Page 105 of Statler

“So now that we’re all together,” Mason picked up a second piece of pizza and took a bite, “why don’t you outline for my team what’s been going on. You gave me a brief synopsis, but I’d like to get the whole picture.”

“First, though,” Talia put in. “I know your legit firm is called Bothswait Construction, but I might have heard it whispered around as you also being STUDS.” She snickered as she folded a slice in half to eat it. “True, or not true? And is it an acronym, because although you’re all hot, I wouldn’t exactly call you studs.”

There was good-natured jeering all around, before Pipes answered. “FYI,” he preened, “I’m the biggest stud there is, but yes, it’s an acronym. Surveil, Target, Undermine, Defeat, and Secure.”

“Not too shabby,” Talia nodded, chewing and swallowing.

Statler easily transitioned from there, into Holden’s intel that had brought them to Liminal. He also explained the time lapse, and why it had taken so long to start the job after the FBI had handed it over to them. Flazer was the one who had actually put them off, saying it was permitting that was keeping things hung up, which was bullshit. It was actually because the man had to have his concrete guys build his new underground facility. Statler also filled SWAT in on where they stood now with murders, and the contraband that was being shipped out that very evening.

Lastly, he filled them in on the additional intel regarding Eliza—without revealing his personal interest in her—and that she was safely on her way to Bangor.

When Statler was finished, he saw the same, excited looks of anticipation on Mason’s team’s faces as he did on his own crew’s.

With that unspoken approval, he kept going.

“So, our first step, now that it’s getting late and this Jeremy asshat will probably be getting itchy that Eliza isn’t showing up at her house, is to extract Granny from the equation. We don’t want her becoming collateral damage if Flazer senses an intelligence-sharing link between the older woman and his daughter.”

“I’ll go,” Blue said, holding up her hand.

“I’ll accompany her,” Talia said with a grin.

“Okay. And once you have her, ask if there’s a safe place you can drop her, then make it happen. After she’s secure, meet us back here by twenty-three hundred hours. We’ll have a plan drawn up by then for where we’ll set up, undetected, until the shipment is on its way to the coast. Then we’ll make a show of force, and take out all the players at the factory.”

“Okay, boss. You got it,” Blue saluted, and the two women took off.

Statler didn’t want to get too cocky, but right now, this operation was looking like a slam-dunk.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Eliza had been driving for almost two hours when her phone rang.

She grinned.

It had to be Statler calling to find out how she was doing.

Eliza, always conscious of the law, immediately pulled over to the side of the road and without looking at the screen, picked up.

“Hello?” she answered cheerfully.

“Where the fuck are you?”

Eliza’s stomach dropped.

Her father’s irate voice was the last one she’d expected to hear.

She made up a lie as quickly as her brain would allow.

“I’m, uh, shopping.” She named a town that was twenty miles south of Liminal, hoping he didn’t know anyone there that could check up on her.

“Bullshit,” he roared. “You’ve left town. Jeremy told me about all the moving boxes in your house. But why did you leave today, without taking anything? Did you see Jeremy breaking in?”

It was as good an excuse as any, since her father clearly already knew she was on the run.

“I saw him. Yes,” she lied. “And I knew you’d be mad and try to stop me, so I left without my things.”

“What is it that you think you know?” he snarled, getting right to the point.

“What…? What do you mean, what do I know?” Eliza played dumb. “I just need a change. That’s all.”