She shoved the memories away and continued to stare at the man before her.
“I’ll be ready at four,” she said coolly. She’d get through this. Get through this. Get it done. See the damn job through and hope she just had a chance at what life seemed to be offering her.
His house. They were going to his house. She’d never found anything there before, but maybe . . . just maybe there would be something, or somebody—the final connection.
All she needed was the right connection.
* * *
ALL day, something had felt off.
Joss had tried a couple of times to reach out to Dru, but never once had he been able to. Not once. Distant and cool, she’d rebuffed him every time.
The one time she actually acknowledged him, she was . . . quiet. Sad and quiet. I’m having a bit of a rough day. I need some time alone, Joss.
Time alone. Okay. He could understand that. Even if he hated it. Even if it drove him crazy.
Wasn’t like he didn’t have something he needed to be focused on. Somebody . . .
Two somebodies, actually. That fucker, Whitmore, and Vaughnne. Currently, he was texting Whitmore, and Vaughnne was sitting across from him, gorging on Thai food like she hadn’t a care in the world.
I think I got lucky on the first shipment. Perfect piece.
As Joss sent the text, Vaughnne snagged a spring roll from the plate between them.
Until they knew how Whitmore wanted to go from here, they were playing it cool.
Joss was ready to wait a few hours, or even a day or two.
His own food sat in front of him, barely touched. Distracted, wishing he could talk to Dru, but knowing he needed to give her time, he pushed the rice on his plate around.
“You look thrilled to be here,” Vaughnne said. “Hell, I’d almost think you were the one getting ready to play little slave girl.”
Joss just grunted.
What was up with Dru?
“You know, you used to be a little more chatty than this.”
Shooting Vaughnne a dark look, he said, “I’ll get chatty when there’s something to chat about.”
“Fine. Grouchy.” She lapsed into silence, focusing on her food.
By the time she’d finished clearing her plate and the rest of the spring rolls, Joss had a text from Whitmore.
You’re fast. Is it secured?
No. Still in the process of taking possession, but it’s prime. Do you have the facilities ready?
Yes. If you can take possession, we can put the piece into place today. I’ll have my team meet you.
Good deal.
Joss looked up and met her gaze. “This could be a rough few weeks for you.”
Vaughnne gave him a sharp-edged smile. “No problem. I’ve been spinning my wheels, waiting for this for a long time, Crawford.”
There was something in her eyes, he thought. Yeah. Rage. A particular kind of rage.
“This is personal for you,” he said quietly.
She just stared at him, her golden eyes blank. “It doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t. I can do my job. That’s all that counts. Besides . . .” She shrugged and said, “I’m the best person to put in first. Jones is still trolling for a decent fit for the Latina. There are a couple, but one has a gift like Desiree’s and that’s a bad match. There’s got to be ghosts like mad wherever this is. The other is an empath. Even with shielding, it would be too much.”
“What about Nalini?”
“Ahhh . . .” Vaughnne smiled. “Our resident psycho. She’s the closest thing to crazy we’ve got, you know. No, she can’t go in until the last minute. The longer she’s in, the closer she’ll come to snapping. And she’ll hurt people when she does . . . it may not be the bad guys, either.”
Joss wanted to know more about that.
“No matter how we look at it, I’m the best match. If things go bad, I can call for help. Jones is going to be expecting me to check in on a regular basis and if even an hour goes by when he doesn’t hear from me, I can expect the calvary, right?” But before he could respond, there was another text.
If all goes well, I’d like you to join me at my place for a party. You could bring a few pictures of the shipment. I’ll go view it tomorrow myself, but I’d like to get an idea of just how well you work.
Joss grimaced. “He wants me to kidnap you, deliver you