if you cannot care for it appropriately. Or do you need a lesson in gun ownership as well, Penn?” The threat, though whispered, was as clear as a voice over a loudspeaker in a small room.
Willow looked up at me. Her eyes huge. She shook her head quickly.
“No. I’m good, thank you.”
A low beeping came over the line. “I’ve found the signal’s location. Did you still have it securely stored in the biometric case?” Mas asked.
Willow nodded immediately. “I might have been forgetful, but I’m not stupid, Mas. Yes. It’s securely stored.” There wasn’t even a hint of the sass I’d have expected in that statement.
“Good. Then perhaps your mistake can be forgiven. I’ll send you the link. We will begin heading that way.”
“What about the police?” I asked.
Willow smirked.
“Contrary to recent actions, we do not go running to the police with all of our problems, Penn. This we can handle quietly and quickly if they are not there to muddy our particular waters,” Mas said.
My phone beeped with an incoming text. I pulled it from Willow’s hands. “We’ll see you at the end of the rainbow.” I disconnected the call. Switching apps, I pulled up the satellite link Mas had sent.
“It’s less than a mile away.” I grabbed Willow’s hand. “Let’s go.”
I unlocked the elevator, strode to the car. “I’ll lock this down so no one else can get in here. We’ll take a different car.” I walked to the secured, recessed keybox on the wall. Punching in my PIN, I grabbed up a set of keys to my Audi.
As I got Willow settled in the front passenger seat, I took out my phone again. Hit the speed dial for Penn Towers’ front desk. “Hello, this is Ryker Penn. Please send someone to the private garage and have the rest of the stuff taken to the penthouse.”
“Of course, sir. Anything else I can help you with?” the woman asked.
“No. That’s it. Thank you.” I disconnected as I slid behind the wheel. “Front desk is going to take the rest of your stuff up.”
Willow chuckled. “You had staff who could have taken it all up for us?”
I reversed the car and answered. “They’re not my personal staff, and I don’t treat them as such. But in this case, with us leaving, I’m willing to blur those lines.”
I slowed to check traffic before I zipped out into it. Hitting a button on my steering wheel, I told my car and my phone to link up. “Display directions.”
“Displaying directions. Please use caution when driving,” the dulcet tones of the automated assistant reminded me.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
“Turn left onto Pennsylvania Avenue.”
I obligingly turned the corner.
“Your destination is ahead on your right.”
Slapping off the nav system, I eased the car to the curb as we waited for Rafe and Mas to show up. “Any guesses on who took it?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Willow shake her head. “Not a clue. And why would they only steal one bag?”
I shrugged. “What size is it?”
She held her hands out in a rough shape that could possibly hold three shoeboxes depending on their size. “Bigger than a train case, smaller than a carry on.”
I felt my belly unwind itself. “So something easy to carry and fairly easy to conceal.”
“I guess. I’m not really the flashy luggage kind of girl, so it could just look like a boxy briefcase to the untrained eye.”
I chuckled. My girl definitely was low-key when it came to her luggage preferences. I’d almost expected the full line of Louis Vitton or Coach bags when I went back into her apartment to start getting her stuff down to the garage. I’d been shocked to find them a metallic looking silver. Very innocuous and relatively common, if I wasn’t mistaken.
A black Ford Fusion nosed in behind my Audi. “Guys are here.”
Willow pushed her door open and was standing on the street before I could stop her. I glared at her over the low roof of the car. “Me first. You don’t come out until I know you’re going to be safe.”
Rafe walked up beside me. Shook his finger in her face over the top of the car. “Yeah, little girl. You haven’t lived with the big bad mafia for eighteen months or anything. How dare you presume to know how to take care of yourself?”
I was this close from punching him in the face.
His brother handled that for me. Although it was a solar plexus hit instead of his handsome face. “Don’t