Page 103 of Double Down

None of us breathes for a heartbeat.

Storm answers first, voice flat. “Maybe. But the crew that touched her wasn’t Calhoun. Local idiots with a hero complex and a borrowed gun. They don’t have this kind of reach.”

“Could still be leverage,” Maverick says, knuckles white against the window frame. “Maybe whoever sent them is a bigger player than we think. Why else kill the girl and leave her in our penthouse? Someone above them wants us busy.”

Conrad nods. “Dead girls make headlines, headlines attract cops, cops waste time, our cameras go dark while we’re answering questions about Botox and assholes ODing…meanwhile they get whatever it is they are after.”

I run my tongue along the inside of my teeth to keep from swearing. Sleep deprivation turns me into a worse version of myself, while a crisis makes me efficient. Today I’m both. It feels like chewing glass. To help settle myself, I press two fingers to the inside of my left wrist, counting every single pulse of my heart.

“Here’s what I know,” I say, ticking it out because lists are order. Order helps me focus. “One. My network is compromised at the wire and the process tree.”

They all stare at me—it’s fine. They don’t need to know what that means. “Two, our staff roster is far too thin from people disappearing and others being fired. And three, a syndicate with a reputation for brutality and grudges thinks we stole from them, and they’ve set a two-day clock.”

“You forgot four,” Mav says. “Parents, the press, and a senator’s wife are making everything much more complicated.”

“Okay, one problem at a time,” Con says. “First, we need to focus on the drugs and the Calhouns.”

“No,” Storm interrupts. “First, we need to bring in Phoenix. She needs to be brought up to speed. She is in this now, too, and she sees things we can’t.”

“No,” Con says. “We should get rid of her.”

We all stare at him. Storm finally speaks. “What the fuck, man?”

Con lifts his shoulder in a shrug and half-turns to look out the window. “You know it’s the right thing to do. She’s going to leave anyway at the end of a year. This was never a permanent thing. With everything going on, with the people involved…this is dangerous for her. And it’s distracting for us.”

The room is quiet for a moment. Mav runs a hand up the back of his neck and utters a low curse. “Damnit, he’s not wrong.”

“Over your dead fucking bodies,” Storm warns.

I look from him to Con. Con is staring out the window. Storm looks, for the first time in as long as I’ve known him, as though he’d like to throw his knife at him. My vote is simple.

“Ahh…I think we should bring her in.” I say. “She’s smart, and her experience as an employee at the hotel means she knows things we don’t. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s also keeping something from us. It may be nothing, but it may be what we need to figure all this shit out. I say we…extract…answers.”

“No majority,” Con says, his shoulders slumping with…relief? Whatever it is, it’s final. We act only when there is a clear majority. We’re tied now, so Phoenix stays.

Maverick hums. “Maybe if we tell her what we know, she will share whatever it is she’s holding back.”

“You see it, too?” Storm asks, and I nod.

“Yeah, she’s been acting a little weird. I think she knows something she hasn’t told us yet.”

Conrad stiffens. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. Which is the problem.” I run a hand through my hair again and stare at the brass continents on the black globe in the bookshelf. “She’s not stupid. She’s not reckless. If she’s holding on to it, it’s either because she thinks doing so will protect us or because she doesn’t trust us with whatever it is.”

Conrad doesn’t argue. That’s as close as he’ll get to agreeing.

“Fine,” he says. “We’ll keep her for now. But she’s not one of us. I think you all need to remember that this is temporary. Anything else before we break?”

“I’ll get the CCTV from the spa. If it’s been erased, I’ll start double-checking the background for every employee there. There has to be something there. We’ve looked everywhere else.”

Con nods and I turn to leave.

I hesitate. Then I say the thing out loud so it can stop clawing at me from the inside. “We killed men for Phoenix. If this is the bill, it’s not just about drugs. It’s about making us choose: her or the house.”

Maverick swears, the sound quiet and broken. Storm’s fingers uncurl, then curl again. Conrad’s face doesn’t move. He doesn’t need to say the choice; it’s tattooed on all of us.

“This house is just bricks and mortar,” Storm says finally. “She breathes and bleeds.”