He didn’t have all day to wait them out, so he decided to force their hand. He did a quick walk around the perimeter of the pool area to make sure there were no areas where someone could be hiding. He pointedly looked each person in the eyes so he would remember them later if need be.
Then he approached Greg and Cassidy.
“I was able to buy the guns we’ll need,” he said in a conversational voice.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a woman stiffen and then begin to gather her stuff. She was too far away to have heard what he said, which meant she had used something to listen in. Cassidy and Greg wanted to say something, but he held up one finger to cut them off. He let the women leave the pool area before following her.
He kept his distance as he watched her nervously fast-walk through the lobby. Instead of leaving through the front door, she made a hard right into the ladies. Paddy strode directly to the bathroom and walked in. She was busy dialing a number when she saw him and froze.
Paddy held out his hand, and she handed him her phone.
He saw that the number she was calling was on the screen, so he connected the call.
“What have you got for me?” the uncle asked.
“This is Paddy O’Malley. Your little worker bee is unable to come to the phone right now.”
“Miles Shaw. Is she okay?”
“For now. But you and I aren’t, and I suggest we get there.”
The lady’s eyes went wide at the ‘for now’ comment.
“Bugger off, Yank.”
“Arm, leg, or back?” Paddy asked.
“What are you going on about?”
“Your lady friend. I don’t think you realize how serious this is, so I need to make an example of her. Which do you want broken?”
“Bugger off!” Miles yelled.
Paddy muted the phone.
“Either you scream your head off when I nod, or I will give you something to scream about.”
“I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt me.”
Paddy unmuted the phone.
“I’ll pick for you,” Paddy said as he nodded to the woman.
She let loose with a scream that would wake the dead.
Paddy hung up, hooked his arm under hers, and led her out of the bathroom before the hotel’s security showed up. He directed her to the bar, and they took a table.
“Here’s the deal. I need him to think I broke your arm, so either I have to do it, or you convince me that you won’t be seeing him again,” Paddy said.
“He hired me to follow your group. The money isn’t worth it.”
Paddy reached into his wallet and gave her a couple of large bills.
“Thanks,” she said and asked, “Can I have my phone back?”
Paddy added Miles Shaw’s number to his phone before handing hers back. She got up and walked out, leaving Paddy to plan his next step.
He was still there an hour later when he saw Cassidy and Greg walking through the lobby. He got their attention, and they joined him. Once they were seated, he began to talk.
“Earlier today, I did some recon. Oliver was with his older brother …”
“Tom,” Cassidy supplied.
“… Tom and his uncle, Miles. Miles had us followed, so I dealt with our tail.”
“When you say ‘dealt’ …?” Greg asked.
“I say that is none of your business,” Paddy said.
Greg and Cassidy looked at each other. Cassidy shrugged, so Greg let it go.
“Two things I learned,” Paddy said. “I’ve decided that Miles will have to be taken out of the equation before you meet with Oliver. He’s the one with the money and brains, which means if he gets involved, it could get messy. The type of messy that would cause trouble for David.”
“You said two things,” Greg said.
“The second is that Oliver is not in charge. I suspect Tom is the one who helped him get out of the country with their uncle’s assistance. At the meeting, I need to make sure that Tom understands that this is between Cassidy and Oliver,” Paddy said.
“How will you do that?” Greg asked.
“I won’t know until we’re at the meeting. Trust me to do my job.”
“That’s fine,” Cassidy said.
“I’ll need you to do three things for me. The first is to stay at the resort because Oliver’s uncle might want to grab you so that he can control your talk. If that happens, it won’t be pleasant.”
Neither Cassidy nor Greg had anything to say to that.
“The second is that at the meeting, let me handle Miles before you talk to Oliver. Do not react to anything I do because I only do it for a purpose,” Paddy said.
He could see that Greg wanted to say something but was glad when he kept his mouth shut.
“Finally, if I tell you to ‘go,’ you don’t hesitate, you don’t look back. You leave and catch the next flight back to LA.”
That sobered them both up.
◊◊◊
When Greg got back to his room, he called David.
“We have a problem,” Greg said.
“With?” David asked.
“Paddy.”
David chuckled.
“I take it you’re starting to understand what I unleashed when I sent him with you.”
“Dude, this is serious. I guess we had a tail from the airport sent by Oliver’s uncle. All Paddy said was that he dealt with it. I have no idea what that means, but my imagination is running wild,” Greg admitted.
“Chill. Paddy is a scary guy. I don’t even think he means to be at times, but he’s the kind of person that when you meet them, your lizard brain screams ‘danger.’ But I can say with complete confidence that Paddy follows directions.
At the very worst, your tail has a broken arm. I seriously doubt that he chopped them up and fed them to the sharks.”
“But …”
“Greg, I hired him to keep you and Cassidy safe. If he says or does something, shut up and either do as he says or let him do it. He fixes stuff like this for a living, so he knows what has to happen,” David said.
“I get that. It’s just that I have this gut feeling he might kill everyone in the room before the meeting ends,” Greg said.
“Put the money in the safe, and don’t bring it with you.
Paddy wants to get paid,” David said.
“And if he kills everyone?”
David barked out a laugh.
“Pay the man and thank him if you want to make it home. I would suggest that you then get out of the country.
I’m not sure what prison life is like in Bali, but it will be harder for them to bring you to justice if you’re back in the states,” David teased.
“Fuck you, little brother. I’m trying to be serious here.”
“Sorry, but you’re overreacting. Paddy will fix this to our specifications. There will be no bodies dropping or anything else. Oliver will cry, apologize, and then you’ll be back at the hotel and having a beer. Pay Paddy, and you’ll never have to see him again,” David said.
“I hope you’re right,” Greg said and hung up.
He felt like he had an ulcer slowly eating his stomach away. This couldn’t be over soon enough.
There was something he felt stupid about: the duffle with money in it was in his closet. Greg put it into the safe and locked it. He wouldn’t want to explain to Paddy how he let the cleaning lady steal the money. That would be the capper to a craptastic day.
◊◊◊
Paddy went back to his hotel room. He took a quick shower, and as he got out, there was a knock at the door.
Paddy looked out the peephole, but no one was there. His cell phone rang, so he went to the dresser and picked it up.
“Dad, Mom said I was grounded for hitting that jerk, Ryan. You know as well as I do that he had it coming.”