I jab my finger in the air. “Pot. Kettle. Black.” I pin him with a smug look as I toss my long, dark hair over my shoulders. “You’re really not in any position to criticize.”
His glare darkens, and a shiver tiptoes up my spine. Angry Saint turns me on like you wouldn’t believe.
“What’s your idea?” Diesel asks, pushing away his empty plate.
“Sinner needs to believe I’ve done it, because he needs to think I’m loyal to him, and it’s the only way I’ll get him off my back. So, what if we set up a fake assassination? We bring your boss and the commissioner into the plans. Set him up in a location that works, get him to wear a bulletproof vest loaded with fake blood, and I take him out. We put out false media reports confirming he’s dead while the commissioner goes into hiding. Sinner will lower his guard because he’ll think the threat has ended with the commissioner’s death, but it might just draw out the person who has the evidence we need.”
CHAPTER 9
FIVE SETS OFstunned eyes land on me. “What? You don’t think it’ll work?” I probe.
“I think it’s genius.” Theo waggles his brows.
“I think I’d love to get inside your head,” Diesel adds, smiling.
“Among other places,” Caz murmurs under his breath before I give him the stink eye, and he shuts up.
“You’re not doing it,” Saint barks. “It’s too fucking dangerous. Any number of things could go wrong.”
“Andthat’swhy I didn’t bring it up before now.” I tilt my head to the side, shooting daggers at him.
“I agree it’s dangerous,” Diesel says, cutting through the thick tension in the air. “But with careful planning, Lo can pull this off.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Saint scoffs, looking at him like he’s a dumb fuck. “She’s a fucking lethal shot. I’m more concerned about it getting back to Sinner.”
“It’s widely known Sinner has contacts in high places,” Diesel agrees, “but we’ll keep it contained to a small trusted circle so there’s no risk of the truth leaking.”
Saint still looks unconvinced, boring a hole in Diesel’s skull as he drums his fingers on the tabletop.
“I would never let Lo go through with this if I thought it’d place her in graver danger,” Diesel continues. “I would take a bullet for her before I’d let anything happen to her. You can trust me on that.”
My eyes plead with Saint. “You know it’s the truth, so unless you have a better plan?”
Silence engulfs us, and we wait while Saint thinks it through.
“Okay,” he says after a couple of tense minutes. “We’ll do it, but we keep those in the know to a minimum.”
“You have my word.” Sincerity drips from Diesel’s tone.
My shoulders slump in grateful relief.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean Sinner will stop looking for the evidence,” Galen says. “But it’s got to relieve some of the pressure.”
“And if we give him some shit on The Arrows and push him toward escalating the war between both crews, he’ll be distracted enough while we try to find that fucking evidence,” Saint says. He stares at Diesel. “Will your boss go for it?”
“He wants that evidence as badly as we do, and he wants to end Sinner, so I think I can sell it to him.” He scrubs a hand over his prickly jaw. “It would help if I had something to sweeten the deal, because he won’t like crawling into bed with the junior Sainthood.” Diesel rubs the back of his neck. “Asking him to trust all of you with something like this is a big ask.”
My chair scrapes as I stand. “I’ll be right back.” I glance at Theo. “I need you.” Theo rises, following me out of the open living space, down the back hallway, and into Dad’s study.
“You’re giving him the coded files,” he says, correctly guessing where my mind has gone.
“It’s all we’ve got to offer, and, let’s be honest, we’re never going to crack that code.” I’ve spent months going through them with no success.
“I might be able to find something on the darknet,” Theo says. “But it’ll take time, and even if we uncover the code, there is no guarantee whatever is in those files will be of any use. We have no clue where your dad got them. If he knew what was on them, or if he knew there was something important on them, he would’ve used them himself.”
I gather them up, dumping them in a paper box. “Exactly my thoughts. Let’s see what Diesel thinks.”
Theo carries the box out of the study, placing it on the table, while I explain to Diesel.
