Fortunately, before I had to reply, Champ’s voice filled the van. “Listen up. I had a long talk with my mom last night.”
I glanced around at my teammates, wondering if we were being trolled, but no one seemed to bat an eye at the idea that Champ was suddenly having heart-to-hearts with the Nashville socialite he’d been almost estranged from for years.
Maybe I wasn’t the only one whose world had turned upside down.
He continued. “Quinn called her to talk about a gala she’s planning in the fall, and over the course of the conversation, he told her that we were investigating Vince—”
“Ah, shit,” Elvo groaned.
“Excuse you. You make it sound like I blurted it out, and I didn’t. I suggested to Bunny that continuing to have a relationship with her son’s ex-boyfriend was inadvisable for several reasons.” Quinn lifted his chin in the air and sniffed delicately. “Then I encouraged her that distancing herself from Vince would go a long way toward healing the breach between her and her beloved son.”
“Uh-huh,” Champ agreed dryly. “And then…?”
Quinn sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “She kept acting like Vince was a lost puppy who needed her maternal guidance and affection and would be really hurt if she stopped sending him birthday cards… so I dropped a truth bomb on her. I told her Vince was dangerous, that he’d almost kidnapped me, and she needed to stay away for her own good.”
“Uh-huh.” Champ nodded. “And thennn?”
“And then she got all worried, so I had to tell her the basic details of Vince going rogue,” Quinn admitted. “And then she asked if her Percy was going to stop him, and I said of course, but that Champ was gonna have to confront Vince somehow first, and it might get messy. And that’s when she… well, she offered her assistance.”
Everyone perked up. Champ’s ex was not only a villain, but he was a villain with a badge and someone we needed to be very careful with. Getting the data off his Horn was arguably going to be the hardest op of all because Vince knew Champ… and would probably see us coming.
“She called Vince last night and invited him to brunch this morning,” Champ explained.
“And didn’t take no for an answer.” Quinn sounded admiring. “Every time he tried to get out of it, she pretended not to understand, and when he insisted he was too busy, she said she couldn’t wait to see him so she could give him his invitation to her next gala.”
“Vince is a sucker for a gala,” Champ said.
“Champ was supposed to notify the team last night, but he, ah… got distracted.”
By the smoldering look on Champ’s face, it was pretty clear who had done the distracting.
“Uh-huh,” Champ said yet again.
“Anyway,” Quinn continued with a laugh. “We’re going to play it safe. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But I have a feeling Bunny’s actually going to be able to pull this off.”
Champ looked over at his man with pride tinged with exasperation. It was the kind of look that usually made me roll my eyes, but for some reason, today I had a different reaction.
Understanding.
He looked like I’d felt yesterday after watching Kev successfully complete the mission to distract Camila Dacosta, despite nearly losing his shit. I’d been impressed with his abilities, not only in the game but with the people he’d had to wrangle. I’d been proud of his achievement. And I’d wanted to shake him for continually putting himself in that position.
I glanced back at Kev again, because I couldn’t resist, but when I felt Riggs’s eyes on me, I turned back around and tried to focus on what Champ was telling us.
“So we’re going to get there early. Quinn and I are going to crash the brunch as a distraction while Riggs and Elvo wait in the guest room to receive the Horn. Hux and Kev will run point on surveillance from the van and be ready in case we have a problem accessing the Horn data. Yolanda, Katie, and Jordan are en route to Georgia to target the hunter, so I appreciate the extra assistance today from Kev and Quinn.”
He didn’t mention that Riggs and Elvo would be armed, but I knew that had to be a large part of their role in today’s mission.
Kev’s voice was almost too soft to be heard over the group chatter. “At least he has his Horn with him.”
I glanced back to find him tapping away on his tablet. He had the coordinates up for the Horns we were targeting, something I should have thought to do the minute Champ told us whose Horn we were going after.
I spun around in my seat and began powering up the computers in the van and organizing earwigs for Riggs and Elvo. I knew from experience Champ wouldn’t allow them for him or Quinn since Vince was way too savvy to the tech we used.