Golden Horde had beenhisvision, and the sons of bitches had cut him out of it.
All these years of planning were finally going to pay off. He’d rebuilt his identity, taken bullshit jobs that were far beneath his intelligence, and dealt with more idiots than he could count—people like Jason and Charli.
Fuck them. Fuck all of them.
He reached the room, grabbed the keys on his belt, and unlocked the door. Isaksen had told him it was hidden behind the rear corner tile above the bed. Steve would know in a moment whether the bastard had lied to him.
He climbed onto the bare mattress, pushed on the tile, felt something heavy weighing it down. He lifted the tile out of the way and drew the steel lockbox out of the ceiling.
Yes!
Isaksen had told him the truth—and all to save Sam. These Cobra men had more testosterone than brains and thought with their dicks. That had made Steve’s job easier.
Steve shut down his emotions. He could celebrate later when he was far away from this frozen, godforsaken continent. In the meantime, he needed to stash this in a secure location and move to the next phase of his operation, which was getting the hell away from the station.
He walked along the empty corridor back to his office, where he locked the case in his safe. That was probably unnecessary, as he had control of the station, but he hadn’t gotten this far by being careless or taking chances.
When the lockbox was secure, he logged into his personal VPN and sent an encrypted email to his buyer.
I have it. Deposit the funds, and send a plane during the next weather window and it’s yours.
Steve sat back, waited for the reply. He could keep the staff locked up in the B1 Lounge for as long as was necessary. The life pod had water, food, videos, toilets—everything they needed. Until his ride arrived, the station was his.
Chuckling, he got to his feet and walked to the B1 Lounge. He wanted to see Jones’ and Segal’s reactions to the news their leader was dead.
He found them standing at the door, looking out at him.
“Where is Isaksen?” Jones shouted through the small glass window. “We know he went with you.”
“Where the fuck is he?” Segal shouted. “And where is Dr. Park?”
Steve grinned, amused by their helplessness. Their brawn and bullets couldn’t help them now. “They’re dead. I drugged her, shot him, and locked them out in the cold without parkas. I’m sure they died quickly—or faster than Patty did anyway.”
The two men looked at each other.
“Did you hear that, brother?” Jones laughed. “This sick fuck locked Isaksen and Dr. Park outside without parkas. He thinks they’re dead. He doesn’t know the Viking. He’s not someone you want to piss off, Hardin.”
Segal leaned closer to the glass, peered out at Steve, his gaze hard. “Jones, you know what I’m looking at?”
“A dead man.”
This wasn’t the reaction Steve had expected, his disappointment mingling with anger. “I don’t care how tough he is. No man can survive out there for long.”
The others came up behind Jones and Segal, anger on their faces.
“Hardin, what the fuck?” Ryan glared at him. “You’rethe murderer? Jesus!”
Kristi pushed her way to the front, tears on her cheeks “Where’s Samantha, you bastard? What did you do to her?”
“Hardin’s the killer?” Lance was there, his face red. “You fucking piece of shit!”
“Is he going to kill us, too?”
“Hardin killed Sam and Thor!”
But Steve didn’t have to put up with this—the questions, the demands, the anger. These people weren’t worth his time. “You’ll all be locked in there until I’m gone, so make yourselves comfortable.”
He walked back to his office, sat at his desk, savoring the quiet. Then he logged onto his computer, driven by a morbid sense of curiosity. If Isaksen hadn’t bled out under the stairs, he was probably lying beside Samantha on the ice.