“You better get him before he gets me,” Raina hissed in my face, then loosened her grip, so I could breathe again. “A little closer, Loverboy,” she whispered to Owen, and he shifted in behind her, grabbing her in a chokehold.
Oh.
It was all a distraction, so she could tell us what she knew. And Owen was playing along. Did I miss some invisible signal?
“I overheard a conversation between Grayson and Hunter a few years back. I was passed out drunk on their sofa. They hadn’t noticed that I had woken up. Grayson was talking about the Codex Leicester, and how his father was in the process of buying it before his death. And that it was a bucket list heist for him. The current owner’s vault is more protected than the Mona Lisa. For anyone else, it is an impossible feat. For Grayson, it is enough to give him pause. Make him think twice.”
“But if the Codex were to be taken out for whatever reason…” Owen tried hard to keep his face in a scowl.
“It would be irresistible to Grayson,” she finished Owen’s thought.
“He doesn’t know you know?” I wheezed through my narrowed windpipe. Raina had a smile spreading over her beautiful face as she watched me struggle.
“If we’re clever, he won’t see it coming.Wewill be the ones pulling the strings,” Owen added, the spark returning to his eyes.
I pulled back my fist and punched Raina in the face, before bringing my knee up between her legs. It was self defence against a man, but it seemed to work just as good on a woman. Raina crumbled to the floor.
“Don’t youeverput your hands on me again,” I hissed at her. She had no reason to choke that hard, except for being a crazy bitch.
“Fuck you, Bambi,” she grunted, her breath coming out in chuckles as she tried to stand.
Definitely a crazy bitch.
Owen held a hand out to me, a grin on his face. “Hope you’ll be more cooperative on our next visit, Raina,” he said without looking at her, leading me to the door.
Ava
Itwastwoo’clockin the morning. The whole team was gathered in a shitty bar on the outskirts of Willsbury City.
We had done our usual evasive manoeuvres, just in case we had a tail. We were also using burner phones to communicate. We discussed nothing at the office. We told no one what we were doing. Where we were going. It had come to that—the FBI sneaking around like a bunch of criminals because nothing and nowhere was safe. We only trusted each other. The five of us. Nothing left our circle.
Owen leaned closer as Marshall sat down in the booth, the last to arrive. “We have something,” he whispered, his eyes darting over the filthy, empty bar.
Emerie’s lips thinned. “Is it for real this time?”
“Well, Raina is sure it’ll get her killed for telling us, so…” I trailed off, meeting everyone’s gaze at the table.
Syntax straightened in her seat. “Then out with it.”
“Varon has a bucket list piece, and we know what it is,” Owen started.
“How does that help us?” Emerie questioned sarcastically. “Even if we know what he’s after, we still can’t seem to stop him.”
“For starters, he won’t know we know about it.” I gave Emerie a glare. “All this time the Apparitions had been the ones planting the breadcrumbs and we’ve been following it like idiots. This time around, we’re flipping the script. No more chasing. We will lay the snare and wait for them to come tous.”
Marshall nodded slowly, leaning back into his seat, eyes narrowed. “What’s the plan?”
Owen and I grinned at each other, feeling a twinge of optimism for the first time in weeks.
“It’ll go down in three months. At a Da Vinci exhibit in Italy,” Owen started, giving my hand an excited squeeze under the table.
This better work.
I flinched as the doors slammed shut with a deafening bang.
Syntax laughed like a maniac mad scientist. “Andthat’show you trap the devil.”
I grinned, looking around one of the viewing rooms of the museum—our snare. The trap was almost complete, and it was perfect.
