Page 76 of Lethal Torture

Zin’s glare could laser steel. “You said you’d stay out of my way.”

“I said I’d be there. And over every detail.”

I’m not oblivious to the fact that Charlie, Sally, and Ana are watching this exchange with unabashed fascination.

“Fine.” Zinaida turns her back on me and proceeds to give an extremely basic rundown of the plans for Saturday night, none of which include me in any way.

I keep my thoughts to myself.

I smile, nod, and generally play the role of blind patsy, with the poker face I mastered back in the lowest ranks of the army.

Then I plant several listening bugs, and spyware into the Sophie’s House computer system for good measure.

Nothing is going down in Zin’s life without my knowledge, whether she wants to grant me full access or not.

18

ZINAIDA

The shipping yardat Avonmouth is a looming mass of piled containers and dim lighting. A light mist is falling as Sally helps me through a gap in the metal railing fence. “NCA is already in place,” she murmurs, nodding at a line of containers to our right as we take up our own positions on the roof of another one. I can’t see anything, but I take her word for it. Sally and Ana have been here since midday. I just arrived, with the bulk of our team and a van that is hidden on a side road, ready to transport anyone we might find.

I don’t know where Luke is. He disappeared this afternoon in the silent, unobtrusive manner he does everything. One minute his quiet bulk was there, seeming to occupy the entire Pigalle Mayfair space, and the next he was just... gone. Despite telling me that he’d be here tonight.

And why is it that annoys me quite so much?

He didn’t ask about tonight’s operation. He didn’t even seem particularly bothered by the fact that I clearly left him out of theplanning and the details, a decision which, despite their lack of verbal objection, I’m well aware Sal and Ana don’t agree with.

I’m not sure what is starting to annoy me more, the way he’s seduced my entire staff or the fact that no matter what I do or say, Luke simply never seems to get pissed off.

Because you’re just a fucking job to him, Zinaida, remember?

As if I could forget. Luke’s words have been running on a loop in my head ever since the other night in his apartment:“Identifying holes in your security is my job. I took a contract to protect you.”

He couldn’t have made it clearer that he doesn’t plan to cross that infamous line of his. Which means that I am in the very unaccustomed position of wanting something that I can’t have.

“That’s the one we’re opening, over there.” Sally nods at a container with numbers so faded I can barely make them out. “Whoever brought it in has done a good job of covering their tracks. Took us a while to find it.”

“How long have the containers been here?”

“Off-loaded from the ship three days ago, I believe, but only arrived in the storage yard today.”

I swallow a sudden, fierce burst of rage.

Three days on the docks, on top of whatever time they’ve already spent stuffed in that tiny space during the voyage here. Three days wondering if they’ve been forgotten altogether.

And that’s if the women inside are still alive at all.

“Zin.” Sally eyes me warily. “There’s still time to reconsider this.”

I keep my expression carefully neutral. Not for the first time, Ana and Sally both expressed concern about tonight’s mission. It isn’t concern for their own safety, they both hastened to add.

It’s the fact that we’ve crossed so many of the wrong people lately that, sooner or later, in Sally’s words,we’re going to find ourselves up against something we’re not ready for.

Part of me knows she has a point. And I know that what they are both really asking me to do is bring Luke in.

That would be the smart thing to do. The responsible thing.

But fuck him, too.