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He grabbed another towel from the closet. “It went as well as it could have gone.”
“Neal returned an hour ago.”
“Yeah. I chose to keep running with Monte.”
I nodded but I didn’t press him for more. Neal knew he had a choice to make. Hopefully the gravestones would haunt him, they were fake, no one knew that but Liam and myself, but the point remained the same. No matter how Liam felt about Neal, I knew he didn’t want to kill him.
I walked into the room we’d been using as a nursery here in D.C., and I saw Sedric and Evelyn standing by the window speaking quietly to each other. They looked like teenagers sneaking around.
“Am I interrupting?” I asked them.
“Yes, but since you brought Ethan, we shall forgive you.” Evelyn grinned as she came towards us with open arms.
Kissing Ethan’s head, I placed him in her arms.
“Do you want a bath?” she asked, as she bounced him up and down while they walked off towards the bathroom.
“He’s already been changed,” I said to her.
“But you want a bath. Don’t you, Ethan?” She grinned and I rolled my eyes and watched as they disappeared.
“She’s been waiting for a grandchild forever. Let her have her fun,” Sedric said and smiled, as he leaned against the window.
“Well as long as she’s having fun,” I replied, moving towards him. “How are you enjoying the role of babysitter?”
“I was enjoying it a lot more before you labeled it. I’ve taken up a few new hobbies, why does the Great Melody wish to know?”
“Idle hands are the devil’s play tool.”
He perked up slightly, as if he were waiting for the bone I was throwing his way. I gazed out the window and stared at the Washington Monument that stood in the distance.
“Do you plan to keep me in suspense for long?”
Giving him my attention, I sighed. “I need you to create different identities for us.”
“Don’t you have those already?” He frowned.
“We do, but I need them to cover every angle. Birth records, passports, taxes, education, yearbooks, I need you to build us eight brand new lives.”
“You mean nine, including Ethan.”
“No, eight, including Ethan. Maybe even seven, but for now eight.”
He stared into my eyes and I didn’t flinch.
“Olivia and Neal—”
“Have a choice.”
“Do you really believe new IDs will be needed?”
“I don’t know. But I’d rather be safe than ignorant to the facts. Avian is different. If anything happens, I want to have my bases covered.”
“Fine. I’ll get working on it, but it will take time.”
“That’s why I’m telling you now. And Sedric, don’t allow anyone to find out you’re doing this, not even Evelyn. Not even Liam knows what I’m asking of you. I don’t want him thinking that I doubt us.”
He nodded as the door opened and Liam walked in dressed in jeans and a button down shirt with a bag over his shoulder.
“You both look suspicious,” he said tentatively.
“They do, don’t they,” Evelyn stated, as she stepped in with a sleepy looking Ethan in her arms. Liam kissed his head and this time he didn’t cry but yawned instead.
“We have a meeting to get to,” I said, and Liam nodded.
LIAM
“Name?” a blond-haired bodyguard asked as he blocked our path into the mansion with his hands.
For it being so early in the day, you would think there wouldn’t be so many people already here, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Nothing got people going more than a millionaire throwing a pool party.
Pushing the glasses up my fake nose, I looked to Mel as she clenched her hand in annoyance, the short hair of her wig blew slightly to the side. She wore a short, red beach dress that had already caught the attention of a few men lingering around the property. The music was so loud it seemed to make the closed doors vibrate from outside.
“We’re the tax collectors,” I said, and the big man looked to the second guard in confusion.
“We’ve already paid the tax. I know this because I personally paid it myself,” he sneered as he eyed us both.
“You’re nothing but a doorman.”
“Fuck you. You got ten seconds to get out of here before I put a bullet in the two of yah.”
“I think you should let us talk to someone a little higher up on the food chain,” Mel replied and he sucked his teeth in response.
“Let them through, Bell,” the second guard said as he subtly moved his blazer to make us fully aware of the gun at his waistline.
“Bell? Like Tinker Bell? Isn’t that cute,” I mocked, brushing past his shoulders as we moved up the stairs.
“You better pray you are who you say you are, or I will personally kill you slowly,” he snapped as he led the way.
None of the guests paid us any mind as we entered. They were all too busy drinking and groping each other to care. The only ones who focused on us were the guards; they stuck out like the secret service in a kindergarten classroom. The man we wanted to speak with sat under a beach canopy with three women, all of whom were preoccupied with kissing and touching his body.
I hated meeting dealers.
They were a necessary evil that I found myself getting rid of more often than not. He didn’t pay any attention to us and instead chose to slobber all over the women around him. Mel took the chilled bottle of champagne and poured it over the girls
“You bitch!” they screamed, as two of the guards came forward.
“Move another inch and you will be face down in that pool,” I stated and he froze as a red dot appeared in the center of his chest.
“We don’t want to make a scene, Gus. This is an amazing party. But we can and will if we have to,” Mel said as she took a seat on the lawn chair and crossed her legs.
He clenched his jaw, making the scar on it quite prominent. “Go, now.”
The women glared at us as they staggered away.
“We paid the bosses our fucking share already.” He spat off to the side. “And you two ain’t the normal collectors.”
“About that, we aren’t really collectors,” I said eying Gus as he sat up.
His guards circled in behind us while Bell began to smile like an idiot. This was why I hated wasting my time with the footmen, they were always a bunch of trigger-happy morons. “What are you going to do? Shoot us? Make a scene and have the cops show up, because we both know they’ve been gunning for you for months now.”
“You gotta be a special type of stupid to crash my fucking party like this.” His jaw clenched as he poured himself a glass of champagne.
“It was either we crash it now or the FBI crash it later.” Mel smiled and I knew that smile well. We’re going to have to find ourselves another dealer in the district.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Mel leaned forward. “I’ll use small words since you’re incapable of comprehending; you have a rat, and not just any rat, but a fed.”
He sat still, staring at us for a moment before he put his glass down on the table beside him.
“Who is it?”
