School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,104

C-4.”

Ellery’s eyes widened. He’d been there the last time those particular people had been involved with sniper rounds and C-4. “May God have mercy on all involved,” he said, totally and completely serious. “What about Constance?”

Jackson’s grimace turned deadly grim. “I think he’s being chased by mobsters and the US military. He’s planning to arrive at the courthouse tomorrow with the kids. I think you should be there to help the human trafficking division take custody of the victims, and me and Henry should maybe….” Jackson made vague motions with his hands.

“Spirit Constance away,” Ellery said. “Yes, I think that’s a plan. I’ll reserve a cabin up near Tahoe, literally a cabin in the woods. There’s a couple of small lakes up by Donner Pass. A friend of mine had a fishing cabin up there. I’m pretty sure I can find one for rent. Was there anything else you got done by phone? Because I did a bit while I was waiting for the damned auto dealership too.”

Jackson laughed with only a little bitterness and sighed. “Here.” He stood and offered Ellery a hand up off the bed. “Let’s go sit over some ice cream and compare notes.” He hid part of a yawn behind his hand. “We need to be up early tomorrow. Constance is going to be there around six in the morning, and you and I need to debrief.”

Ellery took his hand and allowed Jackson to haul him up into a half-naked, chest-to-chest kiss. Jackson nuzzled his neck for a moment, bringing them both back to those few breathless moments in bed, and then gave him one last brief press of lips before pulling him to the kitchen table and back to work.

“Hey, did you ever get that pork chop back from your cat?” Ellery asked.

Jackson grunted. “I got him to eat it in the kitchen. Does that count?”

Ellery groaned. “No. No, it does not count. What are we bringing a new kitten into? Have you thought of that?”

Jackson stilled and looked at him soberly. “A better life here than in a cage,” he said.

Well, couldn’t argue with that. “Let’s make sure it’s a tough kitty,” Ellery decided.

“The battles will be epic.”

Of course they would be.

HALF AN hour later they’d basically killed a small container of lemon-raspberry gelato, and Ellery was still in awe.

“You got all that done on the phone?”

Jackson shrugged. “Well, yes. K-Ski has protection, we’re going to meet Constance tomorrow, and we may have Tage Dobrevk’s siblings recovered before this thing is done. Wasn’t much. Now you tell me yours.”

Ellery grinned. “Oh boy, did Jade and AJ dig up some information for you.”

Mostly Ellery’s discussions had consisted of downloads of files from Jade on Ziggy Ivanov and bookmaker’s odds, but it was still a wealth of information.

Jackson grinned. “I knew they would. Shoot!”

“Okay, so, Ziggy Ivanov is actually nearly thirty years old.”

Jackson’s jaw dropped. “No, really?”

“Yessir. He spent his youth in a gymnasium”—he pronounced it the Eastern European way, in which he drew out the A and made it “ah”—“as a competitive gymnast and tumbler. He didn’t make it to the Olympics, but that was fine. He was recruited by the Siderov family in his teens. It’s estimated he was their grease man or thief from the time he was fifteen. When he washed out of the gymnasium, he went to work for them full-time. When Siderov moved his operations to California via the influx of Russian emigres here, his skill as a thief and pretty face made him a natural to infiltrate the high school. Siderov’s organization has a couple of businesses—”

“Let me guess,” Jackson said. “Drugs, gambling, and sex trade.”

“You cheated,” Ellery said, taking a modest bite of ice cream.

“Cheated?” Jackson rolled his eyes. “I got that information the hard way!”

Well, couldn’t argue that.

“So,” Ellery said, “about the gambling….”

Jackson banged his head gently on the kitchen table. “I was going to text Fetzer and Hardison.”

“No need,” Ellery said smugly. “Turns out AJ’s delinquent boyfriend—”

Jackson gave him a hard look. The gentle AJ had managed—quite without guile, they were both sure of it—to snag the attention of a kid a little younger than he was who’d just finished a six-month sentence for distribution and was now doing his best to go clean. Their courtship had been a little down, a lot of up, and now AJ’s roommate was happy to report there had been actual sleepovers.

Ellery took a deep breath and tried again. “AJ’s reformed and much-improved boyfriend,” he said virtuously, “knows some