Page 62 of Revenge & Truth

“Ah…” Ivy commented as she connected the dots. “He’s the one I had to make an example out of. Yeah, I can see him being overbearing in compensation for not really being able to control what you do.”

“Pretty much,” I agreed, slumping in my seat.

“Now, you can tell me if this is rude to ask or you don’t want to talk about it, but they all know you’re seeing all of them, right?”

That question made me snort as I held back laughter. “Those dumbasses came to the agreement before I knew it was even an option. None of them were willing to give up the chance to make a move, so they left it up to me, and they’d be fine with whatever I chose. Joke’s on them. I picked them all.”

“Your hacker doesn’t seem too pleased with me. I got an alert that he was snooping around my information, but I’ve got my own dark web connections that were able to keep his nose out of my business.”

“He did not?” I demanded, sitting up to stare at her. “Please tell me you’re playing with me, and he didn’t really do that.”

“I wish I could,” Ivy answered, sparing me a glance as she backed into a parking spot on the main road. “What I will tell you is that Hound of yours, he’s incredibly good at what he does. I’m fairly certain if he’d found even one little breadcrumb, he’d manage to bring the whole wall crashing down.”

Grabbing my phone, I swiped to the dark web chat Hound and I met on initially. Unsure of what he was doing right this moment, it was the safest bet he’d see it quickly and what I said would stay encrypted.

Me: I’ve got a bone to pick with you. How could you do a fucking deep dive on Ivy? That is NOT cool, man.

Hound: This is going to be one of those times you get mad at me, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you choose to be pissed about me making sure a known assassin isn’t trying to befriend you to get information, then stab you in the back, go ahead!

Me: Fine, I will be mad. It was a dick move.

Hound: Aren’t you going to ask if I found anything?

Me: No, because if you had, I wouldn’t be out right now with her. Clearly you came up with nothing out of the ordinary, if you found anything. Oh, and to prove she’s a bigger person than you are, she said you were damn good at your job.

Hound: Tell her they missed something, a rather important bit of information. She’s still linked to Mariposa via small-town newspapers covering the story. And before you ask, no, I’m not telling you what it is. Believe me when I say it’s not my trauma to share so don’t even try.

Me: I got the sense there was a dark past, and I don’t plan on digging it up. As for the other thing, I’ll make sure to let her know so she can get it dealt with. Oh, hey, while I’ve got you, has there been any word from Liu?

Instead of texting me back, his face appeared on my screen, a picture he clearly took. Accepting the call, I made an apologetic gesture to Ivy since we were clearly at our next location.

“Hound, does a call mean good or bad? Tell me right now, or I’m hanging up and ignoring you so my day isn’t devastated,” I warned the man.

“Easy, Luna, everything is fine,” Hound said, soothing my worries. “It was just a lot to have to type out so I’m calling. Plus, I missed you since I didn’t get to see you at breakfast. You two having a good time?”

“Hound,” I bit out.

“Right, got it… you want an update. Liu’s meeting with Luca went fine, even though they tried to keep him from seeing his client. They kept saying he was aiding a known criminal to conspire in his presence but, of course, whatever is said by Luca is protected, so they had nothing concrete to stop them from meeting,” Hound explained. “Liu got the information we needed and said Luca almost didn’t give it to him when he heard you’d be the one planting the weapon. Lucky for us, Liu is one damn good negotiator and got him to see reason.”

I groaned, knowing when Luca got out, he was going to have a few things to say to me about this rescue effort. It didn’t matter how upset he got with me as long as the end result was that he came home.

“Did Liu have any trouble with Melony?”

Out of all the men I had around me, I wasn’t sure where Liu fell into the getting-his-hands-dirty category. He’d been by my father’s side cleaning up after him, but I didn’t know if he’d done the deed before.

“The matter is settled with no trouble. He’d have called you, but cell service where Luca hid them was nonexistent. Liu is on his way right now to meet with Jace, who will get together with his police contacts,” Hound informed me. “Now that we’ve settled that, are you having a good day?”

I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head as I got out of the car. “Yes, I’m having a great day. We are at our third shop, but from the sounds of it, it might be the last. I will talk to you when I get home, Hound.”

“Fine, but tell Ivy if she ever pulls that shit with the dress again, I’ll be the one exposing her to the public,” he grumbled and hung up.

Halting in my tracks, I looked down at the phone, seeing the call ended flashing, proving he’d just ran like a scared little girl after telling me he’d been stalking me—again. “That little shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Ivy asked, leaning over my shoulder to peer at my phone.

“He’s been fucking tracking us all day and using the shop cameras to watch us,” I muttered. “It’s a terrible habit the fucker has. Now I get why none of my guys had a problem with me going out alone with you. They had their resident peeping Tom tracking my every move.”

Ivy covered her mouth in an effort to hide the smile on her face, but her shaking shoulders betrayed her.