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“Then we burn the rest down,” Bones stated and he flicked a look at us. “One name at a time. Some of it we handle personally…”
“Some of it, I can take out from a distance.” Yeah, I knew exactly where he was going with this. Some would need a bullet for real, and others? Well, with what I had here, I could drop them with the metaphorical shot.
Either way, they would bleed.
“We still need to eat,” Lunchbox stated and I didn’t have to glance at him to know that by “we” he meant Gracie. “Then we have to clean up the debris from the last mission. Alphabet is gonna need time to finish breaking down the master list.”
“Oh,” Grace blinked. “I almost forgot. What did you do with him?”
Voodoo grinned and Lunchbox chuckled. Only Bones maintained his guarded expression. He lifted his chin when our gazes met. He wanted a word, in private.
I nodded.
We’d make it happen.
Chapter
Thirty
LUNCHBOX
“The root cellar?” Grace glanced at each of us with a mixture of surprise and puzzlement. “We have a root cellar?”
I hid a smile while I washed down the last of the pancakes and bacon with coffee. There was a faint smear of syrup on her lower lip. She’d eaten a pancake and one egg, poached, not fried, but then she had two pieces of bacon. Calorie deficits were a thing, but she was making an effort to eat. I’d leave it alone.
“Yes,” Voodoo said, before he caught her hand and tugged her a little closer. Dammit, he kissed her and cleaned that lip right up. “Tasty, could definitely go for more.”
Grace laughed. “I have some left if you…”
He shot her an exasperated look and nudged her plate back to her. “You have two more bites and it’s not worth my life to try and take ‘em even if I wanted them.”
With a slow blink, she looked from Voodoo to the rest of us, then back before she snapped her gaze to Bones. “You know, if you keep scowling, your face is gonna get stuck like that.” Her lips pursed. “Or maybe it already has.”
He spared a single look. “Hilarious.”
Amusingly enough, he wasn’t glaring anymore. Grace appeared more than a little pleased with herself. I could put up with just about anything to keep that look on her face. “Last call,” I informed the guys as I stood. “Want anything more?”
“All good,” Alphabet said, though he cracked a yawn right in the middle of the second word. “Let me get the next round of files running and I’ll be ready.”
I swapped out his coffee for water and he gave me a gimlet-eyed stare that I ignored. Keep downing the gallons of coffee that he had been and even we risked disintegrating our stomach lining. Grace collected the other plates and empty mugs and ferried them to the sink.
Voodoo was a half-step behind her and he took over washing up. I’d already cleaned most of the pans I’d used, but I went over the stove area and packed away any supplies that had remained out.
“We have enough supplies for a midday meal and a decent dinner.” I caught Bones’ eye and nodded to Grace. We had more than enough to feed her.Wemight be stuck with rations. “So if we’re planning to be here longer, we’ll need another supply run.”
“We may need a supply run anyway,” Voodoo said, drying his hands off after stacking the last of the now clean dishes in the rack. “Once we decide the next part of the plan, we go from there.”
“For now,” Bones straightened and swept a look over all of us before he focused on Grace. “We have an interrogation to get to. You do not have to be involved. Particularly because we will need to be aggressive in our tactics.”
Torture was on the table. There was no other way to ensure that our guest cooperated. Extracting a pound of flesh that was dearly owed?
That was just a perk.
Grace didn’t immediately launch into an argument over his cautious warning. Instead, she folded her arms and chewed her lower lip. Between the sweatshirt—it had to be one of Bones’—and her leggings, she looked almost painfully young.
But then, all I had to do was gaze into those brilliant blue eyes to see the scars life had already left on her.
“Will it create an issue if I am present?” Not an unfair question. I had my opinions. Clearly, we all did. Voodoo and Alphabet, like me, also waited for Bones’ verdict.