“Dad totally knows how to make a bang table,” Lucy admitted. “Let me tell you, there are closets in my house no kid should wander into. You should be grateful you were raised in a place where your dad had a club and could keep all the weird stuff in a locker or something.”
Lou stood, glancing down at her phone. “TJ’s in the lobby. I told him we might be going out for dinner and he’s ready. I mean, he’s always ready. And we can see the new rom com.”
Lucy and Kala both groaned at the same time.
And then looked embarrassed by it. From what he could tell, they either didn’t realize they were kind of the same person or they did and it bugged them. Either way, it was infinitely amusing.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “I love rom coms. Thanks for the suggestion, Lou.”
Kala practically growled. “You don’t love them more than I do. I love them all.”
Kenzie leaned in. “We totally planned this earlier today. Lucy and Kala would have wanted to go see either some overly analytical treatise on the working class or an action film where some dude avenges his dog. This was my and Lou’s compromise. Tash said it wouldn’t work.”
Ah, but his Kenz could perform miracles when she wanted to. “Awesome.” A rom com would put his baby in a good mood, and he was surprised at how much of his thought process was starting to be taken over with making Kenzie smile. “Let’s do this. Should we invite Tim? If we invite him, we probably end up taking the assassin twins with us.”
Only the slightest tightening of her jaw gave away the fact that she was disturbed by that bit of news. “They’re getting along?”
Kala stood. “Then we should absolutely invite them.”
Lucy nodded. “I’ll go get them. Meet you upstairs in five.”
Kala agreed without complaining, making the sign of the cross, or initiating an exorcism.
Something was wrong.
But then Kenzie kissed him and he didn’t care.
Life was as perfect as it could be.
Week Three
“I should be there. If we have absolute certainty that Huisman is on the ground in Taipei, Tim and I should be there,” Ben argued.
Her dad sighed. “I’ve told you why. He knows you. He doesn’t know the MI6 team. I made the call to send them in because Joseph feels better working with MI6 than sending in another CIA team. They’re watching him. Honestly, Huisman isn’t the one we should be looking for. We need to find the bombmakers.”
Over the last few weeks a pattern had emerged. Kenzie had been monitoring a bunch of syndicates and other criminal organizations who would link to freelancers. She and Lucy had IDed four bombmakers.
Three of them were now dead, their bodies dumped in countries they did not reside in.
“We need to be looking for a man named Alen Grul. He’s a former biochemistry engineering professor from Bucharest. His work was specifically in how bombs are made.” She couldn’t tell that he had any criminal ties like the other three, but he had done some work for Disrupt on the dangers of using explosives to the environment. “As far as I can tell, he went missing two days ago.”
“Then he’s likely in Taipei, and we should be there on the ground,”Ben argued.
“I seriously doubt he’s building the bombs in Taiwan,” Damon added. “We’ve got a shipment of something necessary to build bombs arriving at the Scottish compound in two days. Lucy is going up to watch it. From what we’ve discovered, he’s got everything he needs to build the bombs there.”
“Everything except the right person to do it,” Lucy agreed. “Zach’s taking his mom camping for a few weeks. Devi’s with them. There are a couple of off-the-grid places in that part of Colorado. They can hide for weeks. Keeping Shannon Reed out of Huisman’s hands is our most important duty right now.”
“Henry’s staying in Bliss for a few months,” her father explained. “He’s watching over my sons, and he’ll be there if Zach and Devi need anything. Theo and Erin are hanging out, too.”
“So we’re stuck here?” Ben’s whole body was tight.
She reached under the table and put a hand on his thigh.
Ben took a long breath. “I’m sorry. I’m getting anxious. He’s been too quiet. I don’t like it. My every instinct tells me he’s planning something and we’re walking right into the trap.”
She was feeling that way, too, but putting Ben directly in the line of fire wasn’t going to help. “Which is why we keep a low profile. I worry that one way or another, he’s going to try to drag you into this. He’ll want you to witness his final act.”
“It’s not his final act,” her father disagreed, “but I do think he’ll want Ben to participate. I know he still wants his hands on Kala again. So we stay safe. Well, as safe as we can be with a trio of kid assassins who might or might not be playing us.”
