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“Ah, Christ,” Zé growls.
Two brunettes, one with her hair twisted into a ponytail on top of her head, and a leggy blonde are greeting the men. No one in the group looks to be older than their mid-twenties. But it’s hard to know for certain from the feed.
“Slow the line while we regroup,” I order Davi. This is a total clusterfuck. “The blonde is a close family friend. Don’t take your eyes off her for a single second,” I add, because as much as I want to, I’m not prepared to go out there and drag her out of that queue. “She’s an innocent.”
An innocent. There’s nothing innocent about Alexis Clarke. Not a goddamn thing.
Zé holds his phone up so I can see the screen. The brunette with her hair up is the same woman in the photos from Barcelona and Paris.
“What about the other woman?”
“Her ID says her name is Chiara Amato, a twenty-two-year-old Italian national. The ID looks legit, but it’s probably a fake. Xavier is running facial recognition.”
“Is Alexis using real identification?”
“Her ID says her name is Alexis Taft. Probably for security reasons.”
Definitely for security reasons. Taft is her mother’s maiden name, and it draws less attention than using her father’s surname—although it doesn’t open as many doors.
What the fuck is Lexie doing with those bastards? She couldn’t possibly be involved in the ring. She’s Valentina’s best friend. Her maid of honor. The woman who whimpered so sweetly while I licked her pussy. “Alexis isn’t a predator.”
That means she’s prey. There are only two real choices here.
He shakes his head. “I don’t see it, either. We need to figure out how to get her away from them and to safety before we move.”
In a perfect world, that’s exactly what we’d do. But tonight, we’re not in a perfect world—not even close.
“Even if we can come up with a ruse to pull her away from the group, they’re likely to shut down their plans for the night. They’ve been successful because they haven’t taken unnecessary risks. Put a couple of our best people on her. They should be ready to swoop in immediately if things start to go sideways. Otherwise, Alexis being here changes nothing.”
The bullshit tumbles from my mouth easily. The truth is, Lexie being here changes everything. I’ve known her since she was a kid. And I got to know her in a very grown-up way the night of Valentina’s wedding. I can’t let those feelings cloud my judgment. There’s too much at stake tonight.
I fully trust the plan and the people we have in place. I wouldn’t have signed off on it otherwise. That’s the bottom line. It has to be.
“The club is filled with innocents,” I explain soberly. “We were already operating in a way that minimizes risk. Unless there’s something you’ve kept from me, we shouldn’t change course. It would be unconscionable to allow this to fall apart. We’re so close.”
“I don’t keep you in the dark about anything.”
I can almost feel the relief from Zé. He wants these fuckers as much as I do.
“Even in the middle of an operation,” he says coolly, “she’s safer in here than she is out there with those monsters.”
No question about it.
Alexis’s father, Will, is an overprotective bastard, and one of the most dangerous men roaming the earth. He’s going to rip me a new one when he hears we conducted a takedown with his daughter in the middle of it. I’ll deal with the fallout when it comes.
I switch on my earbud to communicate with the team. “Along with the two men, the taller brunette, with the ponytail, is a target. We don’t know anything about the other brunette.” I glance at the feed. Lexie’s smiling at one of the women. Her vulnerability hits me squarely in the chest. “Remember, the blonde is a close Huntsman family friend.”
The stakes were high before, but they’re enormous now—at least for me.
“Let them in,” I order, putting my people on notice for the second time tonight. “No mistakes.”
* * *
“They’re passing through the metal detector,” Davi reports, and I suck in a long breath. “Nothing suspicious,” he adds.
“Not a care in the world,” Zé mutters, as we watch them laughing while they make their way inside.
What the fuck, Lexie? What are you doing with these scumbags?
