Page 130 of Underground Prince

“Theo Saxon is not our endgame. You hear me?” Nate lowered his hand. “That’s what you need to know first. We want the bigger fish, and I don’t have to tell you who. We are more than willing to strike a deal with Theo—”

“He will never—”

“Which I have on every authority will not be possible,” Nate finished. “Why we infiltrated and planted—Kai—over here. Any potential source we had, any leak or snitch or henchman, was summarily killed the instant we acquired them. We had to do it the old-school way and gain trust, make our main man their trusted guy, but that only went so far. Kai was shut out of the planning because he wasn’t family. Trusted, but only to the extent of the game rooms. The Saxons don’t leave any leadership opportunities outside of the brothers, now that they’re old enough. And we needed schedules. Money-laundering targets. Shipments.”

“And then I came along.” I snorted and shook my head.

“It’s true,” Vance said. “You changed the game, Miss Rhodes.”

“So you honed in,” I said to Kai. “Saw the potential—my feelings—and figured you’d better get in on it.”

“Can we get the cuffs off?” Kai asked Vance instead of answering, his voice high and pleading. “She’s not going anywhere.”

“We tried female agents,” Vance interjected, chin in his hand. “Figured if we couldn’t be family, we’d be in-laws at least. Trace, Ward, Theo, we planted women for each of them. And guess what?”

“No interest,” I said through my teeth.

“For a time we had Trace and Theo. But they brought us nothing. These boys are careful separating their criminal activity from…other…activity,” Vance said.

I glanced to the side, blinking hard.

“Are you going to try and tell me that your connection with Theo isn’t undeniable?” Nate asked, crossing his legs at his ankle as Vance made his way over to me.

“Despite all odds against him, yes, I had a connection,” I admitted.

“Then save him.”

“You’re using my own words against me,” I said to Nate while Vance unlocked my handcuffs. “And that’ll only piss me off.”

“We already knew of the shipment tomorrow night,” Nate said.

Vance resumed sitting beside him, nodding in agreement.

“You have the Khalaji family under surveillance,” I surmised, rubbing my wrists.

They didn’t answer because that was probably classified bullshit same as this bullshit was, but I didn’t miss Nate’s clenched jaw or Vance’s thinned lips.

“So your telling Kai about it meant nothing,” Nate continued. “What did light a fire under our ass was the fact that Trace is no longer supervising. Theo is.”

I didn’t say a word.

“Had Kai not tipped you off that we knew about the MDMA…” Nate pointedly paused to ensure Kai’s attention. “We wouldn’t be in this predicament. We would’ve followed you, we would’ve gotten undeniable proof of Theo’s dealings, and we would’ve arrested him.”

I flinched. “But you don’t want him.”

“No, we do not. Don’t get me wrong, though. I’ll take him if he’s what I can have,” Nate replied.

“You’ve found yourself in a unique position, Miss Rhodes,” Vance said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

“You know about Kai. About us. You cannot tell Theo.” Nate, previously friendly, pulled the blinds on his face and became so serious that I inwardly shrank away. “If you do, you jeopardize not only our operations, but his life.”

“So what is it you want me to do?” I wished, so badly, that my question came out firmer. “I’m a cocktail waitress. An amateur poker player and a college dropout. I’m not a drug runner, I’m not a cop, I’m not qualified to do shit. I can’t be responsible for taking down a mafia kingpin!”

“You’re going to get Trace to the drop-off point.”

Kai, so quiet throughout this poor excuse of an interrogation, said it so low I almost missed it.

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