Page 33 of The Best Trick

Also, he named his dog Doris?

“We’re listening,” Zeus said simply.

“Doris was stolen, and I’m ninety percent sure I know who has her,” Denko continued. “You’d have a week to locate her and get her back to me.”

“If you're imagining we'd let you hold Isis for a week while we look for your dog, you arefucking-gbananas,” Odin said. “Isis doesn't leave our sight; that's a nonnegotiable.”

“It's fine,” I insisted. Them having to find a stolen dog was better than imprisonment, torture, and death. To be honest, finding a stolen dog was something that I would do for free.

Thor shot me a look. “There might not evenbea dog.”

“Oh.” I hadn't thought of that angle.

“This is real,” Denko insisted.

“You take Ice away over our dead bodies,” Zeus growled.

They argued more, negotiated more. Every time Denko spoke in any kind of a heated way, the gun smushed into my chin and totally freaked me out—and not just me; my guys were vibrating with tension.

Also, Denko had to know that if he were to hold me hostage, my guys would go crazy and spend all their time looking for me.

“Okay, I can be flexible. Let’s talk about something else,” Denko said. “You get me Doris back—alive—by Friday of next week, and I'll give you the one thing that you most want in this world, and I'm not talking about Isis.”

“There isn't anything we want more in this world than Isis,” Zeus said.

“What you want most in the worldbesidesIsis,” he clarified, like that was so obvious. This pleased me a bunch, but let's just say it would have pleased me a lot more if there weren’t a gun to my chinthat smushed around every time he spoke!

“What would that be?” Odin asked disinterestedly. He was definitely playing the guy who might go wild at any moment.

“Evidence that clears your names,” Denko said. “All collected nice and neat in a tackle bag.”

Evidence to clear their names? What?

Shivers skittered over my skin. My guys kept their faces neutral, but the idea that such evidence even existed? It was huge.

Though as far as bargaining chips went, I preferred something other than the splatterment of my brain.

Odin snorted, playing it cool.

“I could give you the location of a tackle bag of clips and recordings of what really happened in that valley. Documentation. Names, locations, affidavits, copies of marching orders, email trails. The real culprits behind what you saw, Christian,” he said, using Thor’s real name.

Thor stared at Denko with strange intensity. “Are you fucking with us?”

“Something like that exists?” Odin said. “And it's in atackle bag?”

“A yellow and white Big Bill tackle bag, to be precise. It's somebody's insurance policy,” Denko said. “They don't know that I know about it. But I do. What do you say?”

“We can’t have this discussion while you have her,” Thor said.

“He’s right. We might be open to your proposition, but…” Zeus waved a hand. He was going for a calm vibe, but I could also hear the strain in his voice. Could Denko hear it? The whole gun-to-chin thing was getting to all of us.

Denko was taking his time deciding to release me. I waited.Release me!I thought.Go for plan B!

If a tackle bag like that existed, it was a game-changer—my guys would totally play detective for a tackle bag that would clear our names.

Or at least it sounded like the tackle bag would clear Zeus, Odin, and Thor of the initial crime that they were wrongfully accused of. Hopefully the clearing would extend to me and all the crimes we had committed since. It was a vast list, unfortunately, but getting a nine-to-five job isn’t exactly a recommended fugitive activity.

Finally, Denko took the gun off my chin and gave me a shove toward my guys.

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