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Blade and Nash moved toward her and read the texts too.

If every single follower and disciple has to go through the tech screener, getting an item in Rubin’s hand was the only way to get our bug inside.

“A direct handoff is our only option.”

Nash’s chest rumbled as she spoke. “And he’s not going to take anything we give him.”

It was obvious from all of my Freaks’ faces that they wanted to say no.

Fuck, so did I. The last thing I wanted was to call on Lola’s help, to need anyone else to be involved in this mess.

But as the carousel swirled behind us, we all were realizing the reality of The Messenger’s cult.

Either I would have to infiltrate the compound, or we’d have to let someone else into our fold.

Blade shrugged. “Realistically, with Violence in charge of Valemont, what’s the worst that could happen? The police won’t get involved with a bug.”

I watched embers ascend on the wind. “Worst case, she gets kicked out of her apartment and becomes a pariah in town. Her landlord is a fanatic.”

“Assuming they trace any of it back to her.” Nash pursed her lips, running her hand through her curly hair.

In a growl, Cyrus stared down at the cobblestone paths. “We’re well equipped to handle a housing issue.”

Between the safehouse and the insane amount of money that the Freaks had flowing in from their drug trade, they could easily make sure Lola and Chrissy had somewhere safe to stay.

Despite my opposition to the idea, it was becoming clear that Lola was our best bet.

“Would Rubin hurt her?” Blade’s face was scrunched up, still hurt by everything that happened to Jane. Knowing that his compound was the last place Jane was seen still made all of us anxious. The odds that Rubin had nothing to do with her death were near zero.

Especially after we found the DMT meant for his compound.

I shook my head as I considered it. “Rubin’s a creep but I don’t think he means to be a monster. Even if he wanted to come after Lola, he can’t risk his reputation by hurting a single mother who seemed to be interested in becoming a member.”

Even Cyrus seemed to see the logic there. “Unless his grip on his cult is strong enough to withstand abuse.”

That was entirely possible. But then we’d just have to protect Chrissy and Lola ourselves. Their safety would be on our shoulders.

“But we can’t keep sitting around while our home is taken over by these hallucinating cronies.” Nash’s jaw was clenched tight, her hand rubbing the small coqui on her bicep as she thought.

Cyrus took a deep breath. “Then we have our answer. The plan is a go.”

80

CYRUS

Once the plan was agreed on, everything started to move quickly. Tess confirmed the scheme with Lola, Nash planned our security load out, and Blade tinkered together the recording device.

But the breakneck speed of our progress didn’t alleviate my nerves about the idea.

There were the general fears — getting caught out, having the plan fail, Rubin’s security increasing — but then there was the Lola of it all.

Letting her handle the pass off seemed like a silver bullet idea. After all of our work, how could we say no to someone so willing and able to facilitate the operation?

Despite the fact that Tess had introduced the plan, I was the one to greenlight it. Which meant anything that went wrong was on me.

Lola was Tess’ best friend in the entire world. And if something happened to her, I wasn’t sure Tess would ever be able to forgive me.

I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.