Page 21 of Own

Three hours later, I settled into my seat on the train and stretched my leg out. It was definitely aching like a bitch now. Lunchbox turned up and he dropped into a seat on the other side of the aisle. Voodoo wasn’t far behind. The train wasn’t loaded. At least this car wasn’t. That was nice.

None of us relaxed, though. When we crossed from Monaco back into France, some of the tension knotting my back eased. But not all of it.

I kept turning the idea of the bracelet over in my head. I really liked it. In Marseille, we left the train and the limp damn near dropped me. My knee wanted nothing to do with me.

“Here,” Lunchbox said, bracing me. “Lean on me.”

“Fuck,” I swore under my breath. As much as I didn’t want to need the help, if I didn’t take it, I’d be crawling after them and that wouldn’t do anyone any good. Voodoo slanted a look at us, then nodded.

“I’ll get the car. Meet at the south exit.”

I waved him off. Lunchbox and I made our way to the train lockers. Once there, I sat my pitiful ass down and rubbed at the rock hard cramps twisting my thigh. Sweat beaded along my back and my shirt clung uncomfortably to me.

“You’re hurting,” Lunchbox said after he pulled out their duffels then pulled mine from another locker along with my laptop. Our overall luggage was a wash, but we had everything that was necessary.

“Yep.” Wasn’t even going to lie about it. “I’ll survive.”

He shot me a look and I shrugged.

“I will,” I reminded him. “We got the job done. Identified bidders. Marked a huge spot on their little trafficking super highway. And I broke Reznik’s nose while you got to break the rest of his head. As ops go, this was a good one.”

A smile ghosted over his mouth. “Did not see him coming.”

“He didn’t see us coming either. But I’m not gonna be the one who tells Bones.” At my comment, Lunchbox grunted.

“We’ll make Voodoo handle it.”

“Seems fair,” I agreed. “That everything?” Because I needed to get up again.

“You got it?” He watched me warily and I nodded.

“I can handle it, let’s just get the hell out of here. We still need to track down Bones, Gracie, and Goblin.” It seemed like it had been days since we last saw them.

To be fair, it had been. At least three, if I hadn’t lost count. Probably closer to four or five. Definitely five by the time we caught up. We’d had an extraction plan and designated meetups.

We just needed to catch them now.

Voodoo waited, SUV running when we got there. Lunchbox waved me into the back and I took it, I wanted to stretch my leg out. After everything was loaded and Lunchbox was in the passenger seat, we pulled out.

“We were just supposed to get the info,” Voodoo said, almost conversationally. “Mission briefing had to change while in op.”

“We did get the info,” Lunchbox reminded him. “We also got to beat the shit out of a few assholes. As ops go, that worked.”

With a snort, Voodoo shook his head then he glanced back at me. “You good?”

“Not even on my best days,” I said, closing my eyes. “But I’ll live. I want a couple of hours. Then wake me so I can start decrypting the data.”

“You got it?” Lunchbox jerked to look over his shoulder at me.

I held up the flash drive. “Grabbed it on the way out. Once I decrypt it, we’ll know what they know.”

Buyers. Sellers. The people on the menu.

Everything.

I yawned. Everything, I hoped. Better to amend that and keep my aspirations low.

For now.

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