Page 34 of The Deeper Game
“We’re okay,” Thor said to me. He slung his arm around my shoulders.
I sucked in a breath, heart pounding. Of all the threats we’d encountered, this one was the scariest, because it felt like it was coming from our people. I thought about the cozy sheep farm I’d left behind, the place I could never return to. Nothing ever happened there, but it was safe. And I thought about the sun-drenched hotel on the Tunisian island. I rested my head on his shoulder.
“Stop looking scared, baby,” Zeus said. He slid in on the other side of me and put an arm around me. “You’re giving whoever it is what he wants.”
“But I am scared,” I said.
“Andyou’relooking pissed,” Matteo pointed out to Zeus.
Zeus looked more than pissed. “Somebody dies,” he growled. “And the lipstick? Not loving it.”
“Everybody knows about that part,” Matteo said. “It’s common knowledge.”
“It’s a taunt,” Zeus growled. “Somebody dies. I’m telling you.”
“Can you get something from the phone carrier?” Matteo asked. “A trace or some such? On the number that called?”
“They called from a burner. No way would they be so stupid not to,” Zeus said. “Fuck! How’d they get her number?”
“We’re hitting the Prime Royale in six days,” Matteo said.
Zeus turned to him. “We’re not rethinking that.”
“We don’thaveto hit the Prime,” I said.
“Yes, we do,” Zeus barked. “Nobody messes with our own. Canceling this job, it’s like giving in to a terrorist. We don’t give into ZOX, and we don’t give into stalkers.”
Odin strolled up with a fierce expression, sexy in his black suit. “That SIM card had better be intact.”
“They called from a burner,” Zeus said.
“I’d like to look all the same,” Odin said. “And let’s press our contacts a little harder.”
Zeus grunted.
I’d seen this before—Odin sometimes stepped up when Zeus got emotional. Zeus lacked a certain amount of impulse control. Or maybe he let himself lack it, knowing Odin was there. So much of our group was symbiotic, I sometimes didn’t know where one of us started and the other ended.
“They could’ve triangulated it from our numbers. It’s not hard,” Zeus said.
“Oh, is that how?” Odin said. “Too bad the phone’s in pieces.”
“You guys,” I said. “We’re going to be okay. I have total faith.”
A waitperson appeared with a broom and dustpan.
Odin took the implements from him. “Bring me a baggy, okay?” He grabbed a cocktail napkin and started cleaning off the dustpan.
Zeus swore under his breath.
I fit my hands around him, holding him from the side. “I don’t feel worried,” I whispered. I didn’t have a word for how I felt at the moment. Except maybe kaleidoscopic. I snuggled in more tightly.
He grabbed my hair and gave me a deep kiss, plying my lips open, pulling me hard against him. “Nobody fucks with you.”
“Except you,” I said.
“I want to fuck you right now,” he said. “I feel wild, goddammit. But…” He grabbed my knees and pulled me onto his lap so that my legs were completely around him. “We’ve got a motherfucking stalker to catch. He pulled out his phone and punched in a number so hard I was shocked the screen didn’t crack.
I kissed his neck. When I shifted, I could feel his cock, rock hard in his pants. He launched into an intense, mumbled conversation. Pressuring somebody about the fingerprints.
