“And that’s what you’re gonna do,” Raye decreed. “Set up the pickup and drop-off.”
“I don’t wanna—” Duane started.
“Duane, you’re not gonna,” Raye told him. “We’re gonna figure something out. But when you set it up, be very clear, when you do the final drop-off, they don’t get it until they hand over Amy.”
“Fuck her,” he bit off.
“Yeah, we’re gonna fuck her,” Raye said. “But you have to play your part. Set it up. But be a good actor. You can’t let on you know they’re playing you, because if you do, they’ll know we’re playing them.”
Duane didn’t say anything or even twitch.
“Duane, we got you,” Raye said softly. “Now, we’ll ask again, are you in?”
Duane continued to stand immobile, before he looked down at the cupcakes in his hands.
He looked back up. “You’re gonna mess her shit up?”
“We’re gonna put the screws to anyone who put the screws to you,” Raye told him.
“Can I watch?” he asked.
Raye shrugged. “Sure.”
He shoved the second half of the cupcake in his mouth, chewed twice, and with a full mouth said, “Okay then. I’m in.”
“Right on,” Persia replied.
But I looked at Shanti.
She looked troubled.
I wasn’t surprised.
All Raye said seemed like a lot of maneuvering, and the Angels might have a knack for this, but we weren’t superheroes.
Then I looked to Raye.
She looked determined.
Neither of them was good.
But in the end, we were Angels.
Somehow, some way, we’d get the job done.
NINETEEN
DARVILL AND DENISE
Shanti bumped me, shoulder to shoulder, as we walked by Gabe’s man-mobile in the guest spot on our way to our apartments after our All Angels briefing at AAHQ.
Luna, Jess, Harlow and Gemma got in and out of Duane’s with what we figured they’d get. A note in the fridge asking for the Angels’ help and for us to leave another note to say where we thought we could meet so we wouldn’t be seen.
Since we took care of that at the motel, it was sorted.
And Luna, Jess, Harlow and Gemma were all in on Raye’s unplanned plan to screw over anyone who screwed Duane, and to extricate Jinx’s head from her ass about Noah.
In other words, we’d had a mission dry spell.
