Page 34 of Own

Gaze fixed on me, he nodded slowly then cut a look at Bones once before returning to me. “We need to eat. Kitchen stocked?”

“Yes,” I said, then added, “And I made sandwiches.”

His expression transformed into a kind of startled surprise. “Did you?”

“Don’t look so impressed,” I mimed a warning, even as Voodoo shifted, but only to stand with an arm around me so we could face them all. “They’re just sandwiches.”

“It’s food,” Alphabet declared with a laugh. “Let’s eat.”

“Status report,” Bones ordered as we adjourned to the kitchen.

The coffee was as much a siren for the guys as it had been for me. They made short work of transferring the plates of sandwiches to the scarred farm table in the kitchen along with a carafe of coffee before they started another. Lunchbox opened the fridge and pulled out large slabs of meat, then added some vegetables before he joined us.

It was fascinating to watch them move and split the story between the three of them as they brought Bones—and by default me—up to date. They covered the details of the attack at the house.

The men had been Gallo’s but they’d expected something like it and had planned for it. While Bones had indicated as much, I buried my irritation on the subject. Telling me wouldn’t have changed anything except, I’d probably have been on edge the whole time, so—not telling me was the way to go.

For now.

Alphabet picked up on the tracking data he’d put together just before the attack. “We knew that at least some of the sales had to be in Monaco, it just made sense and I’d gotten my first real bite. It took time to decode after that.”

“Gallo admitted that while he often participated in the auctions, he wasn’t one of the high bidders—twelve people who split the action between them, be it region, type of stock, or original location. He admitted Grace was supposed to go through those channels and he’d put in the request for you specifically.” Voodoo’s expression darkened on the last. He drifted his knuckles down my cheek.

“He’s dead now,” Lunchbox assured me.

“We should have made it hurt more,” was all Voodoo had to say on the subject.

“From Gallo we had the location of the auction and the time. We headed there directly,” Alphabet took up the story again. “I’d gotten a good chunk of it decrypted, at least thewhere. We just needed to get in.”

“Took a little finessing,” Lunchbox said with a shrug. “Some intimidation. Cracked a couple of heads, and Voodoo seduced the high roller—or pretended to let her seduce him and we were in.”

“I’m still working on names for all of them,” Alphabet said in between bites of his second sandwich. “We have IDs for some, they also know they were compromised but not how much.”

“Reznik,” Bones stated.

“Yes.” Voodoo rubbed a hand against my thigh, whether to soothe me or himself, I had no idea. Maybe both of us. “He’s a problem and one we will need to sort. It also means they’ll have our IDs and that could make problems for us getting to him.”

“Maybe,” Lunchbox said. “Maybe not. Depends on how we do our approach this time.”

“If we do an approach at all,” Bones said, his expression deeply thoughtful. “Hit and run might be a better option with him.”

“I have no doubts he’s got legitimate financial assets tied up in this mess.” Alphabet washed down his second sandwich with a long drink of coffee. “Once I pull those strings, we can start draining their nasty little pool.”

“We’re going to take them down?” I had to ask, I had to be sure because that was what it sounded like.

“One thread at a time,” Alphabet assured me.

“Or scorched earth and just blow the whole thing up,” Lunchbox said the last with a kind of feral smile. The glee in it made me want to smile at him even if he was referring to bloodshed and mayhem.

Yeah, I could totally smile about that.

“Just need to identify the best access point with the most leverage,” Voodoo stated. “Easier to get them if we can force them back together. Might be harder to manage that with the current situation.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Alphabet said.

“You just need bait,” I murmured. All four of them looked at me, the weight of their regard settled like heavy storm clouds filled to near bursting.

I didn’t shy away from any of them. Not the hesitation in Lunchbox’s eyes or the respect in Alphabet’s or the worry in Voodoo’s. The silence in Bones’ gray eyes held me though.

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