Page 47 of Lure

Hot cocoa.

I was going to get hot cocoa for me and for Alphabet. At least that was something useful I could do. I needed the damn cocoa if nothing else. I could make it on the stove, but we had an espresso machine so I could also steam the milk. I went through the cupboards first to check for chocolate.

It really depended on what kind of chocolate they had. Once I found that, I could decide how to make the cocoa. They had to have chocolate. My side ached and so did my gut. It rolled, cramping a little. Maybe I was hungry, but I didn’t want food.

The chocolate was in the pantry. There were containers of powder, also a couple of boxes of standard hot cocoa mix, there was also some Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Plenty of options. I grabbed the second and the third before retreating back into the kitchen proper.

Steaming the milk was the way to go. Yes, it was noisy, but I doubted that it would bother him if he even heard it through the headphones. It didn’t take me long at all to fix the two huge cups of hot chocolate. I sipped mine once it was ready.

It tasted a little like heaven. Chocolate might not fix problems, but it went a long way towards making them easier to deal with. Even better than a shower, really.

Fisting both mugs, I headed back to Alphabet’s office and made it just in time to hear him say, “Behind you…”

Flashes on the screen showed one of the guys with a gun raised as he fired it. There were bodies down. It was—surreal. Like a movie or something.

Only it definitely wasn’t a film.

It was real.

It was people I knew.

A cold band tightened around my core. I dragged my gaze off the screen and then glanced down at the hot cocoa in my hands. What was I doing?

The soft woof pulled my attention down to Goblin. He’d abandoned his dog bed and leaned against my leg. The soulful look in his eyes reminded me why I’d come in here. A glance at the screen showed the guys moving through some facility, but they weren’t shooting at anyone anymore.

Alphabet had also turned away from the screen and his deep blue eyes fixed on mine.

No backing out now. I was here and he knew it.

So I held up the hot cocoa mugs as an explanation.

Chapter

Eighteen

ALPHABET

“Hold,” I ordered, not bothering to check if they listened. After all this time, we’d long since mastered the art of working together. We didn’t have to be getting along to communicate in a shorthand as familiar as our own heartbeats. I tracked the motion of a security patrol.

As late as it was, and with as little sleep as I’d had over the past few days, I was still restless. I was also more than a little annoyed. My irritation wasn’t aimed at the guys—not even Bones with his attitude. Grace wasn’t the cause either. Stubborn, fierce, and defiant to the point of obstinate, she fascinated and amused me in equal measures. I only wished she’d trust us.

Really trust us.

No, I was pissed that the clients who hired and then sold us out on the Rojas job in the first place. They’d made a call, determined they were better off writing us off as a loss and chose sacrifice.

Fuckers.

One of the reasons we vetted clients so damn thoroughly was to avoid situations like this. Since vetting wasmyjob, I blamed myself. I’d missed something.

Wouldn’t happen again.

The only faint light in the clusterfuck was the identity of the man in the barn proved him to be just a drifter. He had no ties to the Rojas. Bastard still hurt Grace, but he was not a loose thread and he’d already been cut off.

"Status?" Bones asked in a tone that was both commanding and patient. The request wasn’t an attack or a demand. I didn’t tell them to hold for shits and giggles.

"Standby, Captain." I stared at the screen, the patrol continued up the farthest hallway on an external perimeter on the far side of the building. The laboratory facility was “closed” for the night. Night staff consisted of a pair of janitors—already done for their shifts—and a light security force.

Everything on paper said it was a standard laboratory processing medical specimens. All the licenses were current and inspections up to date. It was clean and neat, formal, nothing to look at twice. Which was exactly why we were looking twice.

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