The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts #6)(29)

“All right,” said Toni. “This is how it’s going to go. I expect everyone,” she made eye contact with Tristan, “to follow my instructions this time. There is a civilian involved, and her safety needs to come before anything.”

“Then why are you letting her come?” asked Tristan.

“We’re letting her go because it’s easier to keep her safe if we have eyes and ears on her rather than to just let her walk out the front door.”

“So the plan is just to let her go piss off Damask and hope he doesn’t shoot her on sight?”

“No, that’s a stupid plan,” said Hart. “The plan is to distract Damask with Shae. We’ll have Hunter on her at all times to make sure she’s safe while Gage clones his cell phone. Once we have access to his phone, we’ll have access to everything. Where he’s living, where he’s working. And then we can really hit him where it hurts.”

“This is stupid,” said Tristan. “We have two people here who won’t shut up about how great you are with the internet, but we still have to pick up his phone? We’re supposed be better than this.”

“We’re only as good as the information we have. All we have is a first name. Maybe a last name. It’s kind of a stupid name. He’s basically a ghost, and I can’t track ghosts on the internet. I can, however, track real-life people. If we find out who he is, and what he’s about, then I can use my talents. Until then, we’re shit out of luck. So if you don’t have a better plan, this is what we’re doing.”

“Shae isn’t going to like being a distraction.”

“Then don’t tell Shae she’s a distraction. She’s part of the plan, just like she wanted. I don’t see a problem with this. I sent all of you an email with directions. From the little I could gather from a few emails I was able to get off the guys we’ve identified before, a lot of the bigwigs are supposed to be there. Hopefully Damask. Shae is in charge of identifying him, and you guys know where to take it from there. Is this okay with everyone?”

Nothing about this was okay to Tristan. He had about fifteen different objections, but he also didn’t want to get in the way of getting the job done. Nor did he want Shae going off on her own again. “I don’t want Hunter with Shae,” he said finally. “She’s my responsibility. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get in trouble.”

“I agree,” said Hart. “But I also think they know what you look like. You’ve been compromised.”

“A couple of guys saw me. And besides, the point is that you want Damask to recognize Shae anyway. So he’ll recognize her and me.”

Toni eyed him warily. “Are you sure? You seemed like you didn’t want a lot to do with her last night.”

Tristan could tell everyone in the room was looking at him a little bit differently after that, but he didn’t owe them an explanation for anything. “I’m sure. I’m half the reason she’s in this mess. I’ll take care of her.”

Toni shrugged. “She’s all yours, buddy. But fair warning, I just locked her in the green room, so she might be a little feisty when you see her.”

Tristan made his way to the green room. It wasn’t called the green room because it was filled with plants. Instead, it was because the outside of the door was, for whatever reason, painted green. Nothing inside the room was green, and no other doors in the house were any color besides wood grain brown, but this door happened to be green. They all had different theories for the painted door. Gage thought something was hidden in it. Something special that had to be signaled out somehow. Tristan, however, figured it was a kid who used to live here. Some kid who lived in the stark, sterile existence of the rich and wanted to stand out in some way.

Whatever happened, they might never know. He undid the lock and opened the door to see Shae sitting innocently on the sheet-covered sofa. She raised a brow at him as he entered. She didn’t seem upset like he thought she’d be, but she sure as hell seemed calculating.

“So you’re the one they sent to collect me?”

“At least I’m collecting you. If it were up to me, you’d stay locked in this room until the whole thing is over.”

“That’s an interesting insight into your personality, Tristan.”

“Careful there. That’s a scary place to be.”

“Your personality?”

“Inside my mind,” he clarified. “Are you ready?”

Her lips tightened just the slightest bit. “Not really. I think I have the microphone right, but I’ve never exactly used anything like this before.” She fiddled with the lapel on her suit jacket to give him a better view of what she was working with. The problem was, she barely had to move it before he saw the mic.

Tristan shook his head. “Here, let me.” Before he even knew what he was doing, he was reaching for her jacket and flicking the two buttons open. He heard her catch her breath as he parted the fabric, revealing the silky white blouse beneath. Even before he touched her, he could feel the heat of her body. He tried to keep his cool, but took a quick swallow as he plucked the microphone from the lapel. “Ummm, the trick is to hide it as much as possible. You see, in movies and police operations, they might tape the wire to the skin so it’s less conspicuous. We’re going to keep you as far away for as long as possible, so we’re not going to go through all that.”