The Gambler(37)

‘Angel and Jenna.'

"I don't understand."

She seemed a little flustered by his admission, but he gave her time.

She went on to tell him that Bonata didn't know that she knew what he  was up to, that he was planning to kill her grandmother. He didn't know  that she'd stolen the codes to his accounts, or that she had been  secretly feeding her grandmother information for months. She told him  that the job she was here to do had nothing to do with the expose`.  She'd told Bonata that she wouldn't do this job, whatever it was, and  when threatening her didn't work, they'd taken her father to make her  comply.

She had no idea in the beginning that what she was doing was wrong. It  was all a game to her. Then she'd heard the men talking and bit by bit  she started to understand. Maybe because of her isolation her whole  life, she didn't know the ins and outs of men like Bonata and their  dealings. She still didn't seem to.         

     



 

She knew that her dad was in danger, and that she had to save him.  Andros wasn't sure she understood what killing someone actually meant  though; but from what she had in that bag, she wasn't here for tea and  conversation. No one had taught her how to fight; it was like her mom  had said. But everything she knew about crime, she'd learned from Bonata  and his men. She'd studied them and listened to them, when they thought  they were free to talk in front of her, because they didn't think she  understood.





There was one thing he wanted to know and he asked her outright. He had  to know who the real Jenna was, was she the innocent girl that loved  chocolate, had it all been an act, what? because right now he was  confused. The girl he'd met couldn't be capable of flying a plane to  Cuba with a kill kit.

"Were you putting on an act Jenna, that night we met?" she might've  orchestrated the meet, but she couldn't have planned her brother  striking her down. How did she know that he would react? How did she  even know where to find him?

From the look of confusion on her face he surmised that she hadn't been,  she didn't even seem to understand what he was asking her; somehow that  made it all the more sad. How could there be so many different facets  to her? He asked her about her childhood and she told him pretty much  the same story her mother had, which meant the old lady was off his shit  list.

"How did you know I would help you?"

She got up and went to her bag and came back with her damn toy, which he  was beginning to think wasn't so much a toy, as it was her secret  weapon. She typed in some stuff and he saw his face on the screen. She  handed it to him and he was surprised to see his life on the damn thing;  every rumor in the paper, every escapade that they still couldn't  prove, but most of all, all his work with his treasures.

He looked at her then and she went back to typing on her phone.

"Alice told you it was time?" she nodded her head and bit her lip. He  chose to leave it at that, because that shit made his head hurt. That  was the one thing he would never understand.

"What do they want you to do baby? Tell me."





Before she could answer him, if she was even going to, there was a knock  at the door. He drew his weapon and left her on the bed as he made his  way to the door. Gramps was standing on the other side looking bemused.

"You better come down to the study and bring our little firebrand with  you. I got news." He didn't question the old man about what kind of  news, he figured it had to have something to do with what they were  dealing with here. He reached his hand out for her and she joined him,  before they both followed the old man out the door.

Garrett and Jameson were left outside the door, and just the three of  them went in and sat around the room that looked like it hadn't been  touched since before the turn of the last century. Gramps was looking  around like he was searching for ears and eyes and Andros held his  tongue until the old man was finished.

"What's going on gramps?"

The old man cleared his throat and clasped his hands over his middle.  His eyes never left Jenna, as he seemed to be getting his thoughts  together. "I just spoke to my guy at the Pentagon. We've got us a  situation here son, a real situation."

Andros felt the change in Jenna as she sat next to him, she hadn't moved  in any discernible way, but he was becoming as in tuned with her as she  was with him. Leaning forward, her stared at his grandfather until the  other man started to talk.

"I'll make this quick because we don't have a whole lot of time. Bonata isn't the one that hit your house."

"What?" what the fuck was this now? he was not in the fucking mood for any more assholes.

"Yeah, it seems he was sending his goons after you in the car that day  to kill you and get her back, and the trade was the same deal. They  wanted her alive."

"So who the fu … who's trying to kill her then?"

"Mossad." The one word dropped like a death knell in the room.

"Come again." His heart was kicking in his chest and he reached for her  hand. What the fuck was going on here? "Why is Israeli Intelligence  after her?"         

     



 

"Apparently she cracked the code."

"What fucking code gramps?"

"They're top secret military base codes."

"How the fuck … " He was out of his seat and pacing around like a caged  beast. Jenna meanwhile, was looking down at her hands, where she had  them folded in her lap.

"That's where Bonata came in. Apparently he got her to do it then he  sold the info to the highest bidder. The only problem is, Jenna somehow  tricked them. She gave them only the lower level info, but kept the last  part hidden. Bonata was pulling a double-cross; he sold the info to  more than one faction. I guess that's where the off shore accounts and  shit came from."

"How does your friend know all this?"

"She told them, she was sneaking info to an agent on the sly, they  figured she finally figured out what the fuck Bonata had her doing and  she wanted them to stop him."

"I'm not following any of this. Are you telling me that flower has been fucking around with international security?"

"It looks that way, but that's not all of it. The Russians took her old  man; they were one of the factions who paid Bonata. When she refused to  divulge the last piece of the puzzle they snatched him."

"And the American government knows all this and they're doing what?"

"They don't have jurisdiction here; and besides, they're always one step  behind her, they only know what she tells them at this point. No one  can figure out how she did it, and without the final code what they have  so far is useless."



Andros turned to look at her then. She looked so small and alone in that  moment that it tore at his heart. What the fuck had they done to this  girl? Se lifted sad, tear filled eyes to him before dropping her head  again. "Angel, Jenna bad?"

He was across the room in a flash, kneeling at her feet. Taking her  hands in his he looked into her eyes before drying her tears. "No baby,  Jenna's never bad." How the fuck was he going to get them out of this?  He looked over his shoulder at his grandfather. "Where is it?"

The old man tapped his temple. "She keeps it all here."





He hung his head and tried to calm down a little. Jenna wasn't saying  anything, just sat there with a sad look on her face. For that alone he  could kill the fucks all over again. He didn't have time to think about  the past now though, he had to figure out a way to keep her safe.

"What's your guy saying? How do we get her out of this mess?" He knew  they wouldn't stop unless she was brought down, and he wasn't sure he  could protect her on his own. That galled him to admit, but his pride  was nothing compared to her safety.

"They're working on something, the long and short of it is, that the  Israelis are working to change the codes, but it's gonna take time. In  the meantime, we've got the Russians, the Persians and a few other  middle-eastern factions gunning for that code."

"She has until eight o'clock tomorrow morning to hand it over or her old man buys it."



"So if they change their codes she's in the clear with them right?"

"Yeah, I guess, but their other worry is who's to stop her from doing it  again. Peter, that's my guy over there, said that they're working out a  deal. They explained to Mossad that she wasn't aware of what she was  doing, and that when she figured it out, she tried to get help from the  American government. They're taking this all into consideration, but the  fact still remains that if that information falls into the wrong hands  before they fix it, it can be an international disaster."

"Do they know that this wasn't her doing? That she's a fucking innocent in all this?"

"Calm down son, they're trying to work something out. They don't know  about her father being taken though I don't think, so we're on our own  here."