Page 82 of The Best Trick

“Well, there will be only one of me,” Denko said. “I haven't forgotten the last time there was only one of me and four of you. Excuse me if I don't feel like a repeat performance.”

“Oh, it was no performance,” I said, all sassy.

“It's fine,” Thor said. “I’ve got this.”

“It's not fine with me,” Zeus said, and clearly it was not fine with Odin, either.

“These are the terms,” Denko said. “Do you want the bag?”

“Do you want your dog?” Zeus asked.

“Those are my terms.”

“We don’t accept those terms,” Zeus said. “We’ll keep the dog. We like her.”

I widened my eyes. We couldn’t keep a dog. And more to the point, we needed the proof!

“Don’t be assholes,” Denko said. “I’m not asking a lot.”

“Let Thor walk into a place like that alone?” Odin said. “Shit like this? The gang does this together. That is how we roll.”

Denko said, “I’m offering you a tackle bag that contains original footage, copies of emails, and passwords to files full of verification. Are you no longer interested in it?”

“We’re definitely interested in it, but we’re not complete fools; that’s the problem that we have here,” Zeus said. “Us not being complete and utter fools.”

“I’m interested,” Thor said. “I think it's worth it.”

“It’s not,” Odin said.

Thor shot him a hard look.

“Show up with Doris and we’ll do this, Thor,” Denko said.

“If we can’t name the place, this doesn’t happen,” Odin announced.

“Look, I did some risky fucking things to get this evidence out of where it was, and if it ends up that I don’t have a use for it, I need to get it back by tomorrow morning before people miss it,” Denko said. “The only way this deal gets done is on my terms in ninety minutes. Take it or leave it.”

“We're taking it,” Thor said.

I gasped. “No, Thor!”

“Not happening!” Zeus said.

Denko hung up.

Odin aimed a furious frown at Thor.

“Thor!” I gasped. “How could you even think of taking that chance?”

“We can’t cover you in that place,” Zeus said. “You could be walking into a trap.”

“But on the other hand, we could have that evidence in a few hours,” Thor said. “This could be over.”

“Other hand?” Odin barked. “What the hell is that? Think, Thor. Before that tackle bag was in play, would you ever have agreed to meet Denko alone? For any reason whatsoever?”

“I can answer that one,” I said. “Not in a million years. We would have laughed about a suggestion like that.”

Thor glared out the window. “The tackle bagisin play, though.”

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