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Beneath his breath, I hear Moose mutter, “Oh, honey.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Kyle says. “We have something valuable that you want, which means you need to do something for us.”
“I’m not fucking her,” Dixon says, too quickly. After a moment where everyone’s eyes whirl to him, he says, “Or you, or you, or any of you. I’m not doing any sex stuff.”
Moose looks incredibly disappointed.
Seraphina shrugs. “We wouldn’t ask that of you. You might be some people’s type,” she says, her eyes flickering to me in a way that makes me want to slap her for her gross misestimation of how I feel about Dixon — it’s purely murderous, not carnal, even if thinking about the muscles of his back, or his cocky smirk, or his corded, powerful forearms makes me feel sweaty. “But you’re not everyone’s cup of tea. Some of us have more sophisticated tastes.”
“What we need is for you to retrieve something for us. A flash drive,” Kyle says.
“You can just get those on Amazon,” I say. “If you have Prime, you can get it next day. Maybe even the same day, if you’re lucky. They do that sometimes.”
Moose gives me a look and I close my mouth before I can say anything more.
Mercifully, Seraphina continues if I didn’t speak. “It’s in the possession of a former associate of ours, now a rival. He is hosting an event in his home and the attendees will be the type of people that you two, Dixon and Alexandra, should be able to navigate among freely. Through some back-channel work, we have managed to get you two on the guest list.”
“Not me?” Moose says. He sounds hurt, as if he hasn’t registered that Dixon and I are presumably being sent into a lion’s den.
“We know you want to be there to support your friends, Moose. However, you cannot go. This gentleman would recognize you,” Kyle says.
“Oh. Is it Hugo?”
“No.”
“Rogerio?”
“No.”
“Frederick?”
“No.”
“It’s Jeremiah Brock,” Seraphina says. Though I’ve never heard the name, it’s enough to make Moose frown. “He’s a dangerous man. Dangerous enough that Kyle and I cannot move against him directly. When we heard he was having this event, we had covertly procured entrance for two individuals who work for us. However, one of them has since been incapacitated while collecting from an organization in Oakland who owed us a debt. Thus, we need a new pair to take their place and retrieve the flash drive from Jeremiah Brock’s home. Once you do this for us, we will tell you everything you need to know about the man in the photograph.”
“Fine, we’ll do it,” I say before Dixon even has a chance to answer. I’ve spent years of my life searching for the truth behind my brother’s death. There is no choice as far as I’m concerned.
“What’s the catch?” Dixon says.
The catch?
As if sneaking into the home of a crime boss and stealing from him isn’t enough of a catch?
Then a thought that makes my blood go cold strikes me — Dixon has so much more experience at this stuff than I do, so if he’s worried about something, maybe there actually is something to worry about. Could Seraphina and Kyle have led with the easy stuff before getting to the difficult details about the mission? What the hell have I just gotten myself into?
“The guests are vetted. Researched. Profiled. Because Mr. Brock is a very cautious man,” Kyle says. “And that is by necessity, because he has many enemies. So, to get in, you will need to act the part.”
“Explain,” Dixon says.
“The pair that we were sending to infiltrate this event were married. Happily married. They were quite physically affectionate with one another as well. In fact, they had a reputation for being extensively and publicly enamored with one another’s bodies. The fake identities, the backgrounds that we crafted for them took this into account. When you two infiltrate this event, you will assume their identities. Deviating from those could cost you your lives.”
“You have to be fucking with me,” Dixon says.
There’s nausea dancing a fucking tango in my stomach and I can’t open my mouth because I’m worried that, the second I do, I’ll vomit on the floor.
Seraphina shakes her head.
“We are not joking. Either you two will pretend to be madly in love with each other, or they will kill you.”
