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“Fuck.”
Bobby rubbed his face. “Succinct and accurate. Have you been able to track Allyson’s credit cards?”
“Nope. She hasn’t used them. I’ve been checking traffic cams around New Orleans, trying to figure out which direction she went, but so far, no dice. If she ditched her Honda Civic and is driving something else, I might never find her. If she’s got her phone on her, she’s turned it off. How do you plan to let her know you’ve got Noni so that you can draw her back here?”
Corey and Bobby looked at each other, and then they both shrugged. “We hadn’t thought that far out,” Bobby admitted. “Maybe when Noni doesn’t show up for work tomorrow, the media will announce that she’s gone missing.”
Ed opened his mouth, then closed it, along with his eyes. “This is insane. We need to leave, Corey. We need to destroy our laptops, pack up our shit, and leave Louisiana.”
“Fuck that!” Corey roared, tired and in pain. “I am not quitting now. If I do, I’ll have nothing. And that is not okay.”
He didn’t miss the glance Ed and Bobby shared.
Bobby put out his hands like a traffic cop. “Settle down, everyone. I’m going to be the voice of reason, bizarre as that might sound. Corey, breathe. Ed, we want Allyson because letting her go unpunished will kill what’s left of our reputation. Future clients would see us not killing her as weakness, just like not killing Rick and Jace is weakness.”
“We won’t have any future clients,” Ed bit out. “We are wanted men. If we’re caught, we are headed for prison. I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life behind bars.”
Corey narrowed his eyes. “Are you quitting?”
“Maybe.” Ed narrowed his eyes as well. “Are you going to kill me, too?”
“Guys, guys,” Bobby said, shaking his head. “Everyone, stand down. Corey, you’re hurt and irritable. Take another oxy. I mean it,” he snapped when Corey started to say no. “Ed, stick with us until we finish this job, then we can talk again. I don’t see this as doomsday as you do. It won’t be easy, but we can have jobs after this mess. And the way that we dig ourselves out will let our clients know that we aren’t quitters. That’s important.”
Corey nodded, struggling to find his calm. Struggling not to panic at the thought of Ed leaving them. He depended on the man. A lot. Maybe too much. Which pissed him off, too.
“Discussion of our future clients can wait for a few days, like Bobby said. Our priority is finding Bella Butler because if we fail Doyle, he will retaliate. I know you are afraid you’ll be looking over your shoulder for the cops, but Doyle could be an even bigger threat, because he has money to hire someone to take us out.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “He’s not going to take us out. He’s posturing.”
Corey fought the urge to smack him. “Possibly, but do you want to take the chance? We don’t want on his bad side. He could retaliate in other ways. He knows our résumé.” They’d had to give Doyle examples of their past work to prove their competency. “He could turn us in for a helluva lot of killin’.”
“Not without exposing himself,” Ed said, then sighed. “Unless he does it anonymously. Fuck. Okay, so we don’t want on his bad side.”
Corey nodded, relieved that Ed was finally agreeing with him. “Now, Noni says she doesn’t know where Bella is, but Bobby hasn’t had a chance to work his magic yet.”
Ed sighed. “And if Noni truly doesn’t know?”
“We go back for Cardozo,” Corey said. His stomach churned, but he attributed that to the pain and the Advil. Not to the fact that they’d failed today. They’d get the ADA, one way or another. “He’s the prosecutor on the case. He’s got to know. And if he doesn’t, he can get Bella to tell him where she is.”
“How did Cardozo get away tonight?” Ed asked.
Bobby grin faded. “His bodyguard—y’know, the blonde.”
“Val Sorensen,” Ed supplied.
“Yeah,” Bobby grumbled. “Her. She threw herself over him and my first shot went through a flower shop window instead.”
Ed frowned. “Cardozo went to a flower shop? Now, with all this going on? Why?”
Once again, Corey and Bobby looked at each other. “I don’t know,” Corey said slowly. “But we should find out.”
Ed looked like he was losing his patience. “I’ll do it. So, let’s back up to the beginning when you two left here. You’d docked the boat and were headed into the city when Alex Cullen—my guy inside NOPD—called to say that he’d followed Cardozo to the jail. I assume you caught up with Cardozo as he was leaving the jail.”
“We did,” Bobby confirmed. “We followed him and the blonde to the flower shop and they were in there for a good half hour. We tried to get him on his way in, but a truck was blocking the way and we didn’t have a clean shot. Once they came out, he and the blonde stopped to talk. Looks like he’s sweet on her. But then she noticed us driving past. She shoved him down and hit the deck. Started shooting back at us.”
“And hit Corey,” Ed said.
“And Bobby,” Corey added. “Hit him in the chest. His vest caught the bullets. Bobby was opening fire with the rifle when this big guy came around the corner of the shop and threw himself on both of them.”
