Page 41 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

A little more time. A few more stolen moments.

Then I’ll make sure she’s safe and…I’ll set her free.

“What do you think?” Pascal asks, snapping me out of my thoughts and passing me a tablet. On it are several files he’s managed to decrypt.

I scroll through them, skim through the details. “The Lyons aren’t going to like this.”

“No shit,” he mutters. “But the drive Angela left behind had enough on it to seriously cripple their operations.”

But it held nothing on Sergio.

And there’s not nearly enough to take the Lyons out permanently.

I sigh. “It’s good. But it’s not enough.”

He takes the tablet back, mutters, “No shit,” again.

“Attie’s team find anything in the warehouse?” I ask.

“The FBI isn’t keen on sharing at this moment.”

I just lift my eyebrows.

Because Pascal isn’t the type of man to let a simple thing like sharing stop him from getting what he wants, especially when it’s personal.

And this shit with the Lyons went way past that years ago.

Right around the time I?—

“What can I do to help?”

“You’re doing it,” he says.

I scowl. “I’m doing jack shit.”

“You’re keeping them busy jumping through hoops?—”

“Fending off cyber-attacks is jumping through hoops now?”

My scowl deepens when he nods. “If they’re focused on you then we have a better chance of cutting more of the hydra’s heads.”

Footsteps echo down the hall and I mutter, “The problem is they’re not just focused on me.”

A beat. Then, “Keep it tight. Stay focused on the end goal. And”—his eyes flick toward River as she appears in the living room, Violet held close to her chest—“keep her safe.”

“Hi, Pascal,” she calls softly.

“Hi, River,” he calls back then nods at a duffel bag by the corner. “I hope it’s okay, but I had my wife pack up some of your things.”

“I— You did?”

He nods.

Her eyes fill with tears. “Thank you,” she rasps, blinking rapidly.

I know Pascal feels that immense gratitude over a simple kindness as deeply as I do, but his tone is no-nonsense when he says, “You think of anything we missed then let me know. We can have someone bring them over.”

A breath. “I’m sure it’s great. Thank you.”