Page 69 of Revenge & Truth

“Fuck yes,” I answered, returning his smile.

Taking my hand and threading our fingers together, Ryker grabbed my pack and tugged me out the door. Everyone met us at the back of the house dressed in their black-tie best, where a small transporter van was parked with a handyman’s logo plastered on its side. In big, bold letters it read, ‘24-Hour Service. Problems don’t wait for 9 to 5.’ Braxton came up with the idea, and I had to admit it was rather brilliant.

Hound handed me a pair of black coveralls to slip on to complete the look. “I had them replace all the zippers with Velcro so you can get it on and off easily.”

“Right, and this wasn’t just from the days of you being part of Thunder From Down Under?” I quipped.

“Luna, if you wanted a private show, all you had to do was ask,” Hound shot back with a wink.

Liu cleared his throat, drawing our attention. “Ivy just messaged to let me know the judge has picked her up, and they are on the way to the gala. You should get going. Arriving too late will be just as noticeable as too early.”

I quickly took a moment to kiss them all. “For good luck,” I explained.

“Well, if it’s for good luck, I think I need a redo because mine didn’t feel all that lucky,” Braxton commented. Before I could stop him, he wrapped an arm around my waist, dipped me back, and kissed me soundly. Righting me, he grinned like the Cheshire cat. “That was much better. Now you’ll have all the luck in the world.”

With a wave, I hurried to jump in the passenger seat as Hound placed my pack in the back of the van. The sky was set ablaze as if the sun was fighting to keep holding onto the day, but night wasn’t going to let it win. Hound started the engine, and we were off to set fire to a man’s life. Judge Rupp dared to play chicken with the dark, and I wouldn’t be the one who blinked.

It took us a half hour to get to the judge’s home, ensuring we hadn’t been followed and avoided all traffic cameras along the way. The neighborhood the judge lived in was older, with various alley-type streets allowing residents to get to their garages. It gave us the perfect opportunity to block off a section of it to make it seem as if we could be servicing one of four houses. With the sun low enough to cast wide shadows in the alley, it gave us decent cover.

“Okay, Luna, I need you to tap into the fuse box like I taught you in the basement. I’ll get the alarm company’s secondary connection out front, then I’ll be able to hack in,” Hound instructed as he handed me an ear comm device. “Wait for my signal before you go any further. I need to be doubly sure I have full control over all parts of this Frankenstein system he’s built. Once I’m in, I’ll be able to watch you through the cameras he has, so I’ll know exactly how things are going on your end.”

Licking my lips nervously, I nodded, fitting the comm in my ear and wincing at the shrill sound of feedback. “You know this is kind of fun having someone else along for the ride.” A guilty expression crossed his face. “What?”

“Yeah, so…” he started then paused, chewing on one of his lip rings. “I might have hacked into every single security system and watched you work. The way you managed to get that fucking massive painting out of a third-story balcony was ingenious.”

My immediate response was to be pissed at him, my hands balling into fists as I held myself back. “Are you telling me that all those times I thought I’d successfully hacked a security system, it was you doing it behind the scenes?”

“No, no, no, that was all you, Moonflower,” Hound assured me. “Without you breaking into the system, I wouldn’t have been able to tag along.”

That helped to ease my irritation fairly quickly, but I still wasn’t happy about it. “This discussion isn’t over. We’ll revisit it once I’m done fucking up this man’s life.”

Hound gave me a toothy smile. “It’s a date. Now go be the badass you are, Luna Selene.”

Crawling in the back, I grabbed my pack and baseball cap to cover my face, then slipped on a pair of latex gloves.

“Oh shit, I almost forgot,” Hound said, digging through his pockets. “You’re gonna need this.”

Taking the offered USB jump drive, I frowned at it. “What’s this?”

“Oh… just all the dirt I could find on our gallant White Knight. It has photos, text, emails, and even a voicemail I managed to dig up talking about that Rhythm & Boobs underground bunker. I might have also made up a few other things that tied him to the cocaine problem and how it’s been worse since he arrived,” Hound explained.

“Hold on, are you saying all of this is made up?” I questioned.

“Now, is it really made up if I used his voice, written words, and pictures we took with no real context that I made to fit the story?” Hound challenged. “I think we should let law enforcement decide if they think it’s real or not, don’t you?”

I grabbed his coveralls and pulled him toward me, giving him a kiss that left us both panting. “God, it’s fucking sexy when you use your powers to destroy our enemies.”

“Fuck, if that’s all it takes to get you to jump my ass, I’d have done it a long time ago,” Hound muttered as I patted him on the cheek and pulled back the side door to jump out.

Blowing him a kiss for the hell of it, I shut the van door and hurried to the window well with my head bowed. Some idiot who installed the fence put it so it cut the well in half, giving me enough space to drop into the well and pop up on the other side in the judge’s yard. Crouched low, I hurried past the windows, unwilling to take a chance on someone being home or the motion sensors inside catching me by accident. Reaching the second window well, I dropped down and pulled open my pack to get the tool I needed to pop the latch on the window. It took a little finesse, but with a good wiggle and a hard smack on the butt of the tool, I heard the click.

Using the same tool, I got the window to slide just enough to get my fingers through the opening. With both hands, I shoved the glass to the left, giving me the perfect entrance into the house. Poking my head in, I clicked on my flashlight to check the drop-down and surrounding areas. The damn sump pump was right below me, but if I made sure to jump far enough out, it wouldn’t be a problem.

With a grunt, I landed awkwardly on the concrete floor, slamming my elbow, but I’d be able to shake it off just fine. Staying low, I shined the light around then spotted the fuse box where the blueprints said it would be. I strode over only to frown at the fact a small padlock was looped through, preventing me from opening it.

“Fucking paranoid bastard,” I muttered as I dug for my lockpicks.

It took me all of a minute to get it unlocked, and then I yanked open the door. Taking a moment to read the list of fuses, I found the one for the security system. Grabbing a storage bin, I climbed up and got into the main bundle of wires. With a few splices, twists, and tape, I patched in the receiver that Hound needed.