Page 63 of Graveyards & Greed

Smiling, I slid into the booth. “It’s been a while. I miss you.”

He took the toothpick out of his mouth and pointed it at me. “It looks like you found yourself a woman worth keeping. It took you long enough—don’t muck it up.”

My lip quirked, and I leaned back in the booth. “That’s all I seem to be doing lately.”

“Heh. That’s usually what happens in the beginning. Tell me about her.”

So I told him about Sylvie, and he grimaced when I mentioned Bella and her friend stopping by, then grinned when I recounted Sylvie blowing up the motorcycles with a suicide drone.

One of the servers, who resembled Betty White, brought us apple pie and refilled our coffee. We talked for what felt like hours—or maybe just minutes—before Sylvie stirred, pulling me from the dream. I rolled over and held her tight against me, wanting to shield her from the danger I knew was coming.

Chapter 25

Sylvie

The next morning, I sat at my desk with my hands in my hair as Fennick paced the length of my office. Kilian stood leaning against the wall playing Candy Crush Saga on his phone. Declan and Callum sat in the two visitor chairs. Declan still looked a little tired and walked with a cane and a limp.

Fenn stopped pacing and smacked his hand on my desk, making my coffee cup rattle. “We need to blow up their compound and hunt down the survivors. End of fucking story.”

His suggestion hung awkwardly in the air, and I raised an eyebrow, exchanging a glance with Callum and Declan. Callum grinned and shrugged, and Declan folded his hands over his stomach as if getting comfortable. None of us were surprised by Fenn’s over-the-top reaction.

“Blow it up?” I echoed. “I’m not interested in spending my best years in prison or dodging bullets for the rest of my life.”

Fennick leaned forward. “We can do it without getting caught, and we need to send a loud, showy message. Churchill was right when he said if you have a point to make, use a fucking pile driver.” For all of Fenn’s scary craziness, he had the IQ of a genius and read almost as much as Luna did.

Declan leaned forward. “We could always bankrupt them. Between Kilian and me, we could hack into their bank accounts and investments and take them down that way.”

“It’ll take too long,” Kilian muttered absently as he continued to play his game. “To do it right, we’d need a year and a good IRS audit.”

Declan leaned back and reluctantly nodded. “True.”

Rolling my shoulders, I gazed up at Fenn. “We need to figure out a timely,appropriateresponse. This can’t go unanswered, but blowing up the compound? It’s almost half a city block. And what about family members or visitors who might be there?”

I needed Kilian to share some of the ideas I knew were rolling around in his head. He was the strategist among us, and he collected and hoarded information like a squirrel on crack gathering nuts in the fall.

“Alright,” I murmured with mock seriousness, trying to goad Kilian into talking. “Let's hypothetically say we blow up the compound. Do you even know where to get the right explosives?”

Fennick grinned. “It’s like you don’t even know me. Of course I know where to get explosives.”

I winced. “You look like Norman Bates from that oldPsychomovie when you smile that way. Stop it.”

Kilian straightened off the wall and slipped his phone in his back pocket.Finally.“Blowing up their clubhouse isn’t a strategy, it's a childhood fantasy. It will also draw attention from the local law enforcement and probably the ATFandFBI. We need a plan that’s precise and jarring, so let’s try psychological warfare first, not a category five hurricane.”

Callum nodded. “I’m with him.”

“Precise? Psychological warfare?” Fennick snorted, running a hand through his hair. “They're not going to back off if we’reprecise, Kil. They need a sucker punch to the nuts, not a slap on the wrist.”

Callum shook his head. “They’ll reciprocate, and our dispensaries are making money hand over fist. Declan and I are thinking about buying a place at The Ridges, and maybe a membership to The Emporium.”

Declan nudged Callum, and Fenn and Kilian both glanced at me. I raised an eyebrow. “The Ridges is a beautiful community, and maybe I’ll see you at The Emporium. I hear their demonstration nights are something else.”

Declan barked out a laugh, and Fenn growled, “Oh,fuckno.”

Kilian held up a hand. “She’s just kidding.” He turned to me. “Right?”

I shrugged noncommittally at the varying looks of horror and discomfort on my cousins’ faces. It served them right to squirm a little. “Back to the reason we’re here. We need to pick off one or two key players and make an example of them,” I suggested.

Fenn started pacing again. “Making an ‘example’ out of one of those fuckers isn’t going to make them fear us.”

---