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King went back to studying whatever was on his computer screen while the rest of us stared at him.
Linney said it best.
“Well, shit.”
10
King
It felt good to slip into my black cargo pants in preparation for the mission. The dark clothing I wore was like a uniform of sorts. It automatically put me into the mindset of a job. When I buttoned them up, I was ready to work.
And when I pulled on the mask, I was even more ready to focus. That was when the stakes were highest and shit could go wrong. So when Ziv and I finally entered the dark and damp tunnel late that afternoon and pulled down our masks, my usual joking came to an abrupt halt.
“Lazy Daze is entering the bay,” Ziv said over his earpiece. “Request clearance to dock.”
I swallowed a laugh. After my yacht comment, Linney had decided to use maritime references as our code language for the op.
While we waited for Linney’s smooth lilt to give us permission to continue, Ziv flashed me a suspicious look. “How the hell did you know where this place was? I would have never thought to look in a damned sewage drain under a bunch of bushes.”
“I knew the general area where it needed to come out to provide the best chance at escape by road or water. And then it was just a matter of jogging around until I found it. Took fucking forever since I was trying not to look suspicious. If anyone was watching me, they had to think I have a tricky bladder,” I explained.
“You were gone so long, Falcon checked the GPS to make sure you hadn’t made your way off the island,” he said.
That shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. “You’re kidding? I didn’t have to agree to this, you know. I’m here because I want to get this fucking crown out of Elek’s hands. When will you assholes start believing me?”
Ziv held up both of his hands in surrender. “Relax. Jesus, I wasn’t the one checking up on you. Blame the boss man. Besides, he has a lot riding on this. Last time he let an art thief slip through his hands, he got demoted.” He gave me an accusatory glance before pulling his mask down.
I cringed. This was news to me. It was one thing to steal shit from people who didn’t deserve it, but it was another to do something that negatively impacted an honest man’s career.
And I knew Dirk Falcon was an honest man. It was something I’d already teased him about a few times. The guy was a rule follower and a complete square. I couldn’t fault him for that. He was the kind of guy you took home to mama. Or… Doc and Grandpa in my case.
Not that I was taking him, or anyone else for that matter, home with me.
Ever.
But, god. I could stand to at least fuck the man. He was gorgeous and all grumbly sexy. I wanted to know what it would be like if he channeled all his frustration with me into a good session of hate sex. And after a mission? God, there was nothing better than the feeling of being shoved facedown in a mattress and fucked hard.
“Clearance granted, Lazy Daze.”
I sucked in a breath, trying to pack away my little dirty fantasy about our fearless leader. Since the man was a rule follower, there wasn’t going to be any hanky-panky happening on this op or between cops and robbers of any kind.
“Let’s go,” Ziv said, holding out his arm in a gesture for me to go first.
I preceded him into the dark space. We had to crouch since the walls weren’t very high.
After a few feet down the rough and rocky path, Ziv whispered, “How did they even build this thing when so much of the terrain is rock?”
“Explosives,” I answered. “It’s probably why there isn’t much height. They’d have had to go deeper to give people more headspace. Since this is only meant for a single-use getaway, it didn’t need to be more than rudimentary and basic.”
After a few more feet, he spoke again. “How can you be sure there aren’t surveillance elements in here?”
I continued making my way forward at a fast clip. We’d determined we only had ten minutes to get all the way to the house and back before we risked being caught.
“There’s no way to know. But there was absolutely no sign of electricity where we waited at the entrance, and I don’t see any in here either. So anything would have to be on battery packs which would mean swapping them out regularly for recharging. And I just don’t see his level of paranoia being that great. I think he’ll assume no one knows about the tunnel, and if they did take the chance of entering a storm drain and stumble into the tunnel, they can’t actually get into the house without setting off all the alarms.”
