“Well, all right,” Landry said, and then I was hanging up.
I sagged against the wall beside the phone table and let out my breath. My stomach was twice as knotted as it’d been before.
Even if I’d wanted to follow the spirit of the oath as well as the letter, to live and let live and not care what happened beyond the walls of the estate, the Frankfords and my father and the rest of them clearly had no intention of letting me have that peace.
Chapter Five
Damon
“Ididn’t like the idea of Kyler getting within ten miles of the place, and he’s already out there,” Rose said, sweeping a strand of her smooth black hair away from her face as she paced the room that had once been her father’s office. The bunch of us had taken over the place while we hacked away at the prize we’d stolen—not that the contents of that hard drive had given us much prize-worthy stuff so far. “The last thing I want is you putting yourself anywhere near Frankford territory too.”
As if going out there would be even half as much danger as she’d already put herself in to protect the rest of us. I couldn’t say I was unhappy to still be breathing after she’d given in to the Frankford’s threats and traded that awful oath for my and Kyler’s lives, but there were a lot of nights when I couldn’t sleep because my brain was too busy running scenarios where I somehow managed to break free and save the day myself.
This plan wasn’t quite that epic, but it was something I could contribute that the other guys couldn’t.
“It wouldn’t be me putting myself out there, though,” I said. “That’s the point. I’ve been working with guys from this one gang for years. I know how toworkthem. I can get them to scope out the property for us, no sweat. And there’s no reason the Frankfords would think those guys have anything to do with you.”
“You don’t think they could trace the gang guys back to you?” Rose asked. She propped herself against the edge of the desk, looking weary.
The sight of her, under strain all over again, jabbed me right in the heart. I stepped closer to her, cupping her face and leaning close. “Even if they do, which I don’t think is very likely, so what? There’s nothing in the oath about just looking at the place. I’ll tell them hands off.” I ran my thumb lightly over her cheek. “Let me do this for you, angel.”
“I don’t like getting more people involved in this mess,” she said, but she leaned into my touch.
“They won’t get that involved. I know to keep them at arm’s length. Hell, Ican’ttell them anything they’re not supposed to know, right? After what that girl told you, it sounds like we need to pull out all the stops. Get this done, take those bastards down, now.”
“Yeah.” She sighed and tipped her head toward me. I met her kiss, soaking in the gentle heat of her mouth. I still didn’t know what I’d done so right to have a woman like her in my life, but now that I did, anyone who wanted to hurt her would have to go through me first.
“All right,” Rose said when she’d eased back. “Keep it vague, and tell them whatever you need to say to make sure they don’t get too close and raise any alarms with the Frankfords. The less they know about what we’re doing, the better.”
I saluted her. “Message received.”
* * *
It wasn’t hard to arrange a quick meet-up with my contact in Silvio’s bunch, even though I hadn’t been going out for the usual merchandise-sorting stints I’d used to schedule my weeks around, back when I’d been eager to make good with the big boss. I had larger priorities now. But I’d put in a lot of time over the years, and say what you want about small-time criminals, this group at least respected that kind of loyalty.
Markus and I were squeezed into a little booth in a bar that Silvio’s people liked at the edge of the town. Silvio was friends with the owner or something. The place always smelled a little sour and I didn’t love the metal music they liked to play, but the screeching guitars and the loud voices of the usual clientele covered up any criminally inclined conversations.
I downed the last of my beer and bent over the table toward the other guy.
“The property doesn’t look like much,” I said. “But you’ll be able to tell they’re storing something big there from all the security around the place. They’re trying to keep it under the radar by not building up the house or anything too fancy.”
“Butyouknow what they’ve got stashed there?” Markus said.
“I do,” I said. “Got a tip, figured Silvio would appreciate being in on it. I can’t pull it off by myself anyway. But I want in. There are a couple things I know that you’ll need to pull off the score.”
“Sure, sure.” Markus waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea that they wouldn’t include me. His eyes had gone round in his broad face. “Absolutely Silvio is going to be glad you passed this on. But he’s going to want more details before we actually go in.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll lay the whole thing out once we’re good to go. I’ll know what timing we’ll want to aim for when I hear back about their current set-up. Just make sure you don’t catch their notice, like I said. We let them know we’re interested, and they might move that stash before we get our chance.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be in touch when we’ve had a chance to scope out the place. Keep an open line.” Markus clasped my hand with a brisk shake and a grin. Oh, yeah, I had him eating out of my hand with this story. Maybe we’d even be able to use Silvio’s bunch to help us break back onto the Frankford’s property with their special cliff.
The memory of that demonic face peering through the glowing portal in the cave made my stomach twist. I wasnotlooking forward to facing that thing again. The first time had been enough to curdle all my insides. Whatever exactly that monster was, it didn’t belong on this plane of existence. The horror that had run through every inch of my body had convinced me of that in an instant.
The sooner we shut down the Frankfords’ associates and got the honest people from the Assembly on the case sealing up that hole, the happier I’d be.
A couple minutes after Markus had taken off, I headed out of the bar too. The evening air outside was hot, but not as stuffy as back there with all those half-drunk bodies crammed together. Maybe being around Rose was giving me a bit of a taste for the finer side of life.
I could swing by my mother’s place with just a little detour on the way back to my crappy basement apartment. Give her an update on the job I was getting more committed to now. The apprenticeship Seth had set me up with, courtesy of an electrician who sometimes worked with his dad’s reno business, was going better than I’d let myself hope. My new boss was a lot more boring than Silvio, but I also never had to worry he’d point a gun at my head. Boring had its upsides.