“Because Emmett loves me best,” Meg replied, popping some more into her mouth. “Mm, ‘taste the rainbow.’”
Emmett often worked with Meg, Maury, and Sil, but from HQ as backup. He’d graduated from MIT and joined Jack’s team six years ago. Emmett desperately wanted to be part of Jack’s Justice League, but as talented as he was, Sil surpassed him. Since joining the team, Sil asked questions, soaked up every bit of information he came across, adapted, evolved. If he didn’t know something, he didn’t just learn, he excelled at it. Emmett was always eager to learn, but in his quest for knowledge, he sometimes took on more than he could chew. It drove Maury nuts, mostly because he was the one who had to fix whatever mess Emmett got himself into. Though Jack wondered if Maury’s griping about Emmett had more to do with Emmett showering Megan with candy all the time.
Their thief had just reached the bottom landing and turned toward the alley that would lead him out onto A1A when something emerged from the guy’s left and tackled him to the ground. Chip’s front paws pressed down on the young man’s shoulders, his back legs on the ground between the guy’s sprawled legs, his menacing growl filling the air, teeth bared, gums showing.
“Fuck.” The thief whimpered, hands up and at his sides as he trembled in fear. With good reason. Chip was adorable, but when he was in “work mode,” he was terrifying—a black demon dog with razor-sharp teeth and raised hackles. When the light caught his brown eyes a certain way, they almost seemed to glow like amber.
The guy tried giving Chip all kinds of commands, but Chip didn’t so much as blink. He’d been trained to take German commands for a reason, and he only took those commands from Joker. Speak of the little devil… Joker appeared with Ace on his heels. He stopped beside Chip, giving him a quiet but firm command that had Chip hopping off the guy and dutifully sitting at attention to one side, his intense gaze on the man on the ground.
“Hand it over,” Ace demanded.
The guy glanced at Ace, then Chip. “Is he going to bite me if I move?”
“Only if it’s a stupid move,” Joker replied.
With a heavy sigh, the guy slowly lowered a hand. “I’m reaching into my pocket.” He pulled out a small coin purse and handed it to Ace, who shook his head in shame at him.
“Stealing from your own grandfather. That’s low, man.”
The guy glared at Ace. “He said they were mine.”
“Yeah, when he passed away, dumbass, and considering he’s alive and pissed, my guess is you won’t be getting them anytime soon.”
“Police incoming. Mr. Stevenson is with them,” Jack informed his friends as a couple of police officers arrived on the scene with a tiny eighty-year-old man, who despite using a cane moved faster than any of them expected. He darted over to his grandson and whacked him with his cane.
“Ow! Pop, what the hell?”
“You ungrateful little shit!”
Ace and Joker stood to one side, trying to hide their laughter, no doubt out of fear Mr. Stevenson might whack them as well. The Kings had been hired by the spritely old man to provide security while he displayed his extremely valuable collection of Spanish gold coins during the coin and currency show. The collection had been in the family for generations, and Mr. Stevenson had planned on passing them down to his grandson, who’d been working as his assistant.
The twenty-five-year-old had appeared every inch the doting grandson, bringing his grandfather refreshments, making sure he wasn’t overheated… And then he’d stolen a bagful of coins from right under the poor old man’s nose.
“I’m sorry,” the young man wailed as his grandfather whapped him in the back of the head.
“Oh, you’re going to be sorry all right. We’ll see how you like jail.”
The young man’s eyes went comically wide, his mouth dropping open as the two officers helped him to his feet and started escorting him away.
“Wait, Pop! Please don’t send me to jail. Come on!”
Mr. Stevenson turned to Ace and Joker. He waited until his grandson was in the back of the squad car before speaking, an evil twinkle in his eyes. “I’m not sending him to jail, but it won’t hurt him to sweat a little.” He nodded his thanks to Ace and Joker, then turned to Chip. “And thank you, soldier.”