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Baby’s words render me speechless. I’ve never heard her talk that freely about our relationship, and it makes warmth spread throughout my body to know she doesn’t just want us there—she’s demanding our presence.
“We’re a team,” I reassure her, and my brothers quickly voice their agreement.
Looking at Baby as she’s curled up on CJ’s lap, it hits me how much I love her. Baby has wormed her way into my heart for good, and I’m feeling fucking stabby by the mere thought of someone fucking with her. She’s mine—ours—and we fucking protect what’s ours!
“Here we go,” Martin says as he returns with a piece of paper in hand.
CJ gasps as he takes the paper Martin hands him. “Is Luis a middle name?” My brother asks, confusion and disbelief potent in his tone.
I lean closer to get a better look, which doesn’t matter at all. “I don’t know. I only know him as Luis,” I state.
“But his name is Hans.”
“Erm… No? His name is Luis,” Kas clarifies.
CJ gently moves Baby out of his lap before he stands up and walks over to Martin, who’s sitting at a small table with his laptop in front of him. “Can I borrow that for just a sec?” he asks, and when Martin nods, he sits down. CJ taps away on the keyboard for a few minutes before he gestures for us to come over. “There, see. His name is Hans.”
Kas, Baby, and I look dumbfounded at the screen. The website is of the top donors in the one shelter CJ preferred to work with. If memory serves, this is the one he favored when he had cases where a shelter was needed. I remember my brother mentioning the place had really shaped up once they got a new benefactor. At the top of the site, there’s a picture of Luis, or Hans, with a small bio.
“Wait a second.” Baby slaps her hand across her forehead, looking straight at CJ. “When we talked to Neil about who his accomplice is, he said we didn’t know his real name. He said that he knew him as Bernard.”
Fuck!
Kas and I watched their interrogation session the next day through the Spy Cam, and I never gave it much thought since I didn’t know anyone with that name. Fuck, we can’t even go back and check. Martin made sure the servers were cleared every evening at seven o’clock as a safety precaution.
“It’s all German names,” Martin unhelpfully adds. “Do you know anything else about Luis, or whatever his name is?”
Baby’s brows are scrunched together, creating a cute V that’s always present when she’s deep in thought. “I think he said that he owns a company that imports timber and coal, or something called lignite. That’s when he said he’s working with one of your companies, Electric Mind.”
“I do work with a German company for those exact needs, but the owner is most certainly not Luis. I will do some digging, and see what I can come up with. What will you do in the meantime? Do you need me to help with anything?” Kas fills Martin in on the plan to go to the party for Mia’s brother. “And what will you do if Luis is there?”
“End it,” Mia says with malice dripping from each word. “I’m never hiding again, and I’m done bowing to anyone.”
I watch as Martin rubs his forehead. The motion almost seems like an automatic reflex to whatever he is pondering. “You should buy tickets online and then use my private jet. That way, there won’t be any surprises during the trip.” Then, his eyes grow colder. “Do you still have your gun?”
Gun? Logically, I know Martin can only be aiming the question for one of us, yet I still take my time looking between my brothers and our woman.
“I do,” Baby confirms. “I’ll bring it.”
I don’t need to ask her to know Mark is the one who taught her to shoot and probably also supplied the gun. It feels like another lifetime when I asked her if she knew how to defend herself, and it seems she didn’t share all her techniques and skills with me.
We stay at Martin’s for a few more hours, discussing how to move on from here. Martin lets us know he’ll make sure four new phones are on the jet waiting for us once we leave. When he objects to Mia wanting to pay him for all his help, they get into a pretty heated argument.
“Mia, I won’t be having this discussion with you again. I am happy to help.”
Throwing her arms up in the air in pure exasperation, Mia asks, “Why? Why are you doing all of this? It can’t just be because I helped your daughter that one time.”
“I don’t need another reason. My gratitude isn’t easily gained, but there isn’t an expiration date on it once it is. However, if you must know, Mark asked me to help you, so I’m honoring him as well.”
“But—”
Martin almost shouts, “I’m not taking your money, Mia.” And that’s the end of that.
