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“I know. Just be careful and don’t let the weight get away from you.”
“I know.”
He kissed her, and she pulled the helmet on. She was his backup. Something hinky was going on, and they hadn’t been able to find out what. Felice’s house was empty, her car gone, and she wasn’t at work. Al had gone to ground, too. Wherever he was, he wasn’t showing his face. But there didn’t seem to be any kill teams looking for him and Lizzy; if there were, they were invisible, because his people hadn’t spotted a thing, and they’d been looking hard.
Now he had this meeting with Al.
Together he and Lizzy had surveilled the meeting place, checked the adjacent businesses, and now he was ready to take his place inside. Lizzy had his back.
He settled in, facing the door, thirty minutes before the agreed-upon time.
Al’s first choice for this meeting had been an off-the-map, rarely used park; Xavier preferred their meeting place to be a bit more public, and Al had agreed. He respected Al Forge, and he trusted Al as much as he trusted anyone else in the business—but at this point in the game that wasn’t saying much.
While he was on guard where Al was concerned, and would continue to be, he was much more worried about Felice. Where the fuck was she? None of his people had been able to get a fix on her, which couldn’t be good. She was fully capable of turning on everyone, Al included. Maybe that was what this meeting was all about.
With a laptop in front of him, as well as two huge cups of coffee—one for him, one for the man he was waiting for—no one thought twice about him taking up the booth for so long. He was obviously waiting for someone, and he wasn’t the only person in the coffee shop who took his time, sipping on overpriced—and bitter—coffee and taking advantage of the free Internet.
Al arrived right on time, not a minute early, not a minute late. He looked calm but sober, and he’d taken care to dress casually. Xavier couldn’t say with any certainty that Al wasn’t armed, but there was no shoulder holster, no loose jacket to disguise a gun at his spine. And in a crowded place like this one, surely someone was observant enough to spot a weapon, though likely the person would just think Al was a cop.
Ankle holster, maybe—no, almost certainly, because Al was as likely to leave the house unarmed as Xavier was. But he couldn’t get to that ankle holster quickly—not quickly enough, in any case.
It was an indicator of the seriousness of the situation that Xavier even had these thoughts where Al was concerned.
Al slid into the bench seat on the other side of the table. “Is she here?”
“Close,” Xavier said, and sipped his coffee.
“Should I be worried?”
Xavier’s expression didn’t change as he said, “Yes, you should.”
Without responding, Al removed a thumb drive from his pocket and slid it across the table. “Do me a favor and turn the laptop so no one else can see the screen,” he said in a quiet tone. He looked tired, older, and more than a little pissed about the way things had gone down.
Weren’t they all.
Xavier popped the thumb drive into the slot on the side of the laptop and clicked on the icon that immediately popped up. The silent video began to play. The
focus was brutally close, and the players were recorded clearly and cleanly. He could see the surprise in Felice’s eyes when Al swiftly lifted his arm and aimed his weapon at her; then, moments later, he saw the determination that had been on Al’s face as he reached toward the camera and turned it off.
“Jesus, Al.” Xavier ejected the thumb drive—after swiftly saving the file—and shut down his laptop. He slid the damning device back across the table, but Al shook his head. He didn’t take it, just pushed it back toward Xavier.
“It’s yours. That’s the only copy, so for fuck’s sake keep it someplace secure.”
“Someone like Felice can hardly disappear without questions being raised.”
“This afternoon her body will be discovered in a remote area of Virginia, the apparent victim of a violent carjacking.”
Talk about surprises. He narrowly studied the man who’d trained him. “Why?” But he knew, as he asked the question, what the answer would be.
“I’ve got you two by the short hairs, and now you’ve got me in the same position.”
Xavier leaned back. “Mutual assured destruction.”
“Yeah.” Al gestured to the coffee cup in front of him. “Is this safe?”
“I suppose.”
Al wrapped his fingers around the cup. “You suppose?”
