Page 157 of Beautifully Ruined

I can watch her apartment, though, see when she comes back, see if she goes out again. So, I remotely adjust the cameras to let me know when she comes and goes.

Feeling better about that, I focus on my plan. I’m setting it all up when Enzo comes down to the basement.

“I’ve got it.”

“The plague?”

I send him a dark look. “No, you fool, a plan.” Then I pause. “Did you speak to Gino?”

“Not yet. I’m still waiting for his call to let us know about Ivan.” He turns in his chair, tapping a USB against his chin. “What’s this plan? Send your girl into the lion’s den?”

He’s being deliberately provocative, but I pull up what I’ve been working on and motion him over. “The thing is we keep trying to come up with ideas that don’t weigh in on our strengths.”

“Like my good looks?”

“Asshole.” I half grin. “No. We’re fucking hackers. I’m The Ghost. We lean in on that shit. Old school chaos and disruption. I’m creating a diversion.”

“Okay, now I’m interested. What have you got?” He peers over my shoulder and lets out a low whistle. “Cooking with high-octane gas, man.”

“They’re false accusations, but they align with what he’s into. The kind of thing he’ll deny and will probably get away with, but it’ll cause enough of a panic, especially if his non-kink oriented business partners see it. He’ll want to do damage control and clear up, quickly.”

“And while he’s cleaning up the mess, we do some Spiderman shit?”

I roll my eyes. “We break into the training center, find where they keep slaves or girls for sale, the unwilling, whatever you want to call the trafficked girls, because we know he has some…and we look for Gianna.”

“Okay, but you know having your girl on the inside would make things a thousand times easier,” he says.

“Yeah, but that’s a hard fucking no.” I swallow down the fast rising bile. “She’s not going to be in harm’s way.”

“It is her idea.”

I almost jump out of my chair and lay him flat.

He knows I can do it, and he takes a healthy step away as I swing my gaze to him. “No. Not now, not ever, you get me? Vi isn’t someone we hire, someone who knows the score or does this for a living, and she’ll be in over her head.”

“I’m sure the sex stuff is saved for the real deal, the girl out on the floor or in the private rooms.” He takes one more step away. “She might be safe.”

“And if she isn’t?” I’ve told her embellished stories of what might go on in there. And I know he’s mostly right. But we also don’t know. And I don’t trust fucking Thomas. I’ve seen the way that fucker looks at her. “He might put her on some hardcore thing immediately. Or bypass this so-called training to get his hands on her.”

Enzo slinks back to his chair. “I just had a thought. The training center could be a sorting center, a place for unwitting recruitment, and the girls who might fetch a lot of money get sucked into the darker areas.”

“Exactly.”

He nods. “Okay, do you want to hand me some of these deep fakes? I can spin them my way.”

“No. The Ghost only, I think. We need to make sure we can move when we’re in there. So, see if you can find things like building codes, schematics, blueprints.”

“On it.”

Together, we work. I get my hacks ready to line up for a release bomb, picking arenas that will seem bigger than they are, enough to panic him but not enough, I hope, to suspect me. But I also set it up that if he gets me in to clean it up, I can havea legitimate trace back path to someone else, out of country…Bolivia, I think. And a ransom at a bank account I set up on the fly.

We do have some for these purposes, but I want it all fresh.

His systems are basic, but I’m aware it could be a front. It might not be, but treating it like he’s got a high-level team on the downlow is smart, and it’s one of the reasons we’re so fucking good at our jobs.

When that’s all set up and ready to go, I automate it and then start working on the code to override the training center’s security system.

“Got them. Look.”