Page 28 of Obey

Great.

Knives walks in, looking down at his phone. “This better be good, Lily, because I’ve got…” He trails off when he sees me and scowls. “Now what?”

“We’re leaving for New Valence in the morning,” I tell him, feeling about as happy about all of this as he looks. “Lily managed to track down where the shipment was last, and from there… We just have to go and do things the old-school way.”

Knives’s eyes narrow. “I know that. How do you know that?” He looks past me toward Lily. “You shared the info I sent you? Fucking bitch.”

Lily glares daggers at him. “Fuck off, Knives. I’m doing my fucking job. At least Mads is being polite to me, so maybe I will share this and all the rest of the info I have with just him.”

“I don’t have time for this shit,” I say, feeling something inside of me threatening to snap. “This isn’t a goddamn game. We have to leave tomorrow morning. For our job. So unless you want to be the one telling Silvano fucking Cresci that you don’t want to share info, shut the fuck up and let her talk.”

Knives crosses his arms and sneers. “Fine. Let’s get it over with.”

Lily rolls her eyes, sliding her chair away from the desk. She points at a map on her screen. “Well, there’s the last known location per the GPS. Going by the info we got out of Spinoza and your contacts, Knives, we can be pretty sure it’s the Demon Gators who got our goods. The question is where they’re hoarding our stuff.” She looks at me. “Spinoza didn’t have any additional tips, did he?”

I shake my head. “No, they paid him for the leads but didn’t involve him beyond that.”

Knives groans and runs his fingers through his beard. “Great. Which means we’ll have to ask around in New Valence.” He shakes his head. “My buddy Thunder said…” He stops and glares at me. “He’s got a friend down there who has an in with them. She’d be willing to meet with us. I was hoping it didn’t have to come to that, though.”

“Yeah, well, I was hoping I didn’t have to go on a cross-country trip with you. Guess neither of us gets what we want,” I snark at him, forcing my tone to calm before I ask Lily, “What else?”

Lily shrugs. “I’ll send you all the information I’ve got on these fuckers. Their leader, Boar, is bad news… but you’re both bad news too, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” She smiles at me, but I only eye her warily. “I think you can take him, Mads. Knives… You’re probably a bit soft these days.”

Knives makes a disgruntled noise. “Step away from your delicate electronics, and I’ll show you fucking soft.”

“Thanks,” I tell Lily, ignoring Knives. “I’ll report in as soon as we have anything.”

I can’t think of anything I want to do less than go to New Valence with Knives.

We’d fantasized about it once. There’d been ads on tv for the local festivals, and there had been rainbow flags everywhere, and it had seemed like we could have had a lot of fun partying with everybody, getting high on life.

We’d been dumb teenagers, of course.

“I’m going to report to Silvano,” Knives says. “Lily, can you book flights for?—”

“I’m not your secretary,” Lily counters. “Go plan your own business trip.”

Knives sighs and heads out, walking toward Silvano’s office.

I could let him handle it, but I realize I have no idea of what he might say to Silvano. I don’t want to risk him throwing me under the bus or arranging something without telling me.

I hurry after him, staying just behind so he doesn’t have a reason to talk to me.

Knives stops in front of Silvano’s office and scowls at me, though. “I’ve got it covered.”

I glare right back at him. “We have to work together on this, remember? We might as well get some practice in. Unless you want everyone in NewVa to know we’re weak fuckers who can’t even do our job right.”

Knives’s smoldering eyes bore into me. I swallow hard, and I try not to remember his hands on me, the domineering way he’d push me against walls, the searing kisses?—

“Come in,” Silvano shouts from inside his office.

Knives breaks the stare and walks into the office.

Spinoza is no longer there—and there’s no evidence that he was ever here at all. Silvano is sitting at his armchair this time, and Kyran…

His shirt is more disheveled than I remember. He must have gotten his hands dirty with Spinoza.

“You again?” Silvano asks when he sees me. “This had better be good.”

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