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“He asked what my plan was, and I had to tell him something. I had to tell him you were helping me.”
Suzan clutched her head and bent forward. “Oh, my God. You idiot. You fucking idiot. What do we do now?”
Oliver resisted the urge to grin.
He had her.
“Don’t you still work with those blokes? The guy with one eye? Those guys?”
“Yeah…”
“If getting the bird’s security away from her isn’t an option, then let’s out-muscle them. Round-up your guys. Let’s hit them quick, grab the girl, and it’s over. You get a nice thank you from the boss and we’re even.”
Suzan stared at him for several long moments. Would she cave? He needed her to. Without some muscle, it would be Oliver who paid the price.
She sighed and shook her head. “I know some guys. Different ones. They’re between jobs right now, so it’ll have to happen quick.”
Oliver grinned at her.
Gotcha…
Tuesday. Pub, London, UK.
Samuel had never been to London. Quite frankly he’d been less than enthusiastic about the idea of going to a bar for dinner. Instead, he’d been served a lemon and ricotta ravioli dish that should, by no rights, be as good as it was.
Holy shit.
American bars needed to set up their food game, that was for damn certain.
Yeah, Baruti’s burger looked just as greasy as any bar food they’d ever eaten, but the fries weren’t frozen bullshit. That didn’t even touch what the girls ate. Some sort of meat-pie thing that smelled good enough he wondered if he could eat anything else.
Maybe he needed to travel more?
He’d been out of the country a few times on FBI business, but not very much. Travel had always sounded like something other people did. But why not?
Listening to Jessica, it was clear she’d been all over the place. This was not her first time to London by a long shot. What would it be like to play tourist with her? Would she roll her eyes and—yeah fucking right. He didn’t need to even finish that question. Knowing her, the moment he made mention of taking a trip she’d start yammering about every place she just had to show him. She’d get excited and do that little bounce-in-place thing. In less than five minutes the whole thing would be mapped out.
“What are you smiling at?” Kelsey asked.
Samuel lifted his head and looked around the table. All three sets of eyes were aimed at him.
“What was that?” He reached for his water and took a sip. “You were saying something?”
Jessica chuckled and patted his thigh under the table. “I’ll get it out of him later.”
“So, what’s our next move?” Kelsey asked. “Are we seriously going to try to lure this Oliver guy out to talk?”
“If we’re going to lure out Oliver, I want Jess to go home,” Samuel said.
“This again?” Jessica sighed and bumped him with her shoulder. “I already said I don’t want to leave.”
“Samuel’s got a point,” Kelsey said and aimed a hard look Jessica’s way. “If we want to go this route—and I’m not saying we are yet—but if we do, this will be very dangerous for us. Jess, you can’t help. Samuel shouldn’t, but we only have the three of us right now unless things change. Which I don’t think they will. If Jess stays, at least one of us has to stay with her. That leaves two people trying to get the drop on Oliver. It’s a numbers game, nothing personal.”
Jessica blinked rapidly. There was a wrinkle between her brows and she had a fierce frown. He could already hear her protests, how she needed to stay.
Instead, she blew out a breath and slumped lower in the booth.
“Okay. I hear you. To get information out of Oliver, I need to go.” She glanced at him. “I’m not happy about it.”