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“What now, Duke?” he answered.
“Hi, Jordy. This is Serena. Duke forgot to say thank you because he’s a tough guy who wants to keep his grumpy-badass reputation intact.”
Jordy laughed.
“He’s very appreciative of your help and thinks you should introduce yourself as his overworked and underappreciated assistant.”
Duke glanced over at me, looking like he’d bitten down on a lemon.
“Thank you, Serena. That’s very sweet of you. Now hang up and let me get to work on our tough guy’s office.”
Duke stabbed the screen to end the call. “I’m only asking him to do his job. Besides, he knows I appreciate him.”
“Does he?”
His jaw worked, but he said nothing.
A block later, my phone rang. The screen said unknown number, so I showed it to Duke.
“Answer it.”
I accepted the call and put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“I want the stick. If you don’t hand it over, this is going to get nasty,” the creepy voice said.
I looked over at Duke, eyes wide. He nodded. “I still don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” I told the caller. “You must have the wrong person.”
Duke motioned for me to string out the conversation, then pressed his ear and talked toward the window in hushed tones.
“Really, I think you’ve made a mistake.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Serena.”
There went my hope that this was all a case of mistaken identity. My leg started up big time.
“Hand it over before this gets ugly.”
We were beyondugly. My anger boiled over. “Listen, asshole. Whatever it is you want, I don’t have it.”
“That won’t work. I know otherwise. You have one week. I’ll be back in touch.”
“Fuck you,” I spat, and the line went dead.
Duke laughed. “You’ve got spunk, girl. Did it feel good to tell him to fuck off?”
I held my thigh and prepared to be called stupid. “Not very smart, huh? Telling off a maniac?”
“Actually, that’s good. We want him angry.”
I was confused, because an angry maniac sounded like a guy considering a chainsaw.
“Angry people often make mistakes,” Duke continued. “Bad decisions that give us a chance to find him and stop him.”
Duke touched the screen to dial Jordy again. “What did we get?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but nothing,” he said. “He used voice over IP and bounced all over. I’m good, but even I can’t track a call like that in a few minutes. Nobody can.”
“Okay,” Duke said and ended the call.
