told me. “The Justice Department has a condition for your early release. They want the gold.”
“Wh—What?” For a moment, I just stared at him. “I don’t know where the gold is!” That had always been the line I’d stuck to. They couldn’t prove I had it: that’s why I only got ten years instead of twenty-five.
Kian leaned closer, his voice sympathetic. With the Irish accent, he could almost have been a Catholic priest, urging me to confess. “You’d better be lying. Because they think you do know where it is, and they’ll only let you out if you tell them where it is.”
No. No, no, no. I felt sick. I actually thought I was going to throw up. Not the gold. Not my gold. I couldn’t give that up. That was what had kept me going, through the last three years. That was what I needed to get me through ten years with Kian and his bunch of misfits. It’s mine! I bled, sweated, planned, and lived three years in this hellhole for it! “You didn’t mention this before,” I croaked.
“You didn’t say yes before,” countered Kian.
I thought desperately. Could I sign, and then somehow get away with the gold? Maybe. But it was a massive risk. Every cell in my body was screaming at me to tell him no. I could just go back to my original plan: sit here for seven more years and then come out a free man, collect the gold and walk off into the sunset.
But…I’d be doing it knowing she was dead. And that I could have saved her.
I drew in a long, slow breath…and nodded.
Kian took a piece of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to a guard, who brought it around to my side of the glass. I looked it over: it said, in legalese, that I was admitting to being in possession of the gold and that I agreed to hand it over and serve on Kian’s team for a period of ten years. If I didn’t fulfill either requirement, I was back in jail for the full twenty-five years they’d originally wanted.
If I did this, my dream of doing my time and walking away a free man was gone forever. Even if I could rescue Olivia and then get away from Kian’s team and get the gold, I’d be a fugitive for life. Best case, I’d always be looking over my shoulder. Worst case, I wouldn’t find a way to slip away and I’d have to hand over four hundred million dollars.
But I didn’t have a choice. Not if I wanted to save her.
I touched pen to paper, hesitated…and signed my life away.
“Where’s the gold?” asked Kian immediately. “The Justice Department can take us there right now.”
I shook my head. “It’s somewhere remote. It’ll take days to get there and she doesn’t have days. We go and get her, then I’ll show you where the gold is.”
Kian’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me where it is. They can send people to retrieve it while we’re prepping the mission.”
“It’s booby-trapped,” I said. He looked at me disbelievingly. “It is! You think I’d leave four hundred million dollars unprotected?! It’s booby-trapped and only I know how to disarm the explosives.” I stared at him through the glass. “We rescue her, then the second our chopper lands, I’ll take you straight to the gold.” He didn’t look impressed. “You can trust me!”
He shook his head. “I’d have to be feckin’ insane to trust you.” He studied me for a long time. “I’m going to help you, because I think you’re doing this for the right reasons. But if you cross me, you’re going down hard. Clear?”
This guy was no fool. I’d have to work hard to convince him and his team that I was a good guy, so I could slip away the second Olivia was safe.
I looked around. For three years, the gold had kept me going. Now it might be gone and suddenly, I felt the walls of the prison closing in. “Clear,” I told Kian. “Now get me the hell out of here.”
10
GABRIEL
An hour later, I was standing outside the prison gates, dressed in the jeans and white shirt I’d been wearing when they arrested me. I closed my eyes and felt the kiss of the wind against my cheeks. It wasn’t how I’d planned it, the gold was in jeopardy and I had to get Olivia back. But for a second, I just enjoyed being free and Kian was a decent enough guy that he stood back and let me.