Page 24 of The Most Wanted (The Kinky Bank Robbers #4)

Chapter Fifteen

Zeus set up another meeting with Don Galvano, this one in a trendy comfort-food diner off the hotel strip, prized for its darkness.

We all used our change of clothes from the go bags.

They’d packed a sweet little black pantsuit with a pink top and fabulous boots for me.

It had Thor’s taste written all over it.

I put it on and smiled at him. He came over and adjusted my lapels.

My bandits wore nice shirts and ties. The guiding principle of go-bag clothes was that they needed to be flexible enough for dressing down or dressing up, because you never knew what circumstance they’d be used in.

We were hungry for food and for answers by the time we arrived, being that we’d never gotten to eat our beautiful meal. I ordered stuffing and mashed potatoes. The guys got burgers.

Galvano came in with his bodyguard, who lingered at the bar while the Don slid in next to Odin.

“Don’t you know it’s Valentine’s Day?” Galvano said. “You oughta feed your little lady something nicer.”

Thor’s lips quirked. “We feed her lots of nice things.”

I felt my cheeks flame red. I kicked him under the table.

Odin passed Galvano a map of Los Angeles. “We have reason to believe the Corvette crash is linked to the wedding gift you were planning on giving Herk.”

“He’s not getting it anymore,” Don Galvano said.

“Right,” Zeus said, stuffing a fry into his mouth. “We suspect that was the desired result of crashing the Corvette, to get you mad at Herk. Somebody didn’t want that territory to get turned over to Herk.”

“Barely anyone knew it would happen,” he said. “Maria, my lawyer, Stan doing the collections.”

“What about your lawyer and Stan? Would either of them have a problem with it?”

“No way,” Galvano said. “Stan was going to get a promotion. Lawyer gets paid either way. Maria…she wouldn’t do anything to nix it.”

Zeus asked him to mark the exact territory. Galvano drew a careful square around the part he’d aimed to give. He took off soon after.

Zeus pointed at the map. “Can’t help but notice that Handsome Jack’s is in here.”

“Could be a coincidence,” Thor said. “Handsome Jack is into everything.”

“But Nico lied about the wedding gift—he specifically wanted us to think there was no gift of territory, or at least that he thought there was none, and Handsome Jack is his alibi,” Zeus said. “These connections mean something. We just don’t see what yet.”

They formulated a plan. Zeus would speak with Stan and see whether Stan told anybody. I was to return to the room with Thor and Odin and call Maria to see whether she told anybody else. Then we’d head to Handsome Jack’s.

We paid and left before dessert had arrived. Zeus dropped us off at the hotel while he went to visit Stan. We used our key cards to go in the side door and headed into the stairway, but I stopped them. “Wait.”

“What? ”

“I need something chocolaty.”

“We’ll send up.”

“But all they ever have is fancy cake stuff in room service.” I dug in my purse and found a buck. “My needs are simple. A Kit Kat. I saw one in the machines out…” I pointed at the pool area with a beseeching glance.

“Fuck if we’re walking through that lobby together,” Odin said.

“We’ll go out the side,” I said. “Would that be more prudent?”

Odin sighed.

“Chocolate and wafers…”

Odin rolled his eyes. “Come on.” He led us down into the basement through an employees-only door.

“You couldn’t find a freakier route than this?” I joked. “We could scale down from the roof disguised as tiger snake devil blowtorches.”

He grabbed my hair, and in a growly voice, he said, “And after you have your dessert, we will consume ours—slowly and thoroughly. Can you guess what our dessert will be?”

“Umm…my tears of utter pleasure?”

He tightened his grip on my hair, and a wild thrill shot through me. I was crazy with adrenaline, and suddenly all I could think of was fucking. He yanked again, pulling me up to his face, so that our lips were a hair’s distance from each other. “Close enough.”

“Okay,” I breathed.

He pushed me onward on our freakily circuitous route out to the machine by the pool, which was closed. But a hotel pool area was no match for my kinky bank robbers. Odin picked the lock and let me in.

Thor went with me to the bright, beckoning machine while Odin continued on to the gate that ran along the street. The gate had that plastic-type stuff woven into it to create a sheen of privacy.

“You want anyth?—”

I didn’t finish the word due to Thor’s hand clapping over my mouth. Odin was speeding toward us, silently and smoothly, gun down at his thigh, and when I angled my eyes up, I saw Thor had his out, pointing upward.

Odin pointed at me, and then down, which meant stay. I nodded.

He and Thor headed to the gate and crouched down, watching. I stuffed my buck in my pocket and clutched my purse, making myself small against the wall like they’d taught me.

Thor came back past me like I wasn’t even there and disappeared back into the hotel. This was full-on secret-agent mode.

Odin was picking the lock on that side. When he finished, he put a finger to his lips and beckoned me over.

I snuck over and crouched next to him. He put his lips to my ear and whispered, “The red sedan is ZOX. I made them when one of them stepped out. Watch us take this motherfucker down, baby.”

My heart pounded.

A car slid up from the far corner. “That’s Thor,” he whispered. “You stay crouched until we signal, and then you get the fuck into the driver’s seat. You drive.”

I nodded.

Thor had made his usual muscle-car selection—a souped-up Mustang with a blower in front. It was a car made for speed, a car made for chases, a car made for getting laid by hot girls in the most cherished fantasies of teenaged boys. My heart melted a little.

I swallowed as Odin slipped through the now-open gate door, moving fluidly across the street and then up along a row of parked cars and up to the ZOX car.

Was that Agent Denko in there? It was too dark out to see inside his car.

Odin slammed his gun into the window, breaking it. I could see movement in there as Odin pulled the door open. A chaos of hands.

In a flash Odin was hauling the man out.

Agent Denko .

Thor zoomed up, got out, and ran around to help Odin.

My blood raced. I’d never seen Agent Denko in person, but his image was burned into my mind from my guys constantly showing me photos of him—they wanted me to be able to recognize him if I ever saw him. We even had a few photos of him up on our refrigerator.

And here he was. Agent Denko of ZOX.

Maybe it was because I’d stared at his picture so often, but he seemed mythical, somehow. Larger than life.

Like looking at Mickey Mouse stuff and then you go to Disney World and actually meet Mickey Mouse, and suddenly you’re face to face with this actual giant mouse with a massive smiling face and three-fingered hands.

Except Denko was way more frightening.