Page 79 of The Best Trick

Alfred frowned.

“Have it your way.” Odin went to his pack and pulled out some equipment that looked like an MP3 player from another decade, complete with earphones and a stethoscope.

“Okay, okay,” Alfred said.

“Too late, you made me get the stuff out,” Odin said, sitting cross-legged in front of the safe and going to work.

“I’ll tell you where she is!” Alfred said.

“Like we trust you.” Zeus slapped some duct tape over Alfred’s mouth and headed into the kitchen for more snacks. I put in a request for chocolate. Thor asked for pie.

By the time he was out with a bag of Ruffles and a family-sized bag of plain M&M’s, Odin had cracked the safe. He pulled out a phone. “Wonder what we’ll find here.”

“Where’s the pie?” Thor asked.

“What is this, a restaurant?” Zeus threw the M&M’s in our direction.

I popped M&M’s into my mouth as Odin went to work on the phone like the sexy badass that he was.

“This isn't a good way to climb the corporate ladder,” Thor said. “It would be the opposite of a good way to climb the ZOX corporate ladder.”

“The exact opposite.” I held the bag for Thor, and he took some.

“Here’s an interesting number. You started calling there a few weeks back,” Odin said. “And what is this on the search history? Pupper Palace in Inglewood.”

Alfred looked distinctly unhappy.

“Got a PayPal linked up to Pupper Palace,” Odin said. “ChrisGallworthy.” He chuckled and looked up, seeming to like that name. “Gallworthy.” He looked back down. “Chris Gallworthy is boarding his dog, Queenie, there. Very interesting.”

Thor got on the phone and impersonated Alfred, letting them know he was sending an assistant to pick up Queenie and asking to settle the bill.

Alfred just glowered.

SIXTEEN

Zeus and I drove to get Doris while Odin and Thor babysat Alfred because, as Odin put it, “We're not going to be doing anyfucking-gBatman shit, leaving a guy tied up so that he can take his time getting loose and come bite us in the ass.”

I called Sue on the way to Pupper Palace and asked her about how she’d feel if we had a dog—just temporarily. “She was stolen, and we've been helping to locate her,” I explained. I felt that had a better ring to it than the fuller explanation—that we were international fugitives planning to use the dog as a bargaining chip.

“How long are you thinking of keeping him there?” she asked, a good sign. It was always a good sign when the person was asking questions.

“Probably not that long. We have to contact her owner and arrange to meet him and get her back safely. We'd be completely fine paying an extra cleaning fee or any kind of pet deposit, and I promise, she's very well trained,” I said.

Sue gave me her blessing. I hung up and grinned over at Zeus. “She’s cool with it!”

“She’d better be,” he said. “She owes us.”

We drove on silently for a bit. I'd learned to gauge my men's moods over our long travels, and Zeus was definitely in a reflective mood. Pondering. Having deep thoughts. He was such a man of action. I loved this side of him. I made sure not to bug him.

“It's hard to imagine this might be over,” he said after a while.

“In what way?” I asked. “What's hardest to imagine about it for you?”

He watched the road, calm and silent. “Being on the run defines us so completely. And it has compressed us all together so intensely, I almost don't remember what it's like to be free. I'm looking forward to it, but there are things I’ll miss about this. I’ll miss the intensity of our group. I’ll miss the way we're always together.”

“I don't want that to change either,” I confessed. “I’m not sure who I am out in the world not on the run. I’m a sister to my sisters for sure. But I would never live full-time on the farm again—that would feel like going backwards. But I don’t know what forward is.”

Zeus reached over and took my hand, warm and strong. “Whatever it is, we go together.”

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