“Spit it out.”
He takes a deep breath. “Well, the Feds have picked up on the nanochip.”
The coffee Vincent has just given me nearly spills a second time. “How the hell is that possible? Did they find it?”
“No, no,” he reassures me. “But they did find a journal.”
“A diary,” specifies Igor with a condescending grunt.
“Yeah. A diary. And he wrote a lot of things inside. Things like…”
My blood turns to ice. “Like the same content that’s in the nanochip?”
“No,” he says again, and I let myself exhale. “There were a lot of ripped-out pages, and it seems like he did the ripping out himself. Thought better than to leave around evidence in a journal. Diary,” he corrects himself before Igor can speak. “But he did write about how he was going to put all his evidence on a nanochip.”
“Well, we all knew he was an idiot,” I grumble, leaning back in my chair.
“An idiot who found out a whole lot of stuff about us,” points out Everest.
“Exactly. An idiot. He discovered we’re bloodthirsty criminals and decided to out us, apparently forgetting the part where we’rebloodthirsty criminals. What exactly did he think was going to happen?”
“Speak for yourself,” mutters Everest. “I’m not all that bloodthirsty.”
“This concerns all of us,” I continue, ignoring his attempt at humor. “Sometimes we mess up, but we stick together. Vale, for example, fucked up royally by giving the mission to Angel—” Vale glares at me, but I ignore it. “—doesn’t matter, though. We’re all in this together. His fuckup is our fuckup. We own it. The priority now is finding the nanochip. A diary is nice and all, but it’s not evidence. We’re three steps ahead of the Feds.”
“But we’re in danger until the nanochip is found,” says Logan.
“The girl might know something about it…” begins Vale.
I lift my head up in annoyance, and notice Logan nodding ever so slightly. Not so loyal after all, I think with a twinge of anxiety.
“The girl had nothing to do with it,” I state. “That much is clear. We searched her belongings thoroughly.”
Logan licks his lips nervously. “True, but… if she was working with others…”
I bring my hand down on the table with a resounding smack.
“Enough. The girl isn’t a suspect. Our mission is to find the nanochip. End of story.”
-
That evening, we gather around the fireplace to play poker. It’s gotten a bit old. We have more money than we know what to do with, so the thrill of losing it is gone. But old habits die hard.
“One of these days, we should play for something else,” drawls Vale, stretching his arms. “If you know what I mean.”
Logan smirks. “We all know what you mean, pervert. Not the best time to invite whores in. With the rat sniffing around, I’d rather not risk bringing in random chicks.”
Vale grunts, tossing in his chips. “We’ve done it plenty of times before.” His eyes shift straight to me.
I ignore him, playing my hand in silence, eyes drifting to the phone in my lap. My little pet is on the balcony again, bending over the railing. It always freaks me out, like she’s wondering if she’d survive the fall. I’ve found myself wasting far too much time thinking about how to keep her from the balcony. There’s no mechanism to lock the sliding doors, I’d have to install a whole new system. I could install metal bars on the outside, but that would take time, too. Plus, I’m sure she already feels enough like a prisoner as it is.
I sigh. I’m going to have to put a stop to this balcony business.
Vale leans forward, his lazy voice breaking through my thoughts. “I still think we should raise the stakes. Cards for money is boring. Cards for… favors. Or maybe for the girl.”
I stand up so abruptly my chair falls backward, clattering to the floor.
“Fuck this,” I snap. “And fuck you. I’m going to bed.”
