A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(75)

“Ezra called me, worried sick, because his wife hadn’t been heard from all day.” Dominic didn’t take his eyes off Natasha as he spoke. “Then he told me an interesting story about how he and Jay Sawyer used to be law school classmates and good friends.”

Stiffening, Levi turned back to Natasha.

“I’m assuming that’s how you chose your earliest victims?” Dominic asked.

She gave a non-committal shrug.

Rebel was huddled against Dominic’s legs, hiding behind him with her ears pinned back, regarding Natasha fearfully. He’d only ever seen her afraid one time before.

“That’s why Rebel wouldn’t come out of our room the day we moved into our apartment. She’s scared of you-you traumatized her when you wrecked my place.” He stepped closer to Natasha, his anger growing. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing!” Natasha appeared genuinely offended. “I would never hurt a dog.”

Dominic snorted. “Right, of course. Because that would be crazy.”

Martine, who had yet to say a word this entire time, lunged forward without warning and punched Natasha square in the face. There was so much force behind the blow that Natasha’s head whipped to the side and she stumbled, barely catching herself on one knee.

“That’s for giving my baby girls nightmares.” Martine shook out her hand. There were tears in her eyes, but her voice was steady.

Natasha got back to her feet, stretching her jaw and gingerly touching her bloodied mouth. “Fair enough.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Martine asked Levi.

“Yeah. But we don’t have much time.”

“Until what?”

“Until Utopia makes good on their threat to rain down fire and sulfur,” said Natasha.

Levi shot her a glare before addressing Dominic and Martine. “While Utopia had me, I overheard some of their plans for tonight. There’s going to be a second bomb, bigger than the first, but I don’t know where or when it’ll go off. They’re also planning to incite riots across the city beforehand to spread resources thin.”

Fuck. “The riots have already started,” Dominic said, and then addressed Natasha. “You always know more than we do. You really have no idea where the bomb is?”

“No. I’ve been getting all kinds of conflicting intel, nothing solid.” She smoothed a stray lock of hair off her forehead. “Does anyone else know you’re here?”

Though Dominic was fairly sure she wouldn’t use this opportunity to try to kill them all and head for the hills, he hesitated before he said no.

“We couldn’t trust anyone else not to betray Levi,” Martine added, every word dripping a venom that didn’t seem to affect Natasha at all.

“We still can’t.” Dominic rubbed Levi’s back; he hadn’t stopped touching Levi since they’d reunited. “Most of the city thinks you escaped this morning. We need to keep it that way.”

Levi raised his eyebrows. “Well, I know you wouldn’t say we should just walk away from this situation, so what are you saying? That we should take on an entire militia by ourselves?”

“How much choice do we have? We have to do something to stop this, but we know for a fact that Utopia has agents inside the LVMPD and local government. There’s a good chance the FBI is compromised as well. One word to the wrong person and it could be game over.”

Martine had been glowering at Natasha since punching her in the face. “I think the wrong person’s already standing here.”

“At the very least, you must believe that I’d do anything to stop Utopia from launching another attack.” Natasha spread her hands. “Who do you know who’s hurt their organization more than I have?”

“Nobody, but then, I don’t know anyone else willing to commit mass murder.”

“They were Nazis,” Natasha said dismissively. “Does that even count?”

Martine sucked in a breath, but Levi stepped between them before the situation could devolve further.

“Stop! We can’t do this right now.” He appealed to Martine. “I know how you’re feeling, believe me. But if we can’t trust the police or the FBI, Natasha is best positioned to help us. I just don’t know what the four of us . . .” He looked down at Rebel, still cowering behind Dominic’s legs. “The five of us can hope to accomplish on our own. We don’t even know the full scope of Utopia’s plan.”

“Then we stop them from putting the plan into action at all,” Natasha said.

“How?” Dominic’s fingers flexed around his gun. He wasn’t holstering his until she holstered hers.

“Cut off the head of the snake. Hatfield never left Las Vegas. Carmen found him hiding out at-”

“His mistress’s condo Downtown?” Dominic said dryly.

Natasha did a double-take. “Yeah. Damn, you are good. Anyway, if we kill Hatfield, it’ll throw Utopia into chaos, demoralize them, disrupt their chain of command.”

All three of them gaped at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, what, you’re shocked?”

“You are not killing anybody else today,” Levi snapped. “In fact, we’re trading weapons. Give me that gun.”

They faced off for a few tense moments before Natasha made an exasperated noise and shoved the pistol into Levi’s hand. He gave her the stun gun he was holding.