Page 6 of Our Tricks

I blinked at him a few times as I cocked my head. “That you’re the world’s most giant nerd, and you get excited digging around in people’s hard drives like a teen in his sister’s underwear drawer?”

“What?” Wes looked at me with disgust. “No. Having access to everything Diego was doing will tell us more than I’d ever be able to find out on my own.”

“Don’t forget we also have his sister to chat with as well,” Cam interjected. “I have no idea how helpful she’ll be, but if we weed through the depressed monologues, I’m sure we’ll find a nugget or two of useful information.”

Wes started to pace, and I could tell his brain was working a million miles per minute. “Okay, well, how about I take a nap since we’re as safe as we’re going to be right now, and you wake me when it’s time to storm that castle?”

Void walked over from where he’d been leaning on the wall and climbed into the small bed behind me. “I think a nap sounds like a wonderful idea, little demon.”

Cam glared at Void, but he knew better than to challenge the man when he was staking his personal time with me. “I’ve got some calls to make and feelers to put out about things to see what my options are. Have a good nap,” he murmured before pulling me in for a kiss.

I melted into him, and he deepened it, fisting a handful of hair at the base of my neck, making me hum. When he pulled back, I could see a pleased look on his face at how I responded to him. “Don’t forget, beautiful, we have a date to go on before we leave New York. There’s a special place I want to take you.”

“Okay, I think once we see how things go today, it will give us a better sense of how much trouble I caused,” I answered. “But I’ll make sure we have time before we go.”

With another quick kiss, he got up from the bed and left the room, allowing Void to pull me onto his chest. “Sleep, little demon. Who knows what will happen later, but you need to be sharp.”

Snuggling into him and getting comfortable, I drifted off listening to his steady heartbeat and the murmurs of my other men in the room.

This was the lull before the storm.

Chapter 3

Dax

Refreshed, armed, and caffeinated to the max, I was ready to take on whatever this day had in store for us. Tommaso messaged us he was going to be at the headquarters in a half hour, so we piled into the vehicle and were on our way. The De León Cartel owned a highrise in the city that they rented out the bottom fifteen floors and kept the top five for themselves. Today being Sunday helped to ensure there wouldn’t be many clueless people working as the new king took his palace.

This time I rode up front as Eagle drove, wanting to keep alert to our surroundings. While I didn’t think anyone would be jumping out of the shadows to attack us, it’s always better to be ready for shit to go down. Eagle’s phone rang, and when he pulled it out of his pocket, I saw Gator’s name on the screen.

“My money’s on this being for you,” Eagle said, handing it over to me.

With a shrug, I answered it, “President Eagle’s phone, co-president Little Queen speaking.”

“Goddammit, Dax, what the hell were you thinking doing that?” Tilly screamed at me so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “Why not just paint a fucking target on your head and wear a sign that says shoot me, I enjoy it?”

“Woah there, Tilly-billy,” I said into the phone I was still holding a safe distance from my ear. “I’m gonna need you to lower the decibel if you’d like to carry on a conversation with me, please.”

“Fuck you, I’m going to yell at you if I want to,” Tilly snapped but at a lower decibel. Feeling it might be safe, I put the phone back to my ear. “Look, woman, I’m all for you owning life and taking it by the balls, but do you really think that was the best move? That psycho already has a hard-on for you, and now the whole criminal world knows it.”

“I hate to break it to you, babe, but that ship already sailed,” I pointed out. “Everyone at that event was picking a side and declaring their allegiance to me or Marco. The criminal world is incredibly aware of the feud going on, and they’re acting like it’s a game of risk or some shit.”

“This isn’t helping me to not want to strangle you,” Tilly growled out.

Memories of the other night with Wes and his belt flashed through my mind. “Just as a head’s up, I’m not sure that would give you the desired effect you’d want.”

“You really aren’t bothered by this at all, are you? Do you have some magic plan to put this all to rest, or is this just bravado so I don’t worry about things more than I already am?” Tilly demanded.

“T, you’re gonna need to clue me in on what the hell is going on. You’ve never been this upset with me about my crazy antics. Actually, on more than one occasion, I remember you pushing me to own my crazy and do what needed to be done,” I reminded.

I heard a frustrated sigh, footsteps stomping down the hall, and a door being slammed. “Look, I’m not on speaker, am I?”

“No, but if you reach the rage you started with, I wouldn’t need to do that for you to be heard,” I said, not at all liking where this was going. “Tilly, what’s going on?”

“You can’t utter a goddamn word, or I’ll gut you like a fish,” Tilly snarled.

Shifting in my seat, I cleared my throat and shifted away from Eagle. “Gotcha, I read you loud and clear.”

“This was never supposed to happen. I mean, maybe eventually, but this wasn’t supposed to be now… I know that for a damn fact. It’s all wrong, and Mutt can’t even… but that didn’t matter because I wasn’t super sure about the whole idea. Now we’re in charge, and if anything happens to all of you, this then becomes our full-time gig, and that’s not what I want. You hear me?” Tilly asked in a desperate voice.