In Too Deep(108)

I nodded. "No restraints. They don't follow the rules everyone else plays by. It's how they're so effective. You know the rules I operated by? Well, they're nothing like that."

I didn't need to tell Sophie that in addition to their total lack of following the rules, they were truly some of the best-trained killers in the world. I'd had years of training under various teachers who, while strict, were at least willing to care about my wellbeing. These guys trained under a Darwinian system. Those who weren't strong enough to keep up were either dropped or got themselves killed. It encouraged a certain kind of crazy in those who survived, and a total disregard for human life, including their own.

Tabby gulped and took a drink of her ice water. "What are you going to do?"

I thought about it for a second, then took a drink of my own water. "I need to draw them out. The one advantage I have over them is that they don't know the city the way I do. They're probably studying it as fast as they can, but there's still things that I know that they don't. I need to draw them to a place where I control the terrain advantage. The question is how to do it."

Sophie and Tabby fell silent as the three of us thought. I finished my lasagna and waited for our waiter to bring dessert, a panna cotta with olive oil ice cream. Finally, Sophie looked up at me. "What about a baited trap?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, curious. Sophie's eyes had taken on the look not only of the woman I'd trained, but the natural hunter I'd sensed in her even before she knew who I was. There is a deep well of protective strength in Sophie, a heightened sense of the natural maternal protective instinct that, when she tuned into it, made her not just a capable protector, but a dangerous stalker and hunter. During some of the training exercises I'd had her do in Croatia, she'd done better than I had the first time I went through them, that's how natural she is.

"Well, we know who they work for. What if we give their boss a reason to come to us?"

I thought about it for a second. "You mean give him a reason to think we're not who we say we are."

"Exactly. Maybe the Snowman or Miss White need to come back for a single performance."

I thought about it for a second. It was risky, but it was bold. "But how? The surgeries were done for a reason."

Sophie chuckled and puffed out her cheeks and tightened her neck, pulling her shoulders up. It was startling in that it obliterated almost all of the change in her facial structure the surgeons had done. Instead of the slightly narrower jawline and long, swan like neck of Sophie Warbird, the more compact and in some ways cuter profile of Sophie White sat before me. The nose was still different, though. I blinked, and Sophie relaxed her features with a laugh. "I noticed it a few days after the bandages came off. I can't exactly hold it for a long time, but a still shot with a wig should handle things, don't you think?"

I nodded. "Tabby, you think you can find a t-shirt from the Shamrock?"

"I have one already," Tabby replied, "it's at my place. Sophie left it there one time after an early shift when I convinced her to come out partying with me."

"Then we can work a plan."

After the dinner was over, Sophie and I drove back to Mount Zion. Workers had been there most of the day, and the improvement was noticeable. At least our bedroom area was complete, as well as our kitchen. The bathrooms needed work still, so we couldn't take a shower until they were finished. Since we had both conspicuously joined a gym nearby, a total waste of money since Mount Zion's main sanctuary was being refitted for that exact purpose, we could at least use that, and the chemical toilet for another day or two.

"I'm going to get changed for bed," Sophie said quietly as we came in. She started towards the closet area, but I reached out to take her arm.

"Sophie, wait," I said, turning her around. She turned to look at me, and I took a deep breath as I considered what I was going to say. I just hoped that I wasn't making a mistake. I'd just have to try to wrap all this up as fast as possible, something easier said than done. Watching her over the past twenty-four hours had been the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life, and seeing the reanimation in her face as she applied her mind to the problems with the new players in town made up my mind. I was never going to let her feel that way again. "I've come to a decision."

"And?" she asked, her voice still not hopeful. When she saw me smile, her eyes lifted and the look of Sophie, my Sophie, came back into her face.

"Let's have a baby, but on two conditions," I said, pulling her in close and kissing her. "We wait until we've taken out these two men. You stay on your pills until then, and then we start trying. Second, if and when you get pregnant, all of this going after criminals stuff stops. You go straight to the day to day business of Smiley Consolidated. Okay?"

She nodded, and kissed me again. "I can do that. By the way, we have to actually make a Smiley Consolidated."

"Of course," I replied, our kiss growing deeper. "In fact, I was thinking we could do some consolidating right now."





Chapter 23


Sophie




Ironically, it was at the exact same nail salon that Tabby had showed us last night that we decided to do the first purchase for Smiley Consolidated. The owner, a pretty Southeast Asian lady named Ms. Wen, was ecstatic when we met. "Thank you so much, Mr. Smiley, Miss Warbird," she said in lightly accented English. "With your investment, I can make the expansion that we've needed for so long."