Page 39 of Hemmed

“You don’t get it. We’ll keep the stock, and Yulia will come here. You have what she needs. She might be a paranoid, psychotic bitch, but for whatever reason, she likes keeping you close,” said Ian. “Let’s see how close.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Code and Ace stood by the van, the flat tire perplexing their geeky brains. Or so they portrayed it. They could see the big yacht beginning to move from its dock on the island toward the small private marina where they were parked.

As it got closer, a man stood on the deck, staring at them suspiciously.

“Team Charlie? Are you on the island?” asked Ace calmly into comms.

“If you’d give us five fucking minutes, we will be,” said Miller. “You forgot to tell us how damn cold the water is.”

“Oops,” smirked Code.

He walked around to the back of the van, casually digging out the spare tire and jack. When the yacht docked, the man who had been standing on the deck came directly toward them.

“You look like you need help,” he said calmly. Porter was second in command to Richard, although often felt removed from the operations. Richard was her favorite, and he was beside her twenty-four-seven.

“Just a flat,” said Ace. “We’ll be fine. Thank you.” Porter looked at the van, staring at the gear inside.

“Can you fix complicated computer systems that run lights, security, computers, everything?”

“That’s what we do,” grinned Code.

“Come with me.”

“Listen, we’d love to,” said Code with a boyish grin, “but as you can see, we’ve got to fix this flat, then we have another call that we’re already late for.”

“Ten thousand if you come with me.”

“Dollars?” said Ace with a stunned expression.

“Yes. Dollars,” said Porter. “I’ll take you out to the island and bring you back. It’s that easy. You just handle all of the issues, and you’re free to go.”

“No tricks?” asked Ace suspiciously.

“No tricks. You will stay where we can see you, get things fixed, and then leave. It’s that simple. I don’t have a lot of time here. The woman who owns that mansion is not well and needs you to do this quickly.”

“I see,” nodded Code. “Poor lady. Yeah, we can do that, right, Ace?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Let’s go,” said Porter, pointing to the yacht.

The two men gathered several tools, none of which they would need. They needed to make this look as legit as possible. Filling a backpack for each of them, they then gathered a duffel bag with items in it.

“What’s in that?” asked Porter as they boarded.

“Meters to check your voltage output, feed security, that type of thing. If we’re there, we might as well make sure everything is perfect for you. I can’t imagine that place is easy to get to in the winter,” said Code.

“We don’t leave in the winter.” Porter frowned, staring at the darkened mansion.

“That must be pretty damn cold,” said Ace.

“Just fix what needs to be fixed, and we’ll bring you back,” said Porter.

“And if we can’t?” asked Code.

“You better know how to swim.”

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