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“After you, my lady.” Rolf executed a mocking bow.
Ignoring him, Ingrid looked back at the rest of them. “Please don’t wait on us to continue with your dessert.”
After that she swept through the door. Rolf closed it behind both of them.
Lucas let go of her hand. “Thank God. I didn’t think Osborne’s latest invention was going to work.”
“Was it the alcohol volume doubler?” Talia asked, pulling a gold tube of lipstick and a small gold compact out of her bra.
“Yes. The man is a giant pain in my ass, but he’s a genius.” Lucas vaulted up from his seat and made a beeline toward Rolf’s vacant seat.
Lucas, Jasper, and Talia moved in concert to her stepfather’s empty spot at the head of the table while Ruby sat frozen in her seat trying to process what in the hell was going on. While she’d been stuck looking at menus and seating charts, her brother, his fake girlfriend, and Lucas had been up to something much more interesting. This was bullshit. Her ass was on the line as much as theirs, if not more, and yet they left her in the dark.
“Watch the door,” Lucas said as he picked up Rolf’s phone.
Jasper snorted. “You watch the fucking door.”
“I’m point,” Lucas shot back. “You’re just the interfering brother.”
“Who is working with the Americans,”
Jasper grumbled as he stalked to the door.
Talia uncapped the lipstick, revealing a USB drive instead of the pale-pink shade she wore on her lips. She handed it to Lucas along with her matching compact mirror.
“How long?” He slipped off the back of Rolf’s phone and then pushed the compact’s decorative hinge to reveal a plug that he fit into the phone’s exposed inner-workings.
“Forty-five seconds,” Talia said.
After a quick beep, he flipped the clasp that held the compact closed and slipped the lipstick USB into it. “In the lab or real world?”
“This device has never been used on the job before,” she said.
“And you thought this was the ideal time to field test a new toy?” He cut a glare at the other Silver Knight.
Talia didn’t flinch. The woman had to be made of solid ice. “Osborne guaranteed it would download the virus that would let us monitor the phone remotely, no matter what encryption is on it.”
“It won’t be his dead ass getting dumped in the North Sea if he’s wrong.” Lucas dropped his gaze back to the compact, the mirror showing a countdown clock instead of a reflection.
“He never is.”
The whole thing was like having a front row seat to a spy movie, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted—needed—to be a part of it.
“Twenty seconds.” Lucas glanced up at the door. “Can you hear them?”
“Voices are low, but they’re going at it.” Jasper’s jaw was clenched hard enough to break a tooth.
It wasn’t like they hadn’t heard Rolf in all his nasty glory before, but their mother wasn’t usually the target. No. It was his stepchildren who had grown up dealing with the verbal shanks. Both of them had learned how to zone out as he sliced and diced them. Their mother hadn’t. Despite her unusual show of spirit tonight, Rolf’s barbs had to be hitting their mark if Jasper’s reaction was anything to go by.
“Ten seconds,” Lucas announced in a hushed voice.
Jasper stiffened. “They stopped.”
The doorknob turned.
“We need five more seconds,” Lucas said.
Jasper grabbed the knob and held it still before shoving his shoulder against the door.
