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“Show yourself!” I bark.
From the small kitchenette, a man appears with his hands raised in surrender. I recognize him in an instant. Anders grins, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiles.
“Cool crib,” he comments with a hearty laugh. “Very double-O-seven of you.”
“The hell are you doing here?”
Anders holds up his phone. I’m not even surprised when I see he’s got Van Straus’ kill orders on screen. “Half of Europe’s criminal underworld is on the lookout for you and Rocky.”
I grind my teeth. “Let me guess. You’re part of that half?”
Klaus steps out next. He apparently helped himself to some tea. “Relax, Foxtrot. Or should I sayGabriel Lacroix?” He notices Odette after saying my name. “Oh, would you look at that? You’ve got a baby Foxtrot with you.”
“Leave my daughter out of this.”
“Relax,” Anders says. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help.”
I arch a brow suspiciously. “Why? I thought you would be halfway across the world by now. Why would you possibly want to help me?”
“Because,” Klaus says, reaching into his pocket to pull out a badge. Across the front of the golden shield, it readsINTERPOL.
Holy fuck.
I look between Klaus and Anders, confused, but not as upset as I thought I would be. “You were working for Interpol the entire time? Why didn’t you just tell us?”
“We were deep undercover,” Anders explains. “We didn’t tell you or Rocky on the off chance your heist went to shit.”
“Our team has been collecting evidence against Van Straus for months,” Klaus continues gravely. “Unfortunately, he’s very thorough and secretive. We could never catch him in the act, and he never left a paper trail. Whatever evidence he did have was locked up in that basement vault.”
“So when we caught you snooping around the perimeter,” Anders picks up without skipping a beat, “we realized we could use you to do what we couldn’t. We were in too deep to risk blowing our cover, but a couple of thieves looking to crack into his vault… It was the perfect opportunity to nab some hard evidence we could use to link Van Straus to his crimes. We traced the serial numbers of all the cash you and Rocky swiped for us, directly implicating Van Straus in a number of violent robberies. The rest of our team is getting ready to storm his place first thing tomorrow.”
“That still doesn’t explain what you’re doinghere,” I mutter with a frown.
“We got the hit alert,” Klaus says sternly. “We realized you and Rocky might be in some deep shit. Thought you could use a little back up. I had to search a shit ton of database records, but I finally traced this property to you when you first bought it twenty years ago.”
“But you’d be helping a criminal.”
Anders shrugs. “Look, I know it’s not exactly by the book, but criminals stealing from criminals? It’s all very gray. I’m certainly not above turning the other cheek. As far as I see it, Van Straus has taken out a hit against two peace-loving civilians. Neither of you have a record, nor have you committed any egregious crimes. Your victims aren’t exactly vulnerable or law abiding. We can’t stand by as officers of the law while Van Straus sends half the underworld after you.”
Klaus rolls his eyes. “Do you have to be so damn dramatic all the time?”
“What? Sometimes it helps when I spell out the optics.”
Beside me, Odette tugs on my hand. “Papa? Are they your friends?”
I nod slowly. “Yes, I think they are.”
“So, where’s Rocky?” Anders asks.
“I have no idea. We separated. I came to Paris to find her when I realized she might be in trouble. All I know is she was supposed to meet a contact of hers.”
“Well, we better find her before someone else does. You’d be surprised what lengths people are willing to go to for a couple million.”
“I have a vague idea.”
“I’ll reach out to our surveillance team,” Klaus says. “We’ll scour traffic cams, open-source security feeds… We’ll find her and—”
The sound of my phone ringing cuts him off. I’m as surprised as everyone else when it buzzes in my pocket. It’s an unknown number. I have half a mind to ignore it and focus on the task at hand, but the feeling in my gut tells me to answer.
