Page 74 of To Catch a Sub

“Tomorrow night you wear my collar.”

* * *

“Her information checks out.”

Landon leaned back against the wall of his makeshift office on the first floor of the club, phone to his ear.

“But the director and the lead investigator think she might have even more information,” Barry said.

“You mean about the diamond?”

“No, about the traffickers.”

“Probably,” Landon said, “though she claimed she told us everything we’d need to arrest them.”

“There’s enough for an arrest, but you know how this goes. Higher ups get excited at the idea of taking down the whole network.”

“What do they want to know? I’ll ask Colette.”

“The lead investigator wants to talk to her himself.”

“I can set up a secure?—”

“In person.”

“No.” Landon’s response was instantaneous. “That would compromise her security.”

“That’s what I said, but they’re pushing pretty hard.”

“Let me try and get something out of her, and see if that’s enough.”

“Could be it’d do,” Barry said. “Has she dropped any hints about the diamond?”

“Nope, she’s still holding that hostage until we arrest people.”

“Well, the arrest may not be soon,” Barry said slowly. “They want the whole network, and a bulletproof case. Given that this crosses borders…”

“Fuck.”

“That exactly.”

If this dragged on, Anu would have to pull him back to his regular job. Colette would either get moved to some countryside village under a new name with minimal security, or they’d stash her in a safe house with a rotating roster of guards.

Maybe she could stay here instead. Rolf and Andrei slept here when it was their week to be Dom in charge since neither of them lived in London, but left during the day to use a “hotel desk” at the London offices.

Maybe he could turn this storage room into a full-time remote Interpol office, and Rolf and Andrei could work from here, making Club Alibi a viable long-term safehouse for Colette.

Too many fucking maybes.

“You all right then?” Barry asked hesitantly. “With…all of it?”

Landon thought about their conversation last night. About the way she’d looked in the moonlight.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” he lied.

* * *

It was quiet tonight as they prepped the club, and Colette missed the occasional bursts of sound from the DJ testing his equipment. The same artist was playing tonight, so there was only minimal sound testing needed.