Page 68 of Lure

Chapter

Twenty-Five

LUNCHBOX

Maurizio Gallo was in France. He’d been vacationing near Nice and according to the reports Alphabet dug up, he was even now enjoying some time in a villa on the French Riviera.

“Taking her to Europe is going to be challenging.” I studied the map Bones had been building based on the data we’d collected. At the moment, Gracie had gone up to shower after her run.

As irritating--and hot—as it had been to listen to her cries of pleasure the night before, I couldn’t fault the shine in her eyes earlier in the day. That same glow seemed back after her run.

We’d locked her down and it was smothering her. From the way Bones and Alphabet watched her, I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

“We’ll make it work,” Bones said in the same tone he’d used when he said we’d finish a mission or get Alphabet through recovery. It was a foregone conclusion, wewoulddo it. Which meant we would also figure out thehowof it.

“On our side,” Alphabet said as he pushed his chair back and stretched. There was a hesitation in movement present when he stood. He needed a break. “No one has reported her or her sister missing. It pisses me off that someone is going to all the trouble of erasing her, even if it also means we may not have as many challenges to get her from point A to point B.”

“Maybe,” Voodoo said, arms folded. He was also staring at the map on the wall. The details on Gallo, his holdings, and the number of “dismissed” legal actions against him. The only reason we even knew there had been lawsuits at all was the gossip reporting. Once they were “settled” or paid off, they were erased entirely.

Another red flag.

“Issues?” Bones said, pivoting to face Voodoo.

“Depends,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “She’s a pretty well-known face. You recognized her, Lunchbox.”

I shrugged. “True, but you guys didn’t.” A point in our favor. “Considering how many models are in the world, how many can you name off the top of your head?”

“But we still take precautions. Better to avoid any possible incidents.” Bones braced his hands on the back of a chair. “We’ve whittled down her list to four names. No guarantee that one of them is involved in this.”

“Then we’ll start peeling back another layer.” We’d do it until we found the problem. Blowing out a long breath, I studied the map. “We need to settle one more point before she comes back down.” I checked my watch. I didn’t miss Voodoo’s measured look.

Slugging him earlier had sanded some of the edge off my temper. It was hardly the first time for any of us to solve a disagreement with fists. More than likely we would do it again. With this much on the line and building an op on the go, wecouldn’t afford to keep dancing around the gorgeous woman in the room.

“Cards on the table,” I continued when all three just stared at me. Maybe they didn’t want to discuss this right now, but I wasn’t going to let it go. Assumptions could get us killed. “We’ve been basically running by unspoken agreement. Alphabet and I got Grace out of New York because someone was after her. You came to back us up, then you,” I said with a nod to Bones, “sent Voodoo to take her and lure out any possible pursuits. Eventually, we got her here.”

“I don’t have a problem with her being here,” Alphabet said as he leaned a hip against the side of his desk.

“I didn’t say you did. I also do not have a problem with her being here,” I told him. “But we’ve never discussed the fact that we brought herheretoourplace. While Doc has a room here, evenhehasn’t been here.”

“What’s done is done,” Bones said and I could almost hear him dismissing the topic. “But perhaps you three will take a little more care when it comes to our missions. The more she knows, the more she can compromise us.”

“No one objected to her coming here,” Voodoo said. “None of us. We could have, before we got on that plane. We didn’t.”

“No,” Alphabet said with a sigh. “We didn’t. It’s not just about not having a problem with it. I like having her here.”

“That,” I said with a nod to him, “is the point. I like having her here too. I know you do.” I lifted my chin to Voodoo. “That was very clear last night.”

“And this morning,” Alphabet said with a wry grin. Bones just scrubbed a hand over his face. “But Lunchbox is right. If we want Gracie to stay here, we have to know where all of us stand so we can be clear on whereshestands.”

“Involving her is a good first step,” I said. “I want to help her. I want to nail whoever these bastards are that have turned her life upside down.”

“The fucker who had her from the first scoop is still out there.” Voodoo’s voice held a quiet threat in it. The guy was out there and that was something we definitely needed to take care of. “Then there’s the bastards who tagged her. The ones who put her on that truck…”

“And the ones who have her sister,” I added. “If she’s still alive.”

“Killing her would be impractical,” Bones said and it was such a cold assessment I frowned at him. “They’ve invested considerable resources into acquiring both sisters, into erasing them, and eliminating those around them like her manager, the photographers… You don’t profit if you kill the product.”

Hating that description, I tilted my head back. She wasn’t aproduct. But wasn’t that what all of these people were treating her as? A face. A body. A smile. It was all about how she looked.

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