Page 131 of Underground Prince

“And I’m going to do that how?” I asked. “Bat my eyelashes and ask him to come hither?”

He winced. “He’s so intrigued by you it’s almost obsessive. All you have to do is mention you’ll be there, and he’ll come.”

“I thought he was uninterested,” I retorted.

Kai looked away.

“We need Trace to be on the dock, at the warehouse, communicating the transfer, then we’ll nab him. He’ll never know you assisted,” Vance said.

“Let me get this straight. You want Trace? Not Gordon?” I glanced between all of them. “Why the hell aren’t you after him?”

“We are,” Nate said. “But he’s so barricaded the most we can try him for is tax evasion, and even then its slim pickings.” His expression became shadowed as he resumed resting on his elbows. “We want his sons.”

“Theo. You’re not going to let him go,” I said, with nothing but a hitch of sound.

“I told you before, he’s not who we want,” Nate said. “I don’t lie.”

“And how are you so sure they didn’t put Theo in as the fall guy because they know?” I cracked out. “About you, about all this, and they’re setting up a sting at the same time as you? To take you down?”

“It’s a risk we have to take,” Vance said. “None of the chatter has indicated the Saxons are aware that tomorrow’s shipment is compromised.”

“How can you know that?” I held my hands to my head, struck not by a headache but by the implications of it all. “There’s no guarantee. I have no way to trust you.”

“Scarlet. Look at me.”

Against my better judgment, I met Nate’s stare.

“You’re in a predicament yourself. Those poker rooms you’ve been cocktailing in? You no doubt know they’re illegal. But here’s what you may not have heard—waitressing there is a crime. You’re working for the House, and the House is taking illegal rakes, part of it which goes to you. You are just as criminally liable as every other employee on that crew.”

I closed my eyes and breathed out hard.

“Including Verily.”

My upper lip curled. “You’re threatening me.”

“I don’t want to.” Damn him, I think he meant it. “But I have to stop this family and get them at their most vulnerable. You’ve heard what he does—Gordon Saxon. Think of those girls he traffics, the drugs he’s putting in young kids’ systems, the lives he’s imploding. They’re living off blood money. Theo is surviving off other people’s deaths.”

My nails cut so hard into my palms they were wet, slick with red.

“I know you have feelings for him. I know.” I sensed Nate moving, kneeling in front of me. “And I also comprehend that Theo’s not the worst seed of them all. He’s trying to be good. Right?”

I angled my face away. “Don’t manipulate me.”

“I’m trying to get you to see the truth. We let you leave and you go to Theo, our cover’s shot. Two years of intel, hours and hours of undercover operatives living without their families, gone. With just a few choice words from you.”

“I can’t…”

“Betray him? I won’t ask you to. What I’m requesting is please, Scarlet, listen to us. Do the right thing. You might care for him, you might have romance on your side, but Bonnie and Clyde ended up with bullet wounds as their declarations of love.”

My lips rose over my teeth. “You know nothing about me. Bonnie and Clyde? You think I consider this a game to end in a ride-or-die shoot out? Everything I am, all I’ve become, has been born out of death. You think me weak, because I care.” I hissed my last words at him. “You take him and you’ll remove any chance of using me for success.”

Nate stood, the rest of the room thickly silent. After a few moments where nothing but the faint sirens outside could be heard, he said, “Then we have a deal.” He smacked his hands against his thighs before looking around at his comrades. “Yeah?”

Frowning, unsure, I followed his gaze around the room.

“You bring us Trace, we don’t touch Theo,” Vance said, though he didn’t look happy to confirm it.

“Writing,” I snapped. “I want it signed.”

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