Page 99 of Colt

Prez’s eyes slid along the table and rested on his youngest son. “Breaker, you’re goin’ too. You’ve got the most experience gettin’ in and out of places silently and fast. You’ll both be in overalls and baseball caps pulled low. Get in, do the job, then you get the fuck outta dodge. Any trouble, both of ya, shoot before you’re shot. Just get outta there in one piece. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, you’re the right man for the job.”

Darkness swirled in Kit’s eyes at the mere thought of morphing into soldier mode. “Copy.”

Dagger turned to Atlas. “You can take ‘em if you want but wait in the van. I want you to wear a baseball cap pulled over your eyes and listen out. You hear or see anythin’ untoward you get in there and shoot every fucker you can see.”

“We should take one more person,” Atlas muttered, looking around the table. “Two inside, two outside.”

“Bowie,” Prez ordered. “He outdrives everyone else. He’ll be good in case you wanna get away fast.”

Bowie jerked a nod.

Prez turned to Cash. “You’re the most technical one after Colt. Hole up in his office. We can watch what’s goin’ on in real-time. I don’t fuckin’ know how to work all the computer stuff. It goes over my head.” He checked his watch. “You’ve got an hour and thirty. You gonna be ready?”

“I’m ready now,” I confirmed. “We just need to sort the overalls and load the van.”

Prez grinned. “Knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

My throat thickened, and I felt my face pale because I had let him down in the worst way. I was fucking his daughter, and even though she deserved better than a hidden life, I couldn't let her go. It was a melancholic thought, the realization that our love couldn’t exist in the open, but still, right then, I clung to it like a lifeline.

“You take the lead, Colt. Breaker, you take his back,” Prez ordered. “Elise will take you to the mayor’s study and his bedroom. I want cameras and audio set up in both.”

My eyes rounded. “I won’t set up a camera in a woman’s bedroom, Prez.”

“She said it’s not her room,” he murmured. “They sleep separately.”

“I’ve heard rumors around town he fucks around,” Bowie said with a lip curl. “Apparently, he’s always gotta mistress on the go somewhere. He fucks ‘em off after a while and moves on to the next.”

Dagger’s gaze dropped.

“Don’t blame her for not fuckin’ him then,” Breaker interjected. “No woman wants to suck a dick that’s just nutted in other women.”

Prez’s fingers twitched, and he closed his eyes as if blocking out the words. After a minute, he pulled in a deep breath and looked up again. “We need someone on the cameras twenty-four-seven. Trafficking women isn’t exactly a nine-to-five.”

I shifted in my seat.

Leaving the club had thrown up the issue of who would do my job when I’d jetted.

Two men came to mind. The first was Arrow. He was very technologically minded. As an ex-marine, he dealt with their tech gear and radios and headcams when out on missions. I knew that shit wasn’t easy. Often, the conditions he had to work under would be difficult.

The other was our new prospect, Billy the Kid. That little fucker could do all kinds of shit, like coding. He was a typical Gen Z, glued to his cell phone and useless without technology. Though I guess the same could’ve been said about me, and I was a Millennial. The problem was that until he got patched in, he couldn’t get access to any club business or its secrets.

“I reckon we could give Arrow a shot,” I suggested. “Billy’s pretty technical too, so when he patches in, we can get him to help out. I need backup, so can we look at giving them somethin’ more permanent depending on who works out better?”

“Done,” Prez agreed. “I’ll talk to them both. Billy’s workin’ out well, so I don’t think it’ll be too long before he gets his patch.” He looked around the table. “Has anyone got shit to add?”

Silence.

“We’re done,” he announced with a bang of the gavel.

As the meeting adjourned, I couldn’t help the sense of dread filling my chest, not for the mission but for what came after.

My eyes slid left to study Breaker, who wore the same grey overalls and baseball cap as I did. We both carried holdalls filled with sensors, microscopic cameras, and bugs.

“You ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be.” I raised my hand and rapped three times on the massive oak double doors that led into the mayor's mansion.

Craning my neck, I turned toward the black van where Bowie sat in the driver’s seat wearing an identical cap to me and Break. The letters on the side of the vehicle had been stuck on by Bo, who, thank fuck, was an awesome designer and could copy the logo of the telecommunications company like a boss.

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