“More than a year, I would say.” She walked up next to him to look at the dossiers and the red strings connecting one individual to another on the wall. “Not long after I met Fish, he told me about one of the first jobs LaSalle hired them to do. It was a break-in at some energy sciences lab in the Berkshires.”
Rafe nodded without commenting that he likely knew the company in question. He would be willing to wager his right arm that the product being developed there was one of several ultraviolet technologies that fell into Opus Nostrum’s hands earlier this year.
“Did Fish say what they were supposed to steal for LaSalle?”
“No. And they weren’t successful, anyway. Security was too tight, so they had to abort.”
“But LaSalle kept hiring them for other jobs?”
“He needs people like Cruz and his men.”
“Expendable men,” Rafe said.
“Right. Men who will do almost anything—risk almost anything—so long as it comes with a large enough payout. From what I’ve observed, they’re simply boots on the ground for LaSalle, and he’s untouchable so far. Besides, there’s no clear evidence yet that he’s connected to Opus.”
Rafe wasn’t so sure about that. The Berkshires break-in gave him hope that he was on the right track. He was already months ahead in terms of reconnaissance, all thanks to her.
Devony retrieved another one of her logs and handed it to him. “Here’s a list of their most recent jobs for him.”
Rafe scanned the record of random pickups and drops of unstated merchandise, assorted robberies, even a few instances of money laundering.
She pivoted to face him as he reviewed the document, leaning her back against the wall of intel. “I heard Ocho and Axel talking about a big job Cruz has been promising recently. I don’t know what it is yet, but Cruz hasn’t mentioned it to me at all.”
Rafe stared at her, his mind calculating the fastest way to fix that problem. “I need to get one of the guys alone somewhere. I’d only need a few minutes, just long enough to interrogate the son of a bitch under a trance.”
She was shaking her head even before he finished talking. “I’ve done that.”
“You have?” He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t surprised—and impressed. “Which one did you question?”
“All of them, including Cruz.” She arched a brow. “What do you think I’ve been doing with them all these months, just beating them at pool and pretending I don’t despise drinking rot-gut whisky with them?”
He chuckled. “You’re incredible, you know that?”
She smiled. “That’s what you kept telling me last night.”
Yes, it was. He’d meant every word too.
And he had to be some kind of asshole for the way he still craved her, even considering that this time tomorrow she would be in Order custody and wishing she’d never met him.
She was so confident and fearless in normal situations, it was hard for him to reconcile the fact that she had been untouched until a few hours ago.
Until him.
“You are an incredible woman, Devony.” He approached her and gently cupped her face in his hands. “Last night was incredible.”
She nodded, and he couldn’t deny himself the pleasure of one more kiss, even though he cursed himself for taking it from her with a clearer head than he had a few hours ago. And still the feeling of her lips brushing softly against his sent a torrent of jagged desire through his veins.
He groaned and pulled away.
“This isn’t a good idea. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this to you again.”
“Do it to me? I kind of thought we did it together, Rafe. I mean, I may not have a lot of experience in this area, but I thought we did it together really well.”
She came toward him now, her eyes glittering with sparks of amber and the determination he was swiftly finding irresistible.
“I think you and I do a lot of things really well. Too well to keep doing them on our own.”
“What are you talking about?”
