20. Count Alice and I In For Pepperoni
20
Count Alice and I In For Pepperoni
GREYSON
Anxiety ate at my gut when the lights dimmed, and the auctioneer took his place at the podium. Where in the hell was Alice?
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to take this,” Royce said, kissing Miranda’s cheek as he held up his illuminated phone. I nodded as she smiled endearingly, clinging to his fingers for one extra beat before releasing him to answer. Their oblivious nonchalance didn’t ease my growing sense of unease. The dress was likely past redemption, and my only explanation was that our server knew where the hostess had spares, and they were looking for one. But that seemed awfully presumptuous for my wife and even more so for our waitress. Shifting in my seat, I glanced back toward the open double-door archway, hoping to spot long dark hair and that delectable gold dress.
Nothing. Just the security guards at their posts. God damn it.
Perhaps I’d grown paranoid in my years of service or in the short stretch since we’d started Thunderstrike. But I couldn’t shake it. This is why my phone lighting up where I’d discarded it on the table had me following in Royce’s wake without a preamble. Alice.
“Hey,” I breathed once I was in the hallway. “Are you okay?”
“Yes and no,” she answered breathlessly, a quiver in her tone sending me walking definitively down the hardwood floor past the ridiculous mounted torches.
“What does that mean?” Surveying the empty hall, I strained to hear anything that could lead me to her, coming up empty. “Where are you?”
“About that…”
“Baby, if your goal was to set me on pins and needles, you’ve been more than successful.”
“I, um…I think I found something. But I’m stuck.”
“Stuck?” Clearing my throat, I put some distance between myself and the security personnel. “You’re going to have to elaborate. Your zipper is stuck?”
The sound of her swallow was audible over the line. “Are you alone?”
“About to be.”
“If you know who owns this monstrosity of a house, tell me I’ll be fine and order pizza.”
The Gilbert family was new money but no less known in our circle than my own. Neal and Odessa were the hosts of this evening’s auction. Where was she going with this, and why was my stomach plummeting like an elevator without a cable?
“That’s fine with me. Count Alice and I in for pepperoni.”
“Okay,” she panted, something like excitement in her tone. “Good. Have you ever suspected they were tied to Obsidian or something similar? Tell me to make it two if you have or to hold the cheese if not.”
“Make that one dairy-free.” Now, my heart was hammering. Pinning my cell between my ear and shoulder, I lifted my wrist to type a message to Jax on my smartwatch. What in God’s name had she stumbled into? “But I’m going to need it to the house before we get there.”
“I’m hurrying,” she assured. “But I think I’m locked in here.”
“That’s not what I want to hear. Where were you going to order it to?” Please understand. Please, please understand.
“His office, I think?” That’s my girl. My air left in a rush of relief. “Maybe there’s more than one. But it’s down the hall, south of the staff bathroom at the back of the building.” Casually picking up my pace, I pushed for the end of the hallway, not liking a bit of this. What the hell was she thinking, snooping around a place like this? With security crawling around like ants. “Listen, Grey, I think it’s connected. I overheard two men talking about them being secure and someone not knowing anything and a wife as a diversion tactic and I don’t think it was coincidence.”
“Why?”
“Max called. He intercepted some kind of communication via the device he added to my phone.”
“A what ?”
“Never mind that. Focus . If they get to me before I get out of here, you need to hear this.” Never in my life had my heart fallen out my ass as quickly as it did now. Taking fire from enemy combatants didn’t make me feel the kind of terror that Alice in harm’s way did. Only discipline kept me silent as I glanced over my shoulder to ensure I wasn’t followed. “There’s a code. A code on the server. Max has it, but something didn’t sit right. The men in the bathroom said Passcode—Trah. Trah. Like t-r-a-h. Simple enough to deduce, they just flipped our last name. Stupid to so easily confirm my suspicions. If we apply it as a keyword on a cipher code, maybe it will mean something, but Max isn’t through the numbers yet. He needed me to get closer to the computer, so I followed the second man down the long hallway, which is how I got locked in here.”
“I really, really hate anchovies,” I ground out, wanting to throttle her more than anything. What was she thinking? Worse. What if she was right? Were we sitting in the spider’s nest?
She huffed a nervous little laugh, and I clung to the sound as I looked back one last time before ducking down the long, shadowed corridor. The subtle sound of my shoes settling on the hardwood had my body bristling.
Could I likely defend us if I needed to? Yeah .
Would my back hold up for the duration of a conflict? Only god knew the answer to that. I hadn’t tested it. Jax was prepared to be a backup, but we were seriously outnumbered, and the entire grand hall was full of witnesses. This was not how things were done. Suspicions or not. We didn’t just barge in blind. This is why civilians belonged far, far away from this life. Jax’s life. She grunted like she was putting in a tremendous deal of effort before her panicked little sigh had my ribs constricting.
“The windows are sealed shut,” she breathed. “Dammit.”
Confident I was finally well and truly alone, I hissed, “Baby, I’m in the back hallway. Where the hell are you? And what do you mean the windows are sealed shut?”
“Third door on the right.”
Reaching it, I turned the handle to no avail. No deadbolt, so we just needed to pick it. Kneeling, I pulled my government-issued set from my back pocket. Could never be too prepared, though Alice locking herself in our host’s office certainly hadn’t come to mind.
“Please tell me that’s you.”
“I’m here. I’ve got you,” I assured, glancing around to ensure I wasn’t on a security camera. “Dammit, baby, what were you thinking? ”
“That some asshole thought my husband was clueless and I didn’t care for that.”
“While I appreciate your need to defend my intelligence, doing it at your own expense was never in my plan.”
“I know.”
“And yet here we are,” I grumbled, selecting my tools and watching the end of the hallway. Oh, this was twelve kinds of not good. “I love you—r brain.” Oh, holy fuck , now was not the time for declarations. We had many, many conversations to come before that one.
But the reality was…while I had no idea what the hell we were doing, I’d never had someone in my life who would come to my defense. Never had someone who’d witnessed all of my ugliness and chosen me, anyway. Maybe what we had wasn’t love, but it was about as close as I’d gotten.
Clearing my throat, I growled. “You know I love your brain . But this was so damn boneheaded.”
“Don’t convince yourself I didn’t think this through or assess the risks.”
“You got locked in an office ,” I pointed out.
“Okay. Well. Yeah . I didn’t expect the damn door to seal when it closed.”
“ Yeah , well,” I mimicked, “think real hard on that one, because we’ll be discussing this when we get home.”
“Punish me later, suit daddy, but for now, just get me the hell out of here.”
Suit daddy? Suddenly, I was glad she couldn’t see the smirk on my face, because only Alice could put us in a pinch like this and still shoot for innuendos. “Don’t you know bad girls get punished?”
“Don’t you know they like it?”
I huffed a laugh as I worked the pins. “I’ll test your theory later and you can tell me how much you like my bright red handprint on your ass, but for now, shut up and let your suit daddy listen.”
Her breathless laugh preceded an alarmingly disciplined silence, save for the subtle shift and click of pins. Distantly, my mind registered applause from the auction, but I kept my head down, straining for those telltale metallic teeth. And just like I’d practiced a million times, it finally gave way. Quickly, I used my sleeve to wipe the door handle as thoroughly as I could without the proper supplies. Rushing through the door, I scanned the space before swallowing her body in my arms. Relief crashed through me like the surf.
She was okay. I had her , and she was okay.
“Christ, baby, what the fuck?” I huffed as I caught my breath. Hadn’t realized I’d held it captive as I worked the lock open.
“Look, I got what he needed, okay? The signal had to be closer to the hard drive or something. When Max says jump, I just say how high, I don’t ask other questions. But, we have to get back.”
Nodding, I pulled away, surveying the space. “Did you touch anything?”
“Just the door handle,” she said, panic in her eyes.
“Easy enough, I already got it,” I promised, grabbing her hand as I stepped for the hallway. Alice rammed into me when I came up short, catching movement at the fork in the corridor. The sound of footsteps reverberating off the walls had me cursing under my breath as I shoved her back inside.
“ Hey !” a distinctly male voice barked as footsteps sped up.
“Jiggs up, baby.” Eyeing the windows, I debated between fleeing or laying her out on the floor and going with ‘We got drunk and carried away.’
Certainly wouldn’t help the scandal side of things, would it? An inebriated fall from glory. However, neither would getting caught breaking the Gilbert’s office window.
Without prompting, Alice raised her phone to her ear, and I swore as the door clicked closed behind us. “You have their security cameras?” A bated breath. Meanwhile, I was making a beeline for the windows. “Anything in the south corridor, the windows outside, or the office?” Another pause. “Well, the alternative is starring in a live-action porno with an improvised script and praying they don’t question us. I think those odds are firmly stacked against us, so yeah, I need to know. Yes . Good. Thanks.” She shot me an animated grimace before jerking her chin at the window I was fighting open.
Damn archaic swollen frames.
Her expression would’ve been hilarious if I wasn’t so livid I could spit. Rushing to help, Alice threw her entire body into it, both of us straining to get the wood to budge as someone banged on the door, demanding we open it.
Joke’s on you, fucker.
But there was just enough room, and I had to bite back my need to slap her fucking perfect ass as she bent down to squeeze between the frame. There would be time for that later.
Unceremoniously, Alice crashed into the bush outside, popping up scraped, with leaves and twigs in her hair. Sucking my lips between my teeth, I nodded as she righted herself, both of us torn between laughter and running for our fucking lives. Hurriedly, I wiped down the window frame with my jacket, praying I fucked up any fingerprints we left behind.
The best thing about criminals? They’re highly unlikely to call the police. In a fucked up way, I hoped what Alice found was as bad as she thought it was.
That was our only prayer in this fucking mess.
Careful to keep my palms off the bottom of the frame, I wedged myself through as she held it open with her forearms. She let gravity do the rest the moment I was on my feet, and the thing thunked back into place.
“Keep your face down,” I demanded, snatching her hand as we bolted toward the front corner of the estate.
“Max’ll scrub them!” she panted as she followed my lead. But a flash of neon caught my attention, and I looked down to see where her nails were glowing in the dark.
“What. The fuck. Is that ?” I growled, raising her hand in front of us as we made a beeline through the grass.
“Oh,” she giggled breathlessly. “They glow.”
“I see that. Do you have pockets?”
“In couture?! No, Grey, I don’t have pockets.”
“Well— fuck .” I laughed, shaking my head. “Tuck them into fists or something.”
“We just broke out of a castle, and you’re worried about my nails .”
“Little glowing ghosts on the security feed?”
“I told you, Max is on it.”
“Fucking ridiculous. Goes on an unapproved stealth op with glowing nails.”
“It wasn’t exactly planned ,” she protested, but humor slanted those pillowy lips a beat before she dragged her teeth over the bottom one. “My nail lady said guys love them.”
“Your nail lady is ridiculous .”
“I don’t exactly think she had breaking and entering in mind when she made the suggestion.”
Nothing about this should’ve been funny. Or entertaining.
And yet, I found myself electrified with the rush of adrenaline and morbid humor. Maybe it was truly too close a call, but it was also the closest thing I’d had to fun in a long damn time.
We stopped behind the cover of a couple of maple trees so I could look her over. I plucked the twigs and leaves from her hair, running my thumb over the scrape across her cheek and grimacing when I saw the accompanying cuts over her bare arms. Quickly, I slipped out of my jacket and draped it over her shoulders before she snaked her arm around my waist. We casually strolled out of the goddamn hedges and onto the driveway, making eyes at each other like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
“What do I do about Miranda?” she asked as I helped her into the back of the SUV while Jax watched with open concern.
I swore, closing my eyes. “Leave it to me.” It took approximately three minutes for me to wander back in the front entrance—trusting Max to scrub the footage after us—and find Royce, who was still on the phone, pacing the hallway.
“You okay?” he asked with a hand over the receiver.
“So sorry to bail, but Alice had too much to drink, so I’m taking her home,” I supplied simply. He gave me a sympathetic smile, tossing up a casual wave before directing his attention back to his receiver.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Alice said through a petulant scowl once Jax had us on the road. Fuck, she was cute. Especially in trouble. Shrugging, she protested, “I followed my gut, okay?”
“And where’d that get you?”
“Face first in a rosebush?”
Scoffing, I grumbled, “At least you’re honest.”
“And right , might I add.” Triumphantly, she turned her phone in my direction. “Jax took a look. Every fifth letter was a fraction of a point smaller than those around it.”
“It looks like gibberish,” I admitted.
“Correct. But we tried an anagram. Then a shift. Still nothing, so we applied the keyword Trah, but got nothing. Flipped it to apply Hart, and ran it through again. It’s a Vigenère cipher, Greyson.”
“How the fuck do you know so much about codes?”
“Bored teenager on a perpetually rainy island, what the fuck else do you do but hit the library?” she supplied, nonplussed. I wasn’t positive, but I was pretty sure there were a great many things she could have filled her time with, short of becoming a spy kid. Not that I was complaining. Her brilliance was as tantalizing as her beauty. “Beside the point. Look at the translation.”
I did. And right there, in plain English, were the words Transfer complete. Obsidian Secure.
“What the fuck?”
“That’s what we have to figure out. But, Greyson…?” When I just locked our gazes, she swallowed hard . I couldn’t help but watch the muscles work, wishing it was for a much more satisfying reason. “Reggie came out of the bathroom I heard them talking in.”
The concept that my uncle was potentially embedded in the Obsidian web rendered me silent until we got home. The man had a daughter, for Christ’s sake. I couldn’t refute it in good conscience. But my mind couldn’t quite compute the obvious as a potential reality, either. There were too many red flags to toss aside. As far as we were concerned, he was now a suspect and Jax would be launching an immediate investigation. My skin was left crawling, eclipsing my promises of punishment for my naughty, brilliant, reckless girl and our biblical evening, instead leading me directly to our room and into the shower.
Water frigid as a polar plunge, I submerged myself under the steady streams and jammed my eyes closed. But it was the idea that my own blood would profit off sex slaves that sent my fists slamming into the tile wall.