Page 38 of Deliverance

“We only have five more minutes until the train leaves,” Dominic said. “I only got him to hold it for thirty minutes.”

“That’s fine,” I said, an idea springing into my head. I looked around for something to help me execute it.

“What do you want to do with them?” Alexander asked, gesturing to the guys we had tied up in the car.

“Leave them there,” I said, spotting my prize. “Let Kingfisher find them at their destination. But put a bug in their pocket or in their shoes so we can track where they end up.”

I grabbed a spray paint can underneath one of the cars next to the train. They were all over the rail yards.

“What are you up to?” Sebastian asked as I straightened.

“Sending Kingfisher a message,” I said, gesturing to the inside of the car. “Give me a boost?”

Sebastian helped me into the car and climbed in next to me. He put the tracker in one of the guy’s shoes as I started spraying. When I was done, I took a step back, and he joined me.

“It’s perfect.” He pressed a kiss on my temple, giving me a slightly psychotic smile.

I had painted two arrows crossed at a diagonal. The symbol was our unofficial signature. Danny had created it years ago. It was a clear message to Kingfisher of who had been here. Maybe it was stupid to taunt him, but I was done waiting. If this drew Kingfisher out, we would be ready. We had to be. This needed to end.

CHAPTER 17

EVELYN

Icovered my mouth as a yawn threatened to split my cheeks. We hadn’t gotten back to the penthouse until close to 3 a.m. Four hours of sleep later, we had all convened in the SDS executive conference room. All these nights of eight hours of sleep had spoiled me, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I took a long sip of my coffee. It was still piping hot, but I needed the caffeine too badly to care.

“Okay, let’s get started,” I said when everyone had taken their seats.

Liam and Izzy were on the large screen at the end of the table. They were at one of our safe houses we had converted into a temporary office space while we figured out what to do with HQ. Insurance was dragging their feet, and we had bigger things to worry about right now.

“What the hell happened with the cameras at the rail yard?” Adrian asked. “We were flying blind last night.”

“I want to know as well,” Marcus said. He was sitting next to me, his hand on my thigh. The weight was comforting, grounding, and I interlaced my fingers on top of his. “I thought Drake gave us access to them?”

Alexander typed furiously on his phone. “He did. I messaged him this morning. He said the whole system experienced a glitch last night, and he forgot he gave us access to them. He apologized for the inconvenience.”

“Did you tell him what happened?” Dominic asked.

“I didn’t. I figured it would be better to keep the loop tight on that one.”

“Agreed,” I said. “Liam, is there a way to figure out what the glitch was or where it originated?”

Liam frowned. “Doubtful. The link we have is just to view the cameras. I would need back-end access. I could hack it, but it would take a lot of time.”

“So is it possible that Kingfisher hacked it?” Adrian asked. “Is he why the cameras glitched?”

“It’s possible,” Liam said. “But sometimes systems just go down too. It must have frozen on yesterday’s earlier footage. It’s hard to say without access. I can try hacking it.”

I hesitated. “I would rather you stay focused on our other projects,” I said. “I don’t want to spread you too thin.”

“Sounds good, Boss Lady,” Liam said.

“How are the girls settling in?” I asked Izzy. She had been in contact with Imani and Patty.

“As well as can be expected.” Izzy said. “Of the ten girls, six have families they can return to. The other four either don’t have anyone or are saying it wouldn’t be safe for them to return.”

“What happens to them then?” Marcus asked.

“We help get them set up with new lives,” I said. “New identities if needed and resources to get them on their feet.”