Page 123 of Avenging Devil: Part 2

“What the fuck was that?” Niran asks no one in particular.

It’s Salem who enlightens him. “That, there, was Sharp. He’s brought Cyn to heel. Well, mainly.” He barks a laugh, then grows serious. “You do know your sister’s a lying cunt, don’t you?”

“Are you talking about that business with Kid?” Niran grimaces as he mentions the prospect who I’d seen killed, reminding me if I ever get close enough to sink a knife into Duke, I’d do it without a second thought.

“Nah. Worse.” Salem shakes his head from side to side. “Sharp could give you the details, but the long and short of it is, her boyfriend’s no fuckin’ abuser. She took an awkward tumble down some stairs and blamed her injuries on him.”

Niran’s brow furrows as he tries to process the information. “But her father beat him up, or well, got some of his friends to.”

With a dismissive shrug, Salem just tells him, “Well, he didn’t lay a finger on her. She made it all up.”

“What the fuck for?” Niran rages. “Why the hell—?”

“Sharp will tell you when there’s a minute,” Salem assures him, then with a look toward me, reminds him, “We’ve got far more to worry about.”

“Church!” Lost shouts.

There’s a stampede toward the meeting room. I hang back with Niran so we don’t get trampled, and then we follow the rest of the men.

Once we’re all seated—Keeper late because, he informs us huffing and out of breath, he was in the heads—Lost wastes no time.

“Two pieces of info. Stormy’s had some success. There’s an abandoned warehouse, four bodies in close proximity inside. Three wandering around, one staying in place.

“A heat signal tells us she’s still breathing,” Grumbler breathes out. “But four? You reckon Susie’s still with them?”

Looking around, I see another couple of seats that are empty. Have they all got weak bladders?

But I’m enlightened when Lost continues his update. “Preacher and Blaze are headed out to the location with a directional mic. Might be hard to pick up anything, but hopefully they’ll be able to get close enough.”

“Anything from Duke?” Grumbler asks.

“Yeah. I just got a call from him. He wants to make the exchange in two hours.” Lost’s eyes meet mine, and his mouth twists.

My heart drops into my stomach, and I risk a glance to the man at my side. Just two hours, one hundred and twenty minutes, and then I’ll be leaving Niran. Maybe forever if their plans don’t work out.

“Where’s the exchange?”

Dart, their VP, takes over. “A shopping mall to the west of San Diego. It’ll be crowded as fuck. Huge place, two separate parking lots. The plan is apparently that Duke will bring Mary, and will exchange her for Saffie, but only once he sees she’s alone. With the number of people around, we can’t fire at him, and will need to be careful about how we take him down.”

“In a crowd we could lose him. He’ll disappear as we won’t know where he’s parked,” Salem says grimly.

“He’ll make a diversion.” Pennywise is thinking aloud. “He’ll try to snatch Saffie. Maybe he’ll leave Mary somewhere, maybe he won’t.”

“Maybe he’ll use her as a distraction. Pregnant woman having a baby would cause a crowd.”

“He better not use my ol’ lady!” Grumbler roars.

In my head, I’m picturing a crowded mall. He’s asked for me not to be accompanied, which means my protection will have to stay away from me. He could take me anywhere, pull me into the restrooms, or into a busy shop.

“We’ll hack into the CCTV.” Bolt must see that my face has drained of blood and tries to reassure me. “We can track him from the first moment he appears.”

“You don’t know him.” It occurs to me suddenly. “Only Niran has seen him. He could come in disguise. I’d know his gait, the way he walks, his mannerisms, but you would not.”

That I’ve made a valid point is confirmed by the sudden silence.

“I’ll stick close to you, Saffie,” Swift offers. “He won’t be expecting a woman. I’ll act like a friend you bumped into. If he tries to take you, he won’t know what’s hit him.”

“I don’t like it,” Niran states, giving me a look as worried as my own. “It would be too easy to lose both Duke and Saffie.”

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