Say It Again (First Wives)

by Catherine Bybee

Sasha followed him when he turned. “I know about betrayal, AJ. My mother had me to blackmail my father and he killed her for it. The bruises on my neck lasted for weeks when he tried to put me in the ground. I’ve met your parents, and while they may not tell you everything, they don’t want to see you dead. Give this another day. We’ll confront her together.”

  Their breath merged in the cold night. AJ reached for her, pulled her close.

  The feel of his desperate arms around her was a life preserver.

  For him.

  For her.

  She held on, leaned her cheek against his chest. Only when the brisk autumn air seeped into her soul did she say, “We have plans to make, Junior.”

  Twice in a week.

  AJ nudged his tie into place, looked in the mirror. “If I’m going to wear suits, I really need to purchase ones that fit.”

  Sasha walked up behind him, smiled at their reflections in the mirror. She slid her arms around his waist. “I’m usually a leather and chains woman, but I like you in this.”

  He twisted around and held her face in his hands. He leaned over and kissed her. She pulled at his heart.

  Her lips followed his as he ended their kiss.

  “Another time, Stick. We have something to do tonight.”

  “You ready for this?”

  “As much as I can be.”

  Sasha removed two cuff links from a small bag. “This one”—she waved the decorative metal in her hand before she attached it in place—“is a microphone. We can hear you, but you cannot hear us.”

  When she finished, she slid a tiny earpiece around her ear and secured it with an equally small clip into her hair. “It picks up voices within twelve inches.”

  “That’s cool.”

  She grinned and picked up an empty glass with her right hand. She lifted it to her lips and started to talk. “You avoid detection with normal conversation. Like this. Headmistress . . .” Sasha said the word while the glass was close to her lips and then switched it to the other before extending her right hand toward AJ. “She shakes your hand, probably asks why you’re there, we hear what she has to say. You talk with your hands, so the glass switches over, you point with it.” Sasha demonstrated. “Before the glass becomes obvious, a scratch to the side of your neck, a pat on someone’s shoulder. If you detect someone is watching you, say nothing. You’re our eyes and ears. Richter’s security detail will blend.”

  She reached up and secured a micro piece of metal just inside the lobe of his ear.

  “So you can hear us,” she told him.

  He looked in the mirror when she was done, turned his head from side to side. “That’s awesome. How many Olivias will be in the room?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Assume there is at least one. And for God’s sake, channel your inner girl and don’t put your drink down, giving someone the opportunity to slip something into it.”

  He grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Really, AJ. Someone in that room commissioned the hit on your sister. Chances are they’re going to recognize you.”

  “My parents will recognize me.” He’d called them shortly after they devised a plan. True disappointment swam in AJ’s face when he learned they were planning on attending the Richter board alumni gathering.

  Sasha sat beside AJ during the call, the conversation on speaker for everyone to hear. His dad answered the phone. “I got the strangest call today,” AJ told him. “I think they thought they were calling you and Mom. Something about a school board emergency meeting. I didn’t know Mom was on the school board at Richter . . .”

  Alex admitted she had been while Amelia was in school and that they had been notified of the meeting and were en route to the airport now.

  AJ’s whole expression slid to the ground.

  Sasha gripped his hand, kept him calm.

  “Your mother insisted,” Alex said.

  “Are you going?”

  “Of course. It was Amelia’s school.”

  Neil waved his hands in the air to silence anything AJ might have said at that point. AJ said his goodbyes and hung up.

  Sasha ran her hand up his arm, caught his eyes. “Play it easy. Tell them what we rehearsed and see what happens.”

  “When will I know it’s time to leave?” he asked.

  Sasha winked. “Oh, you’ll know. Until then mingle, charm the ladies with that smile, and avoid corners where someone can escort you from the room without notice. Keep one eye on your parents.”

  “You got it, sweetheart.”

  Her eyes narrowed, this time with a playful smile. Apparently his endearments were growing on her.

  “I’m stepping out of the room, let’s test the microphone.”

  AJ watched her sleek ass exit with a slight sway of her hips. He waited a few seconds before lifting the cuff to his lips. “Can we get this over with so I can peel you out of those clothes and get you under my tongue?”

  “Loud and clear,” he heard her in his ear.

  AJ licked his lips.

  Sasha ducked her head back into the room and waved him out.

  Unable to help himself, he slapped her butt.

  She jumped, looked up at him as they walked into the war room. “By the way, everything you say is heard by everyone on the team.” Inside the room, all eyes were on him.

  “If you two are done with the slaps and giggles, we have work to do,” Neil barked. “Skip the unnecessary chatter.”

  Claire laughed. “Somebody’s in trouble,” she said in a singsong voice.

  Sasha had run more than one of these jobs, but never had it been this personal or had people she truly cared for been on the team. Okay, that wasn’t true. But somehow AJ had moved to the top of that list.

  Claire sat in the van with them, a stick of gum in her mouth, her smile was cheek to cheek.

  Much as they wanted to leave her back at the warehouse, the firewalls inside Richter would make it impossible to relay intel to the outside.

  The van stopped by a waiting town car.

  Sasha’s heartbeat sped up. Her eyes met AJ’s.

  “You’re out first. Any sign of trouble, you know what to do.”

  He nodded and someone opened the back door. “Take care of her.” AJ pointed to Cooper and Claire.

  As he passed Sasha, she sucked in a deep breath. “Watch your back,” she told him.

  He reached for the back of her head, kissed her hard, and smiled. “Take care of you.” Then he was out the door.

  The van sped off the second the door was closed.

  “Hello, Isaac. Nice hat,” AJ’s voice sounded in her ear.

  She heard a car door close and then AJ’s voice. “Can everyone hear me?”

  “Team One,” Sasha said.

  “Team Two,” Cooper replied.

  “Team Three,” Neil finished.

  Ten minutes later, they’d found the first drop-off point. Neil, Olivia, and two more men exited the van and took off on foot.

  Once they were back on the road, Neil did the same sound off.

  AJ reported in. “There’s a long line of cars.”

  “We need five minutes to get into position,” Neil said, his breathing hard.

  Sasha checked the time on her watch.

  The van stopped and Claire lifted her fist up, tapped Cooper’s. “Whoop, whoop.”

  “No side trips,” Sasha warned her.

  “Yes, Mom.” And four more players were out of the van.

  Sasha shouldered the duffel bag and barely let the van stop before slipping into the thick of trees outside the Richter walls.

  Unlike everyone else, she worked alone. At least this early in the game.

  “We’re in,” she heard Neil call out.

  Sasha stopped at the edge of the wall surrounding the school and pulled out a frequency jammer and placed it between the two sensors. With the window open to cloak her entry, she tossed her bag over first, took three steps back, then ran, jumped, and scaled the wall. With her toys back i
n her bag, she headed straight for the dining hall.

  Breaking into Richter was a hell of a lot easier than breaking out . . . at least when Claire had her own personal ninja escort with lots of toys at their disposal.

  Their party of four followed her as they moved closer to the administration building.

  Lights filled the arches and pathways leading to the auditorium.

  The dorms were relatively dark, with the exception of students peering out windows to get a glimpse of the event taking place below.

  “In position,” Neil announced.

  Claire looked up to the roofline where Neil was supposed to be but saw nothing.

  “East side of the administration building,” Cooper told him.

  “Copy. I see you.”

  Claire kept her back to the wall, pointed at the motion detector lights, and slid alongside it. Once at the door, she let Cooper pass. Grabbing her key fob before leaving Richter the first time hadn’t crossed her mind, so Cooper was up. He put some kind of magnetic gizmo on the door and within seconds the lock clicked open. Inside, she led them down the stairwell, light on her feet. Two security doors later and they emptied into the senior computer room.

  She took one step and Cooper tossed out an arm to stop her.

  Voices. Several of them cackled with a buzz of excitement.

  Claire snuck a glance around the wall and pushed Cooper aside. “Busted!” she announced as she bounded around the corner.

  Jax, Blane, Alina, and Stacey all jumped to their feet. One chair fell back and hit the floor with a crash.

  Jax caught on first. “Oh my God. Look at you! What are you doing here?” She ran at her, arms wide.

  Claire caught her BFF in a full hug and looked behind her. “I brought a few friends.”

  “What the hell is going on down there?” She heard Neil in her ear.

  “Looks like we have four students that are not in their beds,” Cooper told him.

  “Damn it.”

  “Chill out, Neil. These guys are solid.”

  Jax looked at Claire like she was crazy. “Who are you talking to?”

  Claire pointed to the tiny microphone positioned right in front of her lips. “Shh.”

  “Are you secure?” Neil asked.

  Cooper responded an affirmative and brushed past Claire.

  He dragged several devices from his bag and pushed his way in front of the main computer in the room.

  “What’s going on?” Blane asked.

  Claire pushed her microphone aside and motioned for her friends to move back. “We just need to hijack the computer for a little while.”

  “No one leaves until we do,” Cooper said loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “These guys are awesome. I’ll explain later.”

  “Claire, you’re up.”

  Claire grabbed Jax’s hand and led her away from their friends.

  “Cooper, this is Yoda.”

  Jax pushed her arm. “You told him?”

  “The question is, Did you tell anyone else?” Cooper asked.

  Jax looked at him like he was crazy. “No.”

  Claire exchanged glances with Cooper. She stared down at the computer.

  With her fingers intertwined, Claire cracked her knuckles and sat down. With one of their team at the door, Cooper, Claire, and Lars went to work.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Isaac opened the back door of the town car and AJ stepped out.

  “See you on the inside,” he said with a pat to Isaac’s back.

  AJ lifted his cuff to straighten his coat. “I’m going in.”

  “Copy,” he heard Neil’s voice.

  His chest ached with the hard thump of his heart. He had to admit to liking the adrenaline swishing through his veins. Maybe he’d found something slightly more dangerous than stealing cars to make him happy. He stepped up to the man at the front door. Older gentleman, astute in his stance, gray hair and watchful eyes, exactly what Sasha had described.

  In his hands he had a list of names. AJ stepped up when it was his turn.

  “You must be Charlie,” AJ said.

  The man’s eyes met his. “Sir?”

  AJ glanced down at the list. “Hofmann.” He waited a moment, saw Charlie find his family name. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” AJ said.

  “Is that so?”

  “All good things.” He hesitated. “My parents should be joining me shortly if they’re not already here.”

  Charlie stepped back slightly and let AJ pass.

  Good thing it was cold outside or he’d be sweating. AJ rubbed his cheek, spoke in the microphone. “I’m in.”

  “Copy,” Neil said. “Team One, what’s your position?”

  There was some slight static in AJ’s ear. “Almost there,” he heard Sasha’s voice. She was running.

  AJ walked through the main building and back outside onto the lighted path toward the auditorium. He looked around the darkened perimeter of the grounds lit only by a few decorative lamps and the glow from the windows above. Clouds had started to move in, blocking out any help from the moon. He had a general idea of where everyone on the team was. He glanced at his watch and remembered the timeline. Once inside the auditorium, he grabbed a glass of wine from a passing waiter and moved to a more visible part of the room.

  He smiled at a few people he passed, recognizing none of them. His parents weren’t there. While English was the language most were speaking in the room, he heard bits of German and something more Slavic in nature. Dating Sasha, he really might consider learning another language. The bad words at minimum. AJ chuckled at the thought.

  “Waiting on you, Team Two.”

  Cooper made the last strokes on the keyboard, and all the school’s cameras fed to their monitors.

  Claire and Cooper scanned them all.

  Claire started recording.

  Her friends behind them were muttering among themselves.

  The camera above the Richter security guard watching the monitors showed two employees wearing faculty jackets and drinking coffee.

  “Running a test,” Cooper told the team. “Stand by.”

  “Main entrance,” Claire said.

  Cooper hit a command, the camera barely flickered, and the few seconds they’d been recording played back on a loop. On their portable monitor, they saw both the live and the recorded feeds. He clicked it off, and the live feed was back online.

  Richter security didn’t catch a thing.

  “We’re golden here,” Cooper said.

  “South dining hall,” Sasha called out.

  A button here, command there, and the live feed moved to the recorded loop of zero activity.

  “Clear,” Cooper said.

  On his monitor, they saw Sasha move into the dining hall.

  “There’s activity in the kitchen,” Claire warned.

  They watched Sasha move past the doors leading into the kitchen and around to the side doors.

  They followed her path, disrupting the live feeds with their recorded ones.

  “Is she looking for the stairs to the sublevels?” Jax asked.

  “You said they walled them in.”

  “They did.”

  “All the infrastructure is still there,” Claire told them. “Ventilation, dumbwaiters.”

  Sasha disappeared from the camera’s sight.

  “Found what I need. Back in three minutes.”

  Sasha broke open the freshly painted locked cabinet to the dumbwaiter doors and looked inside. Out of her pack, she removed the cables she needed, secured them to the lift and then herself before crawling inside. She clicked on the light on her pack and closed the doors she’d just crawled through before lowering herself down.

  Kicking off the walls, she rappelled down, knocking her foot along the way until it met with a hollow thud. Using as much leverage as she could, she pushed both heels into the door and broke it free.

  Inside, she unhooked the cables and spun around in the dark space.


  She was in the locker room of Denenberg’s gym. She moved along the wall until she found a light switch.

  Fluorescent lighting flickered to life and offered a stripped room. The showers were there, but all the benches and lockers had been removed. They’d even gone through the effort of blackening the tiles and dusting the floors. For a place that was in full operation less than a week before, it appeared to have been left to rot for several decades.

  “First subfloor is empty,” she reported as she made her way to the stairwell and down to the next floor.

  “Mr. Hofmann?”

  AJ turned with the sound of his name and found the stoic expression of the headmistress. She wore a long, formal evening gown, with a modest neckline and sleeves that went to her wrists. She looked less like the dictator of a boarding school and more like a woman in her maturity.

  “Ms. Lodovica.”

  “Your presence here is surprising,” she told him.

  “I’m not sure it should be,” he told her. “Board members past and present, isn’t that right?”

  “I don’t recall you on the board.”

  “My mother asked me to join her,” he lied.

  “Keep her talking,” Neil said in his ear.

  AJ tilted his head to the voice. “When I came to you last month, I couldn’t help but think Richter was hiding something.”

  Lodovica stood still, her practiced smile in place.

  “And since I’ve become closer to my parents after Amelia’s passing, I know a few things now that I didn’t the last time I was here.”

  “We really were sorry to hear of her passing,” she told him. “I assure you, I’d like to have your sister’s killer behind bars as much as you do.”

  “I doubt as much, Headmistress.”

  “Truly, Mr. Hofmann. The students are family to me. I care greatly for them.”

  AJ bit his tongue. “Then you’ll be happy to know we’re getting closer to finding her killer and bringing them to justice.”

  Instead of the curt reply or brush-off he’d gotten the first time he’d stepped into the school, Lodovica placed a hand on his arm, gaze warm. “I truly hope you do. Now if you’ll excuse me. I see someone I really must speak with.”

  He watched as she walked away and toward another beautifully dressed woman half her age.