Chapter 14 - The Game of Leverage
The front door of the cottage creaked open, and Victor Reyes stepped into the moonlight. He had lost weight since his time in prison; his cheekbones were sharp, his hair cropped close to his skull, but his eyes still carried the same predatory, calculating intelligence that had nearly destroyed Liam’s life years ago. He carried a heavy-caliber pistol, but it was lowered toward the floor.
Liam stood up from behind the table, keeping his own weapon trained directly on Reyes’s chest.
"Where is the drive?" Reyes asked, his eyes scanning the room, ignoring the wounded merc who was groaning on the kitchen floor.
"It's safe," Liam said. "And it's programmed to broadcast the exact location of your remaining assets to every federal agency in the country if I don't input a safety code every six hours. If you shoot me, you're not just broke, Victor. You're a dead man walking."
Reyes smiled, a cold, humorless stretch of his lips. "You've learned a few tricks since the desert, Liam. The prison system suits you. It makes you sharp. But you're still soft. You still have things you care about."
Reyes raised his left hand, holding a small remote detonator. "My men didn't just walk up the beach, Liam. They planted three high-explosive charges against the foundation of this house. If I press this button, the whole place collapses into the sea. Your wife, your children, your precious little life—gone in a second. Now, I ask you again: where is the drive?"
Liam’s chest tightened, but he kept his weapon steady. He knew Reyes was a psychopath, but he also knew he was a businessman. A businessman doesn't blow up his forty-million-dollar collateral unless he has no other choice.
"If you blow the house, you get nothing, Victor," Liam said, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "You go back to being a fugitive with a federal bullseye on your back and zero dollars to your name. You can't run a global smuggling network on food stamps."
"I have investors, Liam," Reyes hissed, his composure finally cracking, his eyes flashing with a sudden, violent rage. "Powerful people who helped me get out of that prison. If I don't deliver those funds by tomorrow morning, they won't just send me back. They'll erase me. I have nothing to lose."
"Then let's make a deal," Liam said, slowly lowering his weapon by a fraction of an inch, offering a tiny sliver of hope to keep Reyes from pressing the button. "I'll transfer ten million to an account of your choice right now. It's enough to pay off your investors and buy you a new life in South America. But I keep the rest, and I keep the drive. If you try to come back for more, I release the rest of the data."
Reyes stared at him, his finger resting on the red button of the detonator. The tension in the room was so thick it felt like a physical weight.
"Ten million?" Reyes whispered, his mind clearly calculating the odds. "And how do I know you won't just lock the account the moment I step off this beach?"
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"Because you know I want to protect my family more than I want the money," Liam said, looking Reyes directly in the eyes. "I want you gone, Victor. I want you to vanish into some jungle and never let me see your face again. That's my bargain."
Reyes lowered the detonator slightly, his chest heaving as he stared at the laptop. "Show me the transfer screen. If the funds aren't pending in three minutes, I press the button."
