Page 44 of One for the Money

— C

“Oh, you have got to be shitting me with this,” I growled out, balling up the paper and chucking it. “Why would you take this bullshit seriously? God, you let him play you like a damn virgin.”

Bear pulled out his phone and typed something into the search bar. Instantly, the feed was full of reports about a missing man being spotted in the city. Some reports even had Erik’s military headshot in the article for people to compare against a fuzzy photograph of us running out of the restaurant. Scanning the article, I tried to figure out why the fuck anyone would care about Erik going missing.

Then I found my answer in an article about the car bomb. Someone had left an anonymous tip that there were more people involved than the ones found in the car. Bear’s bike had been discovered, but, of course, it couldn’t be tied back to us or anything to do with the business. However, that same mysterious giver of information mentioned a veterinary office had been broken into. One thing led to another, and the police found out Erik had been there overnight, now nowhere to be found. Bear said he’d cleaned up most of the mess so that it wasn’t obvious a human and not a dog had been worked on. It might not have been a problem, but the idea the break-in was tied to the bombing would have the police looking deeper into things.

“Son of a bitch, how did we miss this?” I shouted. “This is a rookie mistake. We don’t make those mistakes.”

Bear’s lip curled up in a snarl at my accusation. “I didn’t make a mistake. Once I got the basics covered, I contacted a cleanup crew to collect your bike I left there and make sure there was nothing to connect this to us. We either have a mole who leaked information, or The Lady is filling in the blanks for the police, trying to get you out of the fucking picture.”

It took me a second to work through the two different possibilities he’d presented and landed on it being The Lady. “Fine, it was that fucking bitch, Serena, but that doesn’t explain why there’s a manhunt out for copper top,” I pointed out.

“Unless your people missed clearing the data from the security system,” Erik suggested. “You guys weren’t the first to break into the office, but most of them were looking for drugs, which is why we now have them locked up the way we do. The owner couldn’t afford to put in a major system, so he rigged up his own version. It’s a cheap camera that only takes stills every few seconds, and in the dark, it’s grainy-looking, but the image is good enough to match known culprits. There’s only one, and it’s in the surgical room where the drugs are held. What plays in our favor is it will only save the last twenty photos taken.”

“Which means they saw me knock your ass out, tie you up, and carry you off. Not to mention having stolen your vehicle, which they found two days later crashed in a ditch an hour east,” Bear said.

“Great, so they think finding you will lead them to us,” I muttered.

“Which they’re not wrong about,” Erik added. “What if I go back? Show up at work like nothing’s wrong and tell them I don’t remember anything after waking up from the car crash.”

I gave him a deadpan look. “Seriously? If we were going with that plan, it would have needed to be a day, maybe two tops, after the car was found. It’s been almost a week since the whole thing went down.”

Erik threw up his hand. “Hey, I’m just the beta here. I leave the hard thinking to you badass alphas.”

Flipping him off, I flopped back, staring at the car’s roof. “Don’t try to make me laugh right now. I’m not in the mood.”

“Bear is suggesting we get out of town,” Erik commented. “Makes sense to me… keep out of sight and maybe work on tracking down the twins. Maybe not the evil twin since he’s here, that is, if it was really him to tip you off tonight. Worth a try, don’t you think? You really looked like you had a lead there with the blank spaces you found.”

Contemplating that option, I recalled the one area I thought might prove to be worth checking out. Let’s say Coronis avoided anyone who might be a threat to him and his work, and my guess about him not getting along with his twin was correct. Then the blank could mean home base or where the good twin was hiding out.

Sitting, I looked at Bear through the rearview mirror and grinned. “Let’s go hunting.”

With the decision made, we headed back out onto the main road and toward the airport. Fingers crossed this time we can actually make it to the damn place without getting blown up.

If there was ever a moment I was thankful that I bought the local airport, it was now. No one dared to question why I wanted to fly out at nearly one in the morning, they just did as they were told. Of course, all flight logs were listed under a different name so they couldn’t be traced back to me—another reason these people were paid as well as they were. Fear and money could get you almost anywhere in this world, and I wasn’t ashamed to use both whenever I needed to.

Since there were three of us, I took the four-seater, single-engine plane which didn’t get out as much. That could only help in this situation if anyone were to look into the flights. Highly unlikely, but right now, I wasn’t feeling up to taking a risk. I was up against a pro in this fight, and the one thing I wasn’t going to do was underestimate my opponent. Better to play it smart than be left scrambling with your thumb up your ass.

“Damn, I’ve never flown private before,” Erik said, sounding impressed as I did my pre-flight check. “Guess it’s useful for someone like you to have a fast getaway.” He paused and frowned, looking at me as I rounded the nose of the plane.

“What?” I asked.

“You know, I still have no idea what it is that you do? Whatever it is, you’ve created quite the operation,” he commented, shoving his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

“Take a guess,” I challenged, gesturing for him to get in.

“Drugs,” Erik guessed as he struggled a little to navigate his tall frame into the small body of the plane.

“Nope, well, I guess I should say we dabble,” I said.

It took everything in me not to laugh watching Erik try and figure out how to sit that wouldn’t put his knees in his chest. Finally settling on sitting more diagonally, he buckled in and took the headset I handed him.

“Once we’re in the air, this is the best way to communicate. Things get loud with the wind and engine. It’s set on open coms, so you don’t need to push a button or anything. Just keep in mind it will pick up anything you say,” I warned.

“Right, so I shouldn’t mutter to myself about my master plan of escape?” Erik teased.

“More like if you’re gonna fart, we’ll all know it was you, and I might hit the eject button to drop your ass,” I countered.