Page 35 of Palace of Betrayal

“You want me to deal with him?”

“Not unless you have to. The mission is the priority here.”

“Okay. So here’s my news.”

Bebe went on to tell Roz about the new developments and theories she and Leo had come up with.

“That’s a lot to unpick but let me get the girls on it this end and see if we can get you any information that will help. So far, there are no reports of anyone going near the gem so there’s that.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t help us. We almost need them to make a move so we can wrap this up.”

“I did find out the date for the auction is set for a week from Friday coming, so we don’t have a lot of time.”

“How did we find that out?”

“Lili managed to find out the date of her auction and as it’s the second one with four weeks between each, we now know yours is in a month.”

“How are they all?”

“Good, wading through information and false truths the same as you.”

“That’s good.” Bebe nodded to herself. “Here is the thing, you said the first auction triggers the next and so on, but if we stop the auction from going ahead won’t we ruin the mission for the other girls?”

“I thought about that, and my thoughts are we stop it if we can. But if the others need the time, we let it go ahead and switch out the gems.”

“But won’t The Collector know who they’re dealing with? We need to leave them in play. It’s too risky to swap the gems. It will expose the lie and we could lose The Collector.” Bebe looked up as she heard the door to the apartment open. “Hang on a sec, I have company.”

Bebe stood with the phone to her ear and walked to the door to see Leo striding toward her looking handsome and sexy in jeans with a white shirt rolled up his muscular, tan forearms.

Stepping back, she pointed to the phone, and he nodded before closing them both in the bedroom.

“It’s fine. It’s just Leo.”

His brows rose and a playful smile flitted on his lips at her words.

“So back to what I was saying, can’t we leave them in? It would be a huge risk to take them out.”

“No, we can’t and I’m working on a plan for that, so leave it with me.”

“You’re the boss.”

“Now you sound like my daughters.”

Bebe grinned because she loved the girls Roz and her husband Kanan had saved from a child trafficking asshole Roz had killed personally.

“Give them all hugs and kisses from me. Tell them I’ll try and bring them something nice back from my trip.”

“Don’t you dare, they have enough. Spoiled little wenches.”

“Oh, toffee. You adore them.”

Roz sighed. “Fine, but nothing too expensive like last time or I’m cutting your pay.”

“Ouch.”

“Be safe, my Bebe.”

She heard the softness in her friend’s voice.