Page 41 of Spies Like Us

“No, but it won’t hurt for us to know where we stand,” Anders reasons.

“If we’re all not in agreement, then there’s no point in even broaching the subject with Percy or her,” Max agrees as we wait for Ryland and Miller to give us their opinion.

“Don’t be such a stubborn asshole,” Ryland snaps, standing up and glaring down at his partner. “You know this will work, but you’re being a fucking dick.”

My eyes widen as I stare at my teammate in shock. He’s so freaking easygoing that when he does explode, it’s surprising.

“Calm down,” Miller says, waving a hand at his partner, and we all know he said the wrong thing as Ry sneers at him.

“You’re so busy trying to prove you’re better than anyone else and resenting her for the relationship she has with her parents that if you got out of your own way, you would see how this is the perfect solution. Hell, if this worked, we could marry her, and they would actually be your parents, you fucking dumbass!” Ryland is shouting by the end.

“Whoa, who said anything about marriage? I thought you wanted to fuck her,” Miller deflects, which is definitely the wrong move.

Ryland growls. “Stop it. This is serious. You’re so hot and cold all the time. You’re the one who is causing problems now, not Bishop, and definitely not Mac. Pull your head out of your ass.”

Ryland storms out of the room as Miller gets up and chases after him with a small glimmer of panic in his eyes. He has to be careful. It takes a lot to upset Ryland, so he must feel pretty strongly about this. Hopefully they can sort it out without it becoming a bigger issue. The rest of us just look at each other. I get up to follow them, but Max waves me back down.

“They need to sort this out between themselves. Ry will be okay. Miller wants this, he’s just too stubborn to admit it. You know what he’s like. Seeing Percy get shot was devastating for him, even if it was fake. He doesn’t trust very easily, and when you make it into his inner circle, he will protect you with his life. He feels like he failed Percy and Sadie.”

“But it wasn’t real,” I argue, and Max sighs.

“For a few moments, it was, and he lost the man he considers a father and hero worships. You know how bad his life was until Percy rescued him from the horror show of foster homes he experienced. He’s having trouble forgiving Kensington, and realizing how close she is to both Sadie and Percy is also a slap in the face. I think he feels like they hid it from him.”

“Well, they kind of did, always keeping us apart,” Anders points out, and Max shrugs.

“I guess they feel like they had a reason. Let’s table this conversation until Miller comes to a decision. It’s too important to force this on him.”

Anders and Dayton fill us in on finding the body and the subsequent response from the authorities.

“Chief Thompson is a good actor. He said all the right things and went through the right motions. You never would have guessed he was in the know,” Dayton says.

“Yeah, him and the medical examiner. I’m not sure about the rest of the police force, but I guess only time will tell,” Anders says before telling us that Matthew expected him to fuck Mac in front of cameras tonight. “They want blackmail material.”

“But they already have that,” I argue, but Max shakes his head.

“No, Mac doesn’t know about that. They need something to hold over her head. The other one is to hold over mine.”

“Tonight would be as good a time as any to check out the tunnels.” Dayton has been quiet this whole time, listening and planning. “Bishop’s body has been removed, and they are going to be distracted while dealing with that. We may not have many more days if they are having a club night on Friday. The auction will certainly be soon after.”

“It seems like it, considering what Mac overheard. Those two guys Lathan identified as Lucy’s and Michelle’s fathers have ties to trafficking in Europe. I think it would be safe to assume they are here to make sure everything goes smoothly. Are you still monitoring the auction page, Lathan?” Anders asks, and I nod.

“Yes, it’s still inactive. I have it set to alert me the minute it comes back online.”

“Okay, I’d also like to poke around the docks again. With Isaac Palmer in the mix, I bet they are using Ted’s shipping containers to smuggle them out of the country. We need to look into the customs inspectors at the port. They must have one of them in their pocket, or at least some blackmail material on them.” Max gets up and stretches before gathering the empty coffee mugs.

“We need to find where they keep all their blackmail material. We’ve theorized that’s what they use the sex club for, but they must keep those cameras on an internal server or something. I was able to hack into the ones in the tunnel, cells, and the school, but I haven’t been able to find any that show signs of this sex club,” I tell the guys, annoyed and frustrated at my lack of success.

“Okay. If we find the club, we’ll poke around and see if we can find their security area. They have to have one. I’m guessing we will find all the tapes there. Let’s plan to leave around ten. The Life Lounge is only open until twelve tonight, so that gives us a couple of hours while you guys are at work,” Dayton tells Anders.

“Matthew will be at the club, we already know that, so we only have to worry about where the rest of the suspects are.” I stand and pick up my laptop. I need to scan the card, and the rest of my equipment is in my room.

“Actually, we don’t have to worry about that. Stella told me that her mom has book club with her female friends, and her dad was going to the club for a drink with the partners. She was trying to get me to come over to her place.” Max wrinkles his nose, and I can guess what she wanted from him. “I told her I was expecting a phone call from Dad, and I would see how long that took. I can now call her and use the discovery of Bishop’s body as an excuse not to go.”

With that, Max takes the dirty mugs to the kitchen, and I return to my bedroom to clone the card. On my way past Ryland’s bedroom, I hear a low moan, and I smother my chuckle. I guess the two of them sorted out their issues. That, or Miller distracted Ryland with sex. Hopefully it was the former. I really want to know where we stand with Mac.

Breaking into the library is a piece of cake. The alarm system is old and easy to hack, and Ryland picks the back door lock like it was nothing. There are no cameras in the library except one, which points at the circulation desk, and it was easy enough to hack the feed and loop it so it doesn’t show us moving through the library.

The four of us are dressed in black as we creep across the library to the elevator. There’s no one in the library, but we stick close to the shadows in case anyone driving past just so happens to look in the big front windows.

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