Luca made a choking sound, and Selene squeezed his hand.
“Damn, dude. I’m sorry.” Norah shook her head. “That sucks. We got him out?” Norah looked at Devon.
“Yes, Luca is our newest member, and a task force has been sent to raid the headquarters of the cult. They will rescue his sister.”
“Any word?” Selene asked, knowing that was what Luca had been waiting for.
“We’ll let you know,” Devon said.
Luca released a long, slow breath. Selene knew he wouldn’t rest easy until Joli was no longer on the Bellator Dei compound.
“Back to this…” Oscar tapped his fingers on the table beside Norah’s laptop. “How do you have this kind of access?”
“I used to be a merchant on Silk Road. And I’m a moderator on a lot of these sites.”
Selene blinked. “Isn’t Silk Road like eBay for drugs?”
“Yup.”
“You…sold drugs on the dark web?”
“You got it,” Norah said cheerfully. “But just the good stuff. High-quality weed, and prescription drugs that Big Pharma uses to extort people. Epi pens. Antibiotics. Nothing addictive.” Norah glared at them. “None of you are dumb enough to think weed is addictive, are you?”
Selene shook her head. Luca just looked confused. Devon seemed slightly pained.
“You still operating?” Oscar asked with interest.
“Why? People who couldn’t get insurance and needed me now can. Universal healthcare, baby. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. And pot is legal.”
“Not in South Carolina,” Oscar grumped.
“I’ll hook you up, friend.”
Norah and Oscar bumped fists.
“Did he just buy drugs?” Luca asked. “Can I… Can I try some drugs?”
“I’ll put it on the list,” Selene joked.
“It was one of those no-drug cults?” Norah shook her head. “That makes it all so much worse. At the very least, it could have been one of those new age shroom cults.”
“Ah, no. No drugs. No alcohol. But we already tried that,” Luca said, pointing to Oscar and Selene. “I liked the gin. And the bourbon.”
Norah’s attention had shifted to the list on the window. She smiled. “Get it, boy. Get it. I have a couple of suggestions if you’re looking to expand your horiz—”
“Bomb. Dark web,” Devon interjected.
“Right.” Norah dragged her attention back to her computer. “Okay, so what are the bomb plans? I mean, are we talking about an image? Do we want to encrypt it?”
“I had it encrypted,” Luca said.
“How hard was it to break?” Norah asked.
Oscar shrugged. “It took me a minute.”
“Okay, so that works.” Norah looked around. “One more time, the bomb doesn’t work, right?”
“No, but it took a DARPA supercomputer to run the numbers and figure that out,” Selene said. “The flaw is only evident in the math, and the calculations aren’t part of the schematic.”
“My question to you, Norah, is where within the dark web would it be released?” Devon asked.
“Depends on who you want to find it. And who do you want to have posted it? Dark web people are paranoid. They’re not just going to think some asshole posted this out of the kindness of his or her heart.”
Devon’s phone rang. He glanced at it and frowned. “Excuse me.” He rose from the table and walked over toward the door.
Norah looked back at the list on the window. “Okay, if you want to stay natural, I’m suggesting you try some MJ in a vape, then an edible, then maybe peyote.”
“How the fuck is an edible the stepping stone to peyote?” Oscar demanded.
“You a peyote expert?” Norah asked. “Because I’m not, but I could be. I have a fucking spiritual connection to it. It’s from the earth. It’s natural.”
“If he starts tripping balls and has flashbacks—”
Oscar’s rant was interrupted by the sound of Devon opening the door. He said something they couldn’t hear to Andre, and then swung the door wide.
Owen Fraser walked in with a dark-haired, uber-handsome man who looked like he’d stepped off the pages of GQ and an equally dark-haired, medium-complexion woman with dramatic eyebrows and full lips that Selene would have needed filler to get. She was gorgeous even with her hair scraped back in a low bun and wearing a simple black shirt and jeans.
For a moment, Selene was struck by the arrival of the three gorgeous people.
Then she registered their expressions. Particularly Owen’s.
Anger. Cold, hard anger.
And they were looking at Luca.
“Luca Campisi, stand up.” Owen’s voice was cold.
“What’s going on?” Oscar was the first out of his chair, and he glanced from Owen to Devon, who stood off to the side, expression grim.
Then Oscar backed up, around the table to their side, and