Page 21 of The Devil She Knows
Sam’s heart pounded in her throat. “Would someonepleasetell me what’s going on?”
Oslo looked at the smartwatch on his wrist and swore. “Jasper and Horace are seven minutes out.”
“Jasper and Horace?” Sam would bet good money Coco couldn’t pick the food runners out of a lineup if she had to. And they were headed here why?
Melissa’s mouth hardened, and the fact that the usually unflappable woman looked worried spiked Sam’s concern. “Seven minutes is too long.”
Felix shrugged easily. “Emma said—”
“Emmasaid to hurry your asses up.” About a dozen yards ahead, wearing the same uniform as Oslo and Felix, Emma, Glut’s maître d’, ducked their head around the corner. Bright orange sparks shot into the air behind them. “Security passed through here about thirty seconds ago. I’d say we’ve got max five minutes before they wise up and circle back.”
“Javier, my man, what’s good?” Oslo squeezed Emma’s shoulder as he slipped past. “How’s it going?”
Squatting in front of the wall that wasn’t really a wall at all but instead an exposed built-in vault, complete with a combination lock and a large spinning handle, with a torch in his hand, Javier paused in his apparent pursuit to melt a hole through the metal. He lifted the face shield on his helmet and laughed. “Just like crème brûlée, baby.”
Sam had seen a lot of crazy things in her life. Not even an hour ago she’d watched a perfectly normal-looking woman turn into a monster right before her very eyes. She was handling this all rather well, she liked to think, but watching Glut’s prep cook burn a hole in a vault door large enough forhim to fit his hand through so that he could turn the knob from the inside was a bridge too far. Whatever shady shit was going down? Sam wanted no part in any of it.
“I’m out.” She held up her hands and stepped back. “I don’t know what you all think you’re doing, but I didn’t sign on to be part of some—”
“Be cool, damn it!” Emma drew back their hand and—a bright burst of pain exploded along the right side of Sam’s face.
Motherfucker.
“Better?” they asked.
She swallowed a pained whimper and nodded. “Mm-hmm.”
“Good.” Emma gripped Sam by the shoulders and stared down into her eyes. “I know the stakes are high this time, but we can’t have our fearless leader freaking out on us, can we?”
Because Sam’s panicking was the problem here and not—“Did you … did you sayfearless leader?”
As in, Sam was in charge of this enterprise—No. No way. Emma must’ve misspoken, because it wasn’t possible.
Sam was … Okay, if Sam was being completely honest, she lacked the essential qualities of an effective leader. Sure, she had vision and compassion, and she was a quick learner who enjoyed a good challenge and could think on her feet and collaborate well with others, but she was also self-aware enough to know she wasn’t always the most decisive, nor was she a risk-taker. Gambling her soul notwithstanding.
She could wrap her head around a world where she’d worked her way up the chain of command, a universe where, with Coco out of the way, Sam might have been afforded the opportunity to cultivate those qualities she lacked.
Restaurateur was enough of a stretch, though not entirely outside the realm of possibility, but ringleader?
Sam was going to have some strong words for Daphne the next time she saw her, assuming she would, because this? This was in-fucking-sane. And not even close to what Sam had in mind when she had made her wish.
“Game faces, people,” Melissa barked in the same stern voice she used to command the kitchen brigade during their mandatory weekly meetings. “We all know the plan—”
“Um.” Sam cradled her throbbing cheek with one hand and raised the other. “Yeah, about this plan. Could we maybe go over it one more time?”
Oslo and Felix locked eyes, then looked at Melissa, Emma, and Javier. The group gave a collective sigh.
“We get in, we get out, we don’t get caught,” they chorused.
Sam waited for someone to expound further, and when no one did, she shut her eyes.Great.A mantra. That was what she got. So helpful.
“Relax, Danny Ocean.” Emma clapped her hard on the arm. “You’ve trained us well. We’ve got this.”
If the vault Javier had cracked had been her first clue that they were about to wade out into criminal waters, this was her second. Melissa shoving a big black duffel bag into her hands was the third.
Emma slipped inside the vault first, followed by Oslo and then Melissa. Felix gave her a nudge, and with no small amount of reluctance, Sam stepped inside.
The vault was freezing and predictably as dark as the inside of a cow until Javier, bringing up the rear, hit the lights.
