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46
EMMY
Patience wasn’t one of my strong suits.Oh, I knew how to bide my time—I could hunker down for days in the jungle, getting bitten to fuck by mosquitoes, and I could squirrel myself away on a rooftop for hours in order to deliver the perfect shot, and I could even bite my tongue and wait an extra day for a package to be delivered when I’d specifically paid extra for express shipping, but I really, really hated having to do it.
It was far worse when I had the most boring job of the evening.Chatting, eating canapés, pretending to be interested in some male model’s fitness regimen as he explained the advantages of six different types of squats to Black in excruciating detail.
How were Ravi and Spider getting on?We hadn’t heard a word from them, but that was understandable.They wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves as they moved through the house.So far, I was working on the theory that no news was good news—at least they hadn’t got caught.Svetlana’s dog was still yapping away upstairs, but it had also been making a racket before Ravi and Spider arrived, so I had to assume that was its normal behaviour.Certainly nobody else seemed fazed, and at least the barking would cover up any accidental noise from our team.
Was the dog locked in a bedroom?Ravi was carrying chicken pieces laced with a sedative, but the drugs would take time to work.
Damn, I hated waiting…
And waiting…
And waiting…
Finally, a whisper from Spider.
“The weapon is here.”
Shit, I was mid-conversation with some lawyer from San Bernardino.
“Excuse me a moment.I need to go use the little girls’ room.”
“Can you get it out?”Pale asked as I headed to the bathroom off the hall.Since most of the guests had arrived now, Ilya had taken up position in the living room and left a minion to watch the front door.
“A man’s working on it.Santoro, we think.It’s hooked up to a computer.”
Santoro.So that’s who the mole is.
“Can you incapacitate him?”
“Yes, but he’s chained to a radiator.”Ah, fuck.They’dkidnappedSantoro?Guess he’d been more straightforward to round up than Ottie Marquette.Or had Ilya done that job himself?“And there’s a guard up here.”
“Are you safe talking to us?Where are you now?”
“On the roof.Santoro’s in the walk-in closet in the east-facing bedroom, and the guard is lying on the bed, watching TV.I can deal with him, but I can’t guarantee it won’t be noisy.”
“What about the dog?”It had finally shut up.“Did you drug it?”
“No, it seems to have barked itself hoarse.”
Which meant another distraction was required.Barbie was done now, back at the rental house with her dented car and ready to assist Vance with the electronic surveillance.We needed to keep Alaric’s and Hallie’s hands free so they could help with the egress if necessary.Ditto for Alex.Which left me, Dan, and Black.
“How long do you need?”I asked Spider.
“Ten minutes to get into position, and probably another ten to get out.We’re not sure how the chain’s attached.”
Ten minutes?Gee, she wasn’t asking for much.But as leader of the Special Projects team, I specialised in achieving the impossible, so it was my job to make it happen.
“Dan, are you ready to do your worst?”
“Mm-hmm.”
I outlined my plan and silently kissed goodbye to Emily Brown’s dignity in the process.When this was over, I’d take a vacation.An actual vacation where I didn’t accidentally find a corpse, which had happened to me more times than you might imagine.A week on the private island Black owned, or maybe a few days on the ski slopes in France.Hell, we could even disappear on theBlack Opal.
But first, I had to play my part in retrieving the fucking Marshmallow.