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For the first time since Vivi arrived, the number of years since they'd last seen each other added up. Nothing guaranteed she'd help. Taz had called it earlier. If she'd been such good friends with Gidget and Vivi, then how could she have lost touch so completely? And it hadn't been just with them. She hadn't talked to Lexie or Elisa since St. B's either. Her blood family ties were thinner than dental floss and she'd let the ties to the people who were her closest friends fray to almost nothing.
Maybe she should follow Taz and Keir's lead and create her own family with the women who'd helped her survive St. B's. They'd been the only people they could count on. They could be that again. They could even come in with her on the security and investigations business she was starting. Vivi had the obvious chops. Lexie was a computer guru. Elisa had been a born thief, able to get in and out of places no one else could. Then there was Gidget. She was the jack-of-all-trades and a master at spinning tales that opened doors to her that should have been locked tight. Together, the five of them could make a difference.
From her spot across the island, Vivi had scrunched up her face and was tapping out "Jingle Bells" with her nails on the granite. The sound bounced off the loft's high ceilings and echoed in the open, sparsely furnished space. Really, would it kill Taz to get more than a couch, TV, humongous bed and some barstools?
Finally, Vivi let out a deep sigh and straightened her shoulders. "Okay, you aren't hearing this from me and if it gets out I will remove your spleen with a dull spoon. Understand?" She glared pointedly at Keir. "There's been chatter among some of the bigger dealers that something new is coming down the pike, but we haven't been able to nail down with one hundred percent accuracy what it is or where it's coming from. I think it's Genie's Wish and it sounds like the Davies-Smythes. If they aren't the source, may be our way to finding it and shutting it down. Also, there've been rumors of the chemists working on this needing long-term subjects to test different variations of the drug's makeup. Rather than holding them at the drug processing location, they have them stashed around Texas. If the Davies-Smythes have Gidget, there's a damn good chance she's one of the test subjects."
Bianca's empty stomach roiled. If she'd eaten anything in the past six hours, she'd be fighting to keep it down. "So what can we do to help?" she asked.
"Forget it," Taz interjected, the vein at his temple throbbing. "We've done our part."
Anger whipped through her, reigniting all the fires she'd thought she'd put out long ago. No one told her what to do anymore, not since she'd survived the misery of St. B's. Spinning on the balls of her feet, she faced Taz, refusing to be intimidated by the muscles or the way he loomed over her like some kind of bad-boy protector. "Speak for yourself."
Unperturbed by her reaction, he crossed his sinewy arms over his chest and gave her a patronizing look. "Someone has to stop you from jumping into the total unknown."
"And you think you're the man for the job?" She snorted, putting every ounce of distain in the sound that she could muster.
One eyebrow went up in challenge. "Yes."
The sanctimonious prick. The bitches at St. B's hadn't broken her. The unlicensed clinic that followed, which had been more of a cult than anything, hadn't wrecked her spirit. Her family had come the closest, no need to call Dr. Freud to find out why, but she'd walked away from them and never looked back. Taz might make her knees weak and get her wetter wit
h a look than any man had before, even the most hung, but that didn't give him the right to decide her path. Only she did that.
"As amazing as this little display of dick swinging is, I need both of you," Vivi said, amusement woven in with her crass words. "The Davies-Smythes took a liking to you and you've already made the art connection. I need you to take them up on it right away. Like tomorrow morning right away."
"Why the rush?" Keir asked from his spot by the refrigerator.
"Informants say there's a big delivery coming in day after tomorrow and everyone is freaking out. If it's Genie's Wish, they'll flood the streets with it that night and by Monday it will be too late."
The pronouncement hung in the air and the now-or-never declaration sent a blast of adrenaline through Bianca. "What do you need done?"
"Go to the house. Take a look around. Plant a few small listening devices. Report back," Vivi said. "That's it. Easy as pecan pie at Thanksgiving."
"Count me in." She didn't need to think about it. Unlike some people, she believed in helping when she could. "What about you, Mr. I'm Only In It For Me?"
Taz closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, but instead of sending up a prayer, he was having a mumbled argument with himself. The words he muttered under his breath sounded a lot like "crazy woman" and "about the dumbest thing I could do." Still, when he opened those soft green eyes that were incongruously perfect with his tawny skin and the hard curve of his obviously-been-broken-a-time-or-a-thousand nose, his answer was plain to see even before he opened his stubborn, bossy mouth.
"Fine." He practically spit out the word. "But I'm on the record for not liking it."
Inexplicably pleased with his change of heart, no matter how grudgingly given, Bianca did her best not to preen.
"Sweetie, we all do shit we don't like. Welcome to life." Vivi shrugged. "You two stay here and get the meet with the Davies-Smythes set up." She pointed at Keir. "Let's go hit the lab with those blood samples."
"Lucky me," Keir muttered as he pushed off the fridge and sauntered toward the elevator.
"I've seen your arrest record," Vivi said. "You have no idea how damn lucky you are."
The bickering duo were still going at it when the elevator closed and started the descent to the garage level, taking with them the human buffer between her and Taz.
Now? He seemed to fill the huge loft with his presence. She'd grown up a Sutherland with more oil money than some Middle Eastern princes and more connections than the best politicians. No one gave her pause—not until Taz. Something about him cut through her defenses. It would be nice to be able to blame the drugs, but that wasn't it. She'd felt it the first time she'd walked into the Devil's Dip Gym and had nearly forgotten her own name when he handed her the membership form to fill out. The drugs only brought everything to the surface where she couldn't deny it.
"Why are you so determined to do this?" he asked, filling in the silence between them as he typed out a quick message on his phone, no doubt setting up tomorrow's meeting at Bisu Manor. His phone buzzed and he glanced down. "We're on for nine tomorrow morning."
Needing to put space between them so she could concentrate on putting together a plan for tomorrow instead of the sexy way he smelled, she rounded the island and sat down opposite him. "Because not everyone is so concerned with only themselves. It's not the worst thing in the world to stick your neck out for someone else, you know."
Taz gave her the narrow-eyed look that she was getting to know too well, the one that seemed to lock in on exactly what she wasn't ready to reveal. "It's not just that you think Gidget is tied into this. You'd do it no matter who was involved."
"Yeah, I would."
