Page 46 of Own

Anew day, a new problem, and a new safe house. It was like being on some cracked world tour, only instead of playing a venue or hosting a party or just being seen—we did all of that with extreme prejudice and blowing shit up.

This place was colder, had less charm. The floors were concrete, the windows covered in black-out and framed by heavy curtains. One bathroom, and four rooms total with a kitchen that just made Lunchbox shake his head. There weren’t even that many beds and the furniture should probably have been taken out and burnt.

“We won’t be here that long,” Bones said.“Voodoo, we need to swap out the van.”

The van we’d been in was now parked inside a glorified shed. They called it a carport, but it looked like a shed. I already missed the car Bones had “purchased” when we’d been on the run. But I had a feeling, like everything else, it wasn’t coming back.

I paced the room, arms folded as much to warm myself up because it was chilly as to work off the wild nervous energy that vibrated beneath my skin.

“We will,” Voodoo said, leaning against the wall nearest the fireplace. Lunchbox had built a fire in it, the flames licking over the kindling. It was kind of a promise of warmth but it seemed a paltry defense against the ice spreading within me. “But not yet.”

“We need to debrief,” Alphabet said as he and Goblin came in. “I want to know why in the past few days we’ve run into Reznik and now O’Rourke. One should be in a prison and the other in a grave.”

I shot him a sympathetic look as he took a seat. With all the chatter on the comms, he’d actually said little. He’d said even less during our subsequent flight.

“I want to know how deep their ties are,” Voodoo said in a grim tone of voice. “In fact, I vote we pick one or both up and take them out behind the woodshed and beat the information out of them.”

“I could get on board with that plan.” Lunchbox stood, then sliced a look toward me. “You’re cold.” He stripped off his jacket and stepped right into my path before he draped it over my shoulders. It was still warm from him, even if it smelled like smoke.

“You didn’t know him,” Bones said as I shifted my stance and our gazes collided. “Right?”

“No, I didn’t know him. I’d never seen him before tonight. To be honest, I don’t think I knew anyone there, not that I lingered in the main party that long and most of those people were masked.” I rubbed my right arm. The cold seemed to be settling in my bones and everything had begun to hurt.

Maybe that was the adrenaline wearing off.

“You should eat,” Lunchbox said, worry deepening the grooves at the corners of his mouth. “Maybe change your clothes?” Without waiting for my response, he diverted toward the bathroom. “I’m going to see if we have hot water. Then you can shower.”

Alphabet let out a sigh, then pulled out his phone. “I’ve uploaded everything, but it’s going to take time. The servers are secure, but the decryption programs will need massaging. If we’re not staying here longer than a night, I’m going to wait until we get to the next place.”

“How long will you need?” Bones might have been talking to Alphabet, but the weight of his gaze rested on me. Did he want to talk? Fight? Yell?

I had no idea. Since I could go for all three right now, I resumed pacing. The idea had been mine. I had no one to blame for the past few hours, that wasn’t me. The guys hadn’t liked the plan, but they’d supported me and I wasn’t in there alone.

The rational argument being waged against the emotional upheaval tearing me apart wasn’t doing me any good.

“Best case? Forty-eight hours, but we won’t have best case here. I need my equipment at base for that. What I have here, seventy-two and that’s generous. If I knew what we were looking for specifically, I could parse that way but we don’t.” Alphabet sounded so damn resigned and I could practically feel the apology.

A bang came from the other room and I jumped.

“It’s just Lunchbox,” Voodoo said, his tone soothing even if the words were just an explanation. “Sounds like he’s beating on the water heater.”

My ribs felt bruised from the beating they were taking from my heart. I tried to get my breathing back under control.

“We could backtrack to Arles, but if they are trying to follow a trail, I’d rather not be somewhere they can trip over us.” Bones wasn’t asking, he was talking aloud. “Seventy-two hours in one location is a hard push.”

“Not,” Alphabet said slowly. “If we split up. I take Goblin and make straight for Paris. Stay at one of the high-end places. Use their wifi and security to mask what I’m doing.”

Split up?

When I pivoted to face him, Alphabet gave me an encouraging smile. “That way, you have the three of them with you. They’ll be in a better position to move if I get something actionable.”

“I still think we need to just pick up Reznik,” Voodoo said. “Definitely want O’Rourke. That fucker?—”

A slicing motion from Bones silenced him and I glanced between the two. “I already know you have hard feelings since you didn’t know he was alive.”

“It’s more than hard feelings,” Bones said, evenly.

“Gracie,” Lunchbox said as he emerged wearing a very real smile. “We have hot water. Want a shower?”

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