Page 47 of The Best Trick

“Yeah,” Odin said, somewhat mysteriously.

“Also, he hasn’t been doctoring in a long time,” I pointed out. “Being a doctor anchors him. It reminds him who he is.”

Odin just looked thoughtful.

“But, on the bright side, now that we’re back in L.A., it’s only a matter of time before someone we know gets shot. Give Thor a scalpel and a guy with a few bullets in him…”

Odin scanned the horizon for trouble, saying nothing. Did he have extra thoughts on the subject?

“You and Zeus chose this life when you joined the intelligence agency,” I prompted. “You always knew something like this was a possibility. Unlike Thor.”

“You chose this life too, Ice. You wanted the excitement.”

“I wanted us,” I said. “I wanted our gang of four. But Thor had it thrust on him.”

“Yes,” Odin said.

I looked over at him. Was there something he wasn’t saying? But then, when wasn’t there? Odin always thought more than what he said out loud. “You have thoughts you want to share with the class? Because I think you have thoughts to share with the class!”

“I wish we could make it better for him,” Odin said. “I don’t know that we can.”

I waited. Was that it?

“We can show him how much we value him. How much we love him,” I said.

“Will that be enough?” Odin asked as a gray compact car turned into the parking lot and began rolling toward us.

“We’re family. We protect each other. We’ll do as much as it takes.”

Odin turned to me with a warm sparkle in his dark amber eyes. “How we survived without you, goddess, I do not know. You help us remember our hearts.”

I linked my arm in his, feeling indescribably happy.

Odin picked up his phone. “One visible,” he said.

Indeed, one guy was visible, driving—Agent Alfred, presumably—but that didn't mean that was all the people in the car. I’d hung with my guys long enough to have that kind of thought cross my mind.

We hopped off the hood.

“He could have just done this by phone call,” Odin grumbled, unsnapping his left shirt sleeve, the one that concealed his super-spy sleeve blade-holding compartment, though he always warned me not to call it that.

“Maybe Agent Alfred just wants to get to know us,” I said, pulling my ladylike mother-of-pearl-handled Smith & Wesson from my purse. I held it loosely at my side. If things went hot, Thor and Zeus would be the ones shooting and we’d be the ones running, but you couldn't be too careful.

The car pulled up a few parking spaces over from us and stopped. Just the driver from what I could see—so far so good. I'd promised not to say anything about Wilson the violin guy or Doris the dog. I could chat, but Odin was to do the questioning about the case. Odin was the one with the skills in the interrogations area. I was to soak up the information that came of his questions.

A squat, muscle-bound man with dark, gray-flecked hair got out of the car and ambled over to us—Agent Alfred, no doubt, right-hand underling of Denko.

“Isis and Odin, I presume,” he said. “Where’s the rest of your crew? You all were supposed to be here.”

“We occupy four of the ten-top slots on most-wanted posters all across the nation,” Odin said casually. “Rest assured, the whole crew is here.”

I gave Alfred a sassy smile.We occupy four of the ten-top slots on most-wanted posters all across the nation, bitches!Being an outlaw definitely sucked, but at least you could say cool shit about yourselves.

I shoved my lady gun into my jeans’ waistband and crossed my arms. “Though we do want to talk to somebody about those post office posters. We have complaints, like why are we not in the top-five most wanted? I get why the Mapleview Mangler is in the top position, being that he’s a serial killer—we definitely don't want to challenge him on the notoriety level—but I feel that we should really have beat out that hacker that you have in the number two spot. What’s up with that? Anybody can hack from their basement.”

“Yeah, what we do is way more challenging,” Odin echoed, trying his hardest not to smile.

“I mean, we have to go out there and do takeover robberies,” I continued. “Sooooo much more challenging.”

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