Page 10 of Double Down

“Fine, I get it. But we need an exit strategy for the body,” Maverick says, and he’s right. “And we need to figure out what to do with Phoenix.”

“Phoenix isn’t a priority,” Conrad snaps.

“I agree, she is a distraction we can’t afford, we should send her?—”

“Tell that to Storm,” Maverick laughs. “Not to sound cliche but I’m pretty sure he’d burn the entire fucking world down for her.”

Fuck. He has a point.

“I hate to admit it, but Maverick is right. If she can keep Storm calm, we need to keep her close. At least for now”

Con gives us all a flat look, his jaw visibly clicking.

He doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like watching the girl he thought he loved once upon a time on her knees sucking us off. But if this is gonna work out, he’ll have to get used to sharing. At least with us.

“There are no cameras besides yours,” Conrad offers, changing the subject. “No one can prove Sarah was here. That helps, right?”

“It helps us,” I say, a little too relieved he’s agreeing to keep her around. “But it helps them, too. We don’t know anything about what actually happened.” The back of my neck prickles with awareness while the office suddenly feels too small.

My worry silences everyone.

Conrad finally sets the tablet down. “So we go quiet. We keep the clean team out of this. Just us.”

“And the body?”

Maverick raises his hand like he’s in class offering the answer to an equation and not soothing a wild animal. “Hear me out. Rooftop chopper. Midnight with the lights off. Bag and tag. No one sees a thing and we’ve disposed of a third body overnight.”

I glare. “Where are you landing a helicopter in Savannah at midnight without triggering ten noise complaints and a press alert?”

“I don’t know, Atticus. Somewhere. At least I’m offering solutions to the endless problems you’re presenting”

I press my palms to my temples. “God, you’re exhausting.”

Conrad snaps, “Do you have a better plan?”

“No,” I admit. “Not for the body. Not today. But I have a bigger concern.”

“Which is?”

“Why all of this is happening.”

That stops both of them.

“Why her? Why Sarah?” I ask. “She wasn’t useful. She wasn’t connected. She flirted with you, Maverick, but that’s not exactly a death sentence.”

Maverick mutters, “She tried to give me head, and I may have told her to go get lessons.”

I ignore him. “This wasn’t just a body dump. It was symbolic. The lilies on the table…everything timed. Controlled.”

She wasn’t placed there haphazardly. She was placed that way to be found—by us.

“And it was personal,” Conrad says quietly.

I nod. “They erased everything after Phoenix’s departure. The minute she left, the cameras went dark. And they stayed darkuntil after we walked back in. It’s not just about them not being seen coming in. It’s about us not being seen leaving.”

“You think it was a warning,” Conrad says. “They’re trying to prove something?”

But there’s something more in his stance. He’s guarded in a way that he wasn’t only moments ago. I lift an eyebrow. “Con?”