by Nana Malone
Her voice went sharp. "What do they have?"
"He claims to have a ledger that points to the London Lords and the human trafficking ring. I know that's not true. But I don't know if he's had them doctored or if he's just deliberately yanking our chain. I don't know. But we need to get access to that ledger before my former partner does."
"Why would you help us?"
"Jesus fucking Christ. Well, for starters I went over the evidence with a fine-tooth comb, and there's no connection between the ring I split up and the London Lords. Other than the Elite. And even though I'm an idiot, I trust East. I do not trust Van Linsted. He's lying. I can feel it in my bones, and I know that it seems dumb to trust my intuition or my gut or whatever you want to call it, but I can't help it. I do. So, you need to do something."
"What do you suggest we do?”
"I don't know. All I have is the information. We likely won’t make a run against Mathison until tomorrow. So between now and then, you lot need to figure something out. How to get the ledger, how to get a copy of it. Something. I don't know."
Livy’s voice went quiet then. "You really do care about him, don't you?"
My gut knotted. "I did. But he tossed that aside, so you know, c'est la vie."
"He made a mistake. We can all see it, but he's… Well, you know him; he's stubborn. He's decided something, and he can't let it go."
"You know what? Right now I don't even care that he’s stopped talking to me. Hell is coming."
"You said your partner is coming for us?"
"My former partner. Remember, I'm no longer Interpol. If we don't do something, Interpol is going to be after the lads in an official capacity, and there's not a damn thing either one of us can do to stop it. And even if he won't talk to me, he'll listen to you. So you need to warn him."
"Yeah, I'm on it." Before she hung up, she paused. “Nyla?”
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Thank you. You didn't have to stick out your neck to save us, but you are. That means a lot."
"I just hope I’m not too late. I don't know what you can do, but whatever it is, get it done.
I prayed to God I wasn't too late.
Chapter 7
East
"She said what?"
"She said that Van Linsted is trying to nail us with some kind of ledger."
I glanced around, my mind whirring. When Livy called this emergency meeting, I didn't know what kind of bomb she was going to drop on us. "I'm just telling you what she told me. Interpol went to speak to Bram for some reason. He's trying to negotiate a deal. Claims he has a ledger that ties you four to the human trafficking ring."
Bridge slapped the table. "That's a bunch of bullshit. We didn’t have anything to do with it."
I shook my head. "Nah, mate. But whether we had something to do with it or not, these things can be doctored."
My mate ran his hands through his hair. "So, what? Interpol's just supposed to believe him?"
Livy shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know what's in the ledger, so I have no idea. All I'm telling you is what Nyla told me."
I was torn. I knew I shouldn’t believe her, but I couldn’t quite ignore that hopeful part of myself that wanted to believe she was trying to do something good by trying to help. But why? She started this ball rolling down the hill, so why would she help us now? Or was it a trap? Maybe to see if we'd steal it? "I don't like this. I don't like the fucked-up options it gives us."
Bridge shook his head. "I don't like it either."
Ben shoved his hands in his pockets and started pacing. "But what options do we have? At the very least, we need to see the ledger, figure out what it is, what it says, and then put it back. Or rather our own version of it."
Bridge asked, "Lucas, do you have a forger on standby? One that can do excellent work in not a lot of time?"
He smirked. "I have a couple of people who like a good challenge. They're not cheap though."
"Call them.”
I stared at Ben. "Mate, we're taking hits from all sides here."
"Yeah, you think I'm not aware of that? This is most pressing for now though, and we’re against the clock."
Drew finally spoke up from his corner of silence. "We have no choice. They're coming for us. We need to make sure we're not in that fucking ledger. Because even if Interpol eventually discovers that it's fake, it's a distraction from what's in front of us. We need to think about why Van Linsted’s trying to distract us."
Drew had never been one for war games. He always preferred the negotiation. Finding a middle ground. Always a way out. That was him. But God, if he thought this was urgent, then we were in a tight spot.
Obviously, we all knew Rhys Mathison as he was a member of the Elite. He never really made any waves. Outside of a birthday or the occasional charity event, we didn't have much occasion to speak with him. I seemed to remember he liked golf, but I didn't know how to make golf leverageable.
His family was in publishing. He led a quiet life and had a solid bank account. Not flashy, but well respected. Why was he in bed with Bram? The Mathisons had been members of the elite for the last fifty years. His father had been the first one in his family selected. He had the right lineage, and Rhys was a legacy. We had no quarrel with him. Why would he do this?
I glanced over at Lucas. "Can you get in?"
Lucas shrugged. "Getting in isn’t the problem. I can get in. Security will be a low threat. It’s a publishing company. He probably doesn't even know what he has. Getting in and getting the ledger out is not our problem. The problem is getting the ledger back in. Because if they notice I’ve been there, security protocols will change, and it’ll be much more difficult to put it back if someone realizes it’s missing."
"It could be bait. Once it's taken, that points the finger at us. So we can't be anywhere near it. Unless, of course, we just ask Mathison for it."
Bridge peered at me. "You think there is leverage to press there?"
I shrugged. "He's not an enemy. I have nothing to push or pull on."
Bridge shook his head. "Well then, he's not an ally either."
"Solid point. But we don't have many choices here."
Lucas put his hands up. "Well, first, before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, let's do this. Let's see if we can get the ledger and either undoctor it or replace it. And then we'll figure out how to get it back in the building."
I shook my head. "This is bad. It's a credible threat."
Lucas clapped his hands together. "I've got my repelling equipment and my Gecko Tech glass climbing equipment ready. I can do this."
I rolled my eyes. "Or you can dress up as maintenance or cleaning crew and walk in through the front door."
He frowned. "Why are you always ruining things for me?"
"Because your fun is likely to get us killed, so I try to minimize that as much as possible.” I glanced around. "They're coming for us. For all of us. So let's make them pay for it."
Even as the team threw itself into plans for getting in and getting out, I knew one universal truth; Nyla was front and center in my brain. But was she friend or foe?
East
We were risking everything on Nyla’s say-so.
I hadn't spoken to her. I hadn't seen her. I didn't trust her. A woman who I didn't, couldn't trust with my future and the future of my mates, had set us on this path. If we got caught there, that would lend credence to Van Linsted, and then there would be real trouble. There would be no justice for Toby, no justice for us, and frankly, I was worried about Ben because he was too pretty for prison.
Lucas startled me out of my mental ramblings. "You look worried, mate. I thought you wanted in on the stealing game?"
I glanced down at myself in my workman’s jumper. "I look like an idiot."
"Yeah, but that's no different from how you normally look.”
I rolled my eyes at Lucas. "Oh right, you're taking the piss out of me too?"
He shrugged. "Well, you do make it a little eas
y."
"You know what, I'm leaving you here. I'm going back to the van."
Lucas laughed and pulled me back. "Ah, mate. See, look at me using British slang and everything. Relax, I’m teasing. Just teasing. Come on. We'll get upstairs and get what we need. We look like we belong here. We are a cleaning crew."
I glanced down again at my navy-blue jumper. I looked like a knob, but if it got us where we needed to go, that was all that mattered. I pushed the cleaning cart into the employee lift, and we headed upstairs. I studied,Lucas, who looked like he was in hog heaven, and I said, "You know we're not going to steal anything else right?"
His face crumbled like a child who’d been told there was no ice cream. "But you didn't say that. You said we were breaking into a publishing house. I asked which publisher and realized that they published The Ruins of Valhalla series. Do you know how much I fucking love that series?"
I lifted my brows. "What?"
"Fantasy, dumbass. Fantasy with Vikings and Valkyrie. Whatever. Anyway, it’s super popular, and they've been holding onto the final book. I want that manuscript."
I blinked at him. And then I blinked again. "You can't be serious."
"As a heart attack. You get what you need, and I get the last book in The Ruins of Valhalla a year before anyone else does. It's worth it."
"Will you just steal anything?"
Lucas smirked at me like I had asked a ridiculous question. "Sure, why not?"
"Would you steal a nuclear warhead?"
Lucas shrugged. “It depends on the scenario. If it was to keep it from a bad guy, then heck yeah. But then how does one dispose of that? That's the problem. And there's always going to be some idiot bad guy who thinks he should have it and he’d be trying to kill you for it. So that’s a tough one, but I would steal it from a bad guy if there was a great way of getting rid of those things."
"You just like the thrill?"
"And now you sound like Bryna. Come on then. Let's do this."
The lift carried us up to the top floor. As we pushed our cleaning cart along, we noticed cubicles in the center section, and the office rows were steel and glass and had excellent views. Rhys’s office was in the corner, with a commanding view of all of the South Bank.
I’d already handled the technology, shutting down the cameras, looping the imagery so that it would show recordings from the last hour. "Let's do this." I slid my glance to the prince, who would never quite be cured of his need to take things from people who were less deserving.
The security was fairly simple, easy decryption, and we were in the office in no time. Both of us had on comm units that looked like simple earbuds, and we bopped along as we listened to Stormzy blasting in our ears.
The laptop was easy enough to access. Simple firewalls and encryptions. Any teenager with half a mind could have gotten in. Only it was made slightly more difficult by Lucas leaning over my shoulder insisting I get the stupid Valhalla book for him. "I have it, are you satisfied?"
He simply held out his palm, and I placed the flash drive onto it. "You get to hold it for now, but I still need to decrypt what the fuck is on the rest of it."
He shrugged. "As long as I have it in my palm, I'm happy."
I rolled my eyes as I headed for the safe. "Stand over there, would you?" I pushed him out of the way of the main safe.
"What are you doing?"
I pulled a balaclava out of my back pocket, stretching it out before I put it on. "I have a feeling that with what's supposed to be in that ledger, Van Linsted would have asked for extra precautions. If I'm right, there's likely a camera in here. We certainly don't need our faces seen, so I’m taking a few precautious."
He nodded slowly. "You think about this shit all the time?"
"If there's a way to make things safer, more airtight, I do."
"I mean you really think through the rabbit hole. Who puts a camera inside of a safe?"
I chuckled softly as I let the decryption device do its work. "Someone who doesn't want something stolen."
To be even safer, as the decryption finished and the dial clicked into place I stepped out of sight, just in case. And sure enough, there was a tiny fucking pinhole camera. I reached up, putting a little piece of painter’s tape over it just to be careful. I was still doing a double-check for anything else that might be in the safe. And then I found several ledgers. I wanted to take them all, but the chances that Mathison would miss them worried me. So I had to open them and look through them all to try and identify which ones contained Elite business.
There were two actually. One slim one, which looked like a series of accounts, but I wasn't sure what that meant. Then I found the other one. The one that Bram was talking about, and I could tell pages had been inserted. They looked like they were part of the original ledger, but when I checked the binding, the pages were off. And the paper stock was just a hair different than the originally bound paper.
"This is the one. It's been doctored. We have initials and dates of birth next to some line items. I don't even want to know what they are. Think your guy can fuck with this?"
"Let's hope so. We're headed straight there after we leave here."
I nodded. "Then let's get the fuck out of here. With any luck, we can return these tomorrow before he even knows they’re gone."
"That will be trickier. And that's likely going to fall on you."
"Well, I think it's time I got to know Rhys Mathison anyway."
"Yeah. And why the fuck hasn't the Valhalla book released yet? That's what I really want to know."
"You're one of those crazies, aren't you? The ones who email the author demanding that they write to your will."
Lucas frowned. "That's just rude. I’m not rude. I mean, I did write him a letter telling him I was a huge fan and couldn't wait, and if he could at least just please respond back and tell me when to expect it, I would endeavor to be patient."
I blinked. "You see nothing wrong with that?"
He shook his head. "No, I was very nice. I told him I was willing to be patient. But I got no answer, and then the fucker hasn't released the book."
I closed the safe right after uncovering the pinhole camera, leaving everything as I found it, sans the ledger. Lucas was right. Getting in here again would be trickier, but it could be done. And thanks to Nyla, we had neutralized Bram.
Just as I tucked the ledger in to the damn jumpsuit, my phone buzzed with a text.
Theroux: Change of plan. Meet new partner at Primrose Hill, tomorrow, 8 p.m.
I glanced at the message and scowled. Why was he stalling? And the last thing we wanted was to bring someone else in. But I’d deal with Theroux later. One problem at a time.
So maybe you should hear Nyla out.
No. I couldn't. It didn't matter that I wanted to.
Or rather it mattered very much. The idea that I wanted her so much that I was willing to overlook everything was dangerous. She had already put us at risk.
I couldn't let her close again.
Chapter 8
Nyla
I hoped to Christ that East had listened.
I hoped to God Livy had gotten through to them, because there was no avoiding it. Amelia was meeting me in an hour, and I hoped to have something to tell her. I was on my way to talk to Rhys Mathison myself and find out if he'd give me any information about the Elite or the London Lords. I fully expected to get nothing, but it was only a stall tactic while Amelia was working on the warrant.
He wasn't going to give me anything. But since I called myself an ‘associate’ of Amelia's and my MI5 five cover IDs still thankfully worked, one of those being a young intrepid reporter for The London Gazette, that would at least get me in the door and give me a chance to talk to him, a chance to poke around. But I knew it wouldn't get me very far, not without a badge.
You need that badge. You will have to go back.
No. I was not going to cave. I was not going to bend to the will of my father and Denning.
You might
not have a choice.
The lifts were packed, and I saw several people circumventing them, going around to what I thought were backstairs. But it was another bank of lifts, smaller ones that were far to the left behind the guard station. Almost no one got in those, and the moment I saw the interior, I could see why. They amounted to not much more than a service lift. But they would do if I wanted to get upstairs quickly. Maybe I could poke around the office and say I'd arrived for my appointment early. At the very least, I could see if he had a safe.
Oh yeah, what are you going to do, break in? Steal the ledger yourself? You're basically stalling before Amelia can get a warrant.
And if I failed, East and his crew were out of luck. So I hoped to God Livy had gotten through to the guys. But no one had texted me. Not one word.
I stepped in the lift, and just as it was about to close, a hand slipped in and the doors slid back. At first all I could see was a shadow of someone tall, but when more was revealed, I gasped.
In front of me stood East, looking every bit as delicious as I remembered, his dark hair in messy disarray as if he'd been running his fingers through it. Or as if someone else had run their fingers through it. He looked fresh out of bed, except his clothes were impeccable.
Three-piece suit, that mint tie that brought out the green in his eyes, crisp white shirt. The suit was that houndstooth with a check that was so small the whole thing looked gray. And it was cut to fit his long lean frame, almost a little too slim. But that was the style. I recognized it as bespoke, and I wondered who the designer was.
"It's you," I breathed.
He froze for a long second. "Yeah, it's me."
And then he did the one thing I didn't expect him to do. He stepped inside.
I expected him to wait until the next one. I didn't even know what he was doing there. Was he there to stop me, or rather Interpol, from talking to Rhys? He was too late if he was only doing something about it today.