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“You will, or there’s no deal.” I can have her surveilled to ensure she’s protected, though I’m not about to tell her now. “You won’t tell him about our agreement because if he finds out you’ve been here, he’ll end you.”
* * *
RAE
Harrison’s jaw hasn’t unclenched for the last hour while Eva’s discussed what she knows about Mischa’s activities. Some of it we’d figured already—that he’s running drugs through the clubs. That the money from that is bigger than the legitimate business.
“What about the bad drugs?” Harrison demands.
Eva picks at an invisible piece of lint on her jumpsuit. “I don’t know anything about that. But I do know the cost of staying one step ahead of you is eating into his profit.”
“You’ve seen the books?” Ash asks.
“I’ve seen his face. The one thing that pisses him off as much as losing is losing money.” The room is quiet for a moment before Eva adds, “Something big is going down soon. I overheard him talking about next week on Sunday, but I could convince him we have plans that day and see if he’d move it to Saturday.”
“Why Saturday?” Ash asks.
Eva’s gaze settles on me.
“Absolutely fucking not.” Harrison’s voice is commanding. “You are not encouraging him to do a deal while Raegan is in that venue.”
“He’d be distracted,” Eva says smoothly. “He likes you.”
The way she says it leaves no question as to what he likes about me.
She wouldn’t care if I was sacrificed in all this. Hell, she’d probably love it.
My hand finds Harrison’s arm, the muscles corded and angry under my touch. “There’s nowhere safer than the middle of the stage. He won’t risk his business to catch you.”
Harrison exhales slowly. “I want to know the layout of the club.”
I push a tray of tea cookies Natalia must’ve left on the counter earlier toward Eva, and she balks. “I haven’t eaten a carbohydrate in ten years.”
I take two cookies and lay them on the table at opposite ends. “This is the stage. And this is the front door. The dance floor is here.” I wave my hand over the space in the middle. “Where’s Mischa’s office?”
If Harrison’s going to tell the police, it would help to have as much detail as possible.
Eva shifts forward and takes a wafer. “Here.” She sets it down between the two cookies and off to the side. “There’s a hallway here with offices and a couple meeting rooms, plus inventory to stock the bar.” She takes another three cookies, turning toward the other side of the table. “This half is VIPs. They’re serviced by their own bar.”
“Is that where he does business?” I ask.
“No. He might entertain in a VIP, but everything is decided in his office.”
“Are there any entrances near there? There must be one for inventory,” Harrison says.
Eva considers. “Loading dock services the stock room.”
Another cookie goes down, this one close to Mischa’s office.
My heart thuds. “So, if the police can get in while he’s doing that deal…”
“They can bring him down,” Harrison says.
Eva takes another cookie, and we wait for her to place it.
“Well?” Harrison prods, clearly impatient.
Eva nibbles the corner. “Well, what?”
