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“Well, that’s what we thought. Now…” Ziv shrugged. “Who knows?”
Falcon sighed and looked up, raking his hand through his short hair.
“Excellent,” Falcon muttered. “A covert FBI mission on foreign soil intersecting with an unknown Greek intelligence asset and/or crime boss. No big deal. I’m sure it’s going to be fine.”
17
Falcon
Well, this complicated things. Now we had to wonder why in the world Elek was mixed up with yet another asset of some kind. Was it because of the crown? Another art theft? Or could, by some chance, another intelligence agency have an agent in place for the same reason we did?
To bring Le Chaton to justice.
I looked over at King, who was noticeably agitated by this news. His hair looked like he’d stuck his hand in a light socket. I tried to reassure him. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.”
“You can’t know it’s okay. You and I are both aware of how bad this could be for me.” There was tension around King’s mouth I hadn’t seen since that first night on the plane. I hated to see it now.
“Then we’ll take you off the op.” I kept my eyes on King’s even as Ziv began to bluster.
“Boss, you can’t really mean that. King is the only one of us who can get into that room and get his hands on the crown.”
“He’s right,” Linney said softly. “You know he’s right. King is our only chance at this. And you need this mission to succeed.”
King rubbed his face with his hands. “It’s fine. It’s fine, I’ll do it.”
“No.” My voice came out low and strong, surprising the entire team. I cleared my throat. “Not until we make sure it’s safe, at least. We simply need to regroup and come up with a plan that takes Demitri Lazarus out of the picture. Ziv, find out if there are any airplane tickets or private plane reservations under any name associated with Elek, Demitri, his father, or any other name we can think of associated with this op.”
Ziv nodded and went to work on his computer. I could tell Mouse was thinking hard. “Mouse, what do you have?”
His forehead crinkled. “Well, it’s kind of crazy, but what if…” He paused, unsure.
“Spit it out, baby boy,” Linney said with a kind smile.
Mouse sat forward, clasping his hands together on the table in front of him. “If Greece has an agent with Elek because of suspected art crime… what if… what if we gave Greece’s art crime team something else to worry about?”
King’s face lit up with a feral grin. “Mouse, my dear friend, I am in love with you. Anything you want, sky’s the limit, it’s yours. I’m in.”
I didn’t like what he was implying. “Whatever you’re thinking, King, the answer is no.”
King clasped his hands together in a prayer. “But Dad… I’ve been so good. And I know where I can get my hands on some lovely Greek coins and ingots. Pretty please?”
Linney snorted, and Mouse covered a chuckle with his hand.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head at all of them. “Are you fucking crazy? You are proposing that an FBI team plan a heist on foreign soil?”
King shook his head. “No, the FBI doesn’t need to be involved at all. I know someone—”
I felt my jaw tighten. “You’re not going to Berlin. I can see right through you, Kingston Wilde. No amount of sweet-talking is going to get me to agree.”
My computer pinged with a message from Nadine. I let out a breath. “Crisis averted. Demitri is flagged for participating in anti-government riots when he was younger.”
“He still is younger,” Linney said with a snort.
“Dating his daddy’s BFF,” King said with a melodramatic shudder. “He obviously likes older men. I caught Demitri eyeing up Falcon at the gala.”
I shot him a look. “I’m thirty-eight. Stop comparing me to your smarmy sixty-year-old ex…”
King’s eyes twinkled. “Men get grumpy when they get older, don’t they, Mouse?”
Mouse hid his grin behind his hand. “Please don’t get me fired.”
Ziv cut in. “Found something. It looks like Daddy has a private plane that has made arrangements to leave the island tomorrow with five passengers. According to the preliminary flight plan, the passengers include both Elek and the boy toy.”
“That can’t be right,” I said. “Elek was seriously considering my dinner invitation.”
Linney shrugged. “Maybe that just means he’ll cancel his trip to have dinner with you. It’s not like it’s a big inconvenience when you’re traveling on a private plane.”
I wondered if my impromptu dinner invitation had been the one thing that had screwed up our ability to get both Elek and Demitri out of the way for the crown retrieval op. That would have been just my luck.
“Where are they flying to?” King asked.
Ziv typed a few more keys to confirm. “Paris.”
King blew out a breath. “Shit. Now what?”
