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Paul looked around. “Not here. Let’s take this discussion somewhere else.”
They paid the bill and climbed into Michelle’s truck. Paul looked around the interior. “Have you swept this for bugs?”
Michelle, Sean, and Megan stared at her.
“Bugs?” said Michelle. “No, we haven’t.”
Paul slipped a device out of her bag and turned it on. She passed it around the interior of the vehicle and then studied the readout on the small electronic screen.
“Okay, we’re good to go.” She put the device away and sat back to find the others still staring at her.
“Care to start explaining?” said Sean.
Paul shrugged. “Self-evident, don’t you think?”
“What is?”
“What we’re up against here.”
“And what exactly is that?” asked Michelle.
“Everybody,” replied Paul.
“Can we start from page one?” said Sean. “I think we all need that right now.”
“My brother is not simply an IRS agent with six bodies in his barn.”
“Yeah, we’d gotten that far by ourselves,” said Michelle.
“So what exactly is your brother?” asked Sean.
“I’m not convinced you all are ready for the answer.”
“I think we’re ready for the answers,” said Sean. “In fact, we’re so ready that I don’t think I’m going to let you out of this vehicle until you tell us.”
Before any of them could react, Paul had placed a knife against Megan’s right carotid. “That would be an unfortunate action on your part, Mr. King, it really would be.”
“Put that away,” said Sean. “You don’t have to go there.”
Paul put the knife away and patted Megan on the arm. “Sorry I had to do that.”
The young woman looked like she might throw up her breakfast.
“Just take deep breaths and the shock nausea will pass right on by,” Paul added kindly.
“Why did you do that?” asked Sean.
“Ground rules have to be set. My loyalties do not lie with any of you, at least not completely.”
“Where do they lie?” asked Michelle.
“Mainly with my poor brother, who’s rotting at Cutter’s Rock.”
“Mainly?” said Sean. “Which means there’s something else. Or someone else?”
“In my business there is always something else, Mr. King.”
“And that business being what? Intelligence?”
