Page 67 of Deadfall

My brow furrowed and I held out my hand. “What do you mean? Of course I want to see it.”

“These are bad people, Syn.” He looked over at Riggs. “Riggs—”

“This has nothing to do with him,” I snapped.

Lev sucked on his lip. “These people are powerful—”

I took a step toward him. “Give me the fucking tablet, Lev,” I growled.

His lips pressed together and the tension in the room thickened. Riggs simply stared at Lev and when he made no move to step in, Lev sighed and handed the tablet over with a shake of his head.

I carried it a few steps away. My eyes flew through the multiple documents, notes, and photos Lev had collected. By the time I was done, a cold numbness had settled over me and sunk down into my bones. I looked over everything again and engrained it into memory, then with cold clarity, set down the tablet and grabbed my pack.

“Thank you.”

I headed for the door. Fang jumped up and was immediately on my heels.

“Whoa! Whoa, wait!” Lev called.

“As soon as I can, I’ll figure out how to pay you,” I called over my shoulder.

“Syn, wait!” Lev raced ahead and slammed his back against the door.

“Get out of my way,” I said flatly. “I’ll get you the money—”

“Fuck the money—where are you going?” He asked. “You can’t possibly be thinking about going after these people—”

“What does it matter to you?”

“—I mean by yourself?” He went on like I hadn’t spoken. “It’s suicide! They’ll kill you or—or worse. You did read the part where they’re involved in human trafficking right? And, that’s only part of it—”

“Get out of my way,” I repeated.

“Seriously, think this through—”

“Lev, I don’t want to have to—”

Riggs' voice interrupted from directly behind me. “You think one little girl can take down an organization entrenched in years of corruption?”

I turned into a solid wall of muscle and glared up at him. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”

Riggs scoffed and waved the tablet in my face. “First of all, these addresses Lev found are probably dead ends,” he said. “If, on the off chance, they are active, they’re going to be filled with men who probably don’t know anything about who their boss’ boss is.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll take them down anyway.”

Riggs raised his eyebrows. “You want to take down trafficking dens—” He looked down at the tablet in reference. “—weapons suppliers, two kingpins—oh right, one of which is associated with fucking black sites? You do realize that means government influence most likely, right?” He waved the tablet in my face. “Are you actually insane? Or, do you just have a death wish?”

“I’ll figure it out,” I snapped.

“Do you even have a plan? Because please tell me you weren’t planning on going in guns blazing—”

“I’m not helpless—” I growled.

“You’re a child,” Riggs snapped back.

“Fuck you! Stop insinuating my capabilities are less than, just because I’m young,” I yelled. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Lev stepped in to break things up. “Hey, hey, okay, let’s just go sit back down and have a conversation about all this. I got you all the preliminary info, maybe if you tell me what you really want to happen, I can find out more.”