Page 69 of Pitiful Lies

“This one is brazen,” Luc comments, shuffling through papers as he takes account of what was in our warehouse.

“Yeah, he fucking is. And he’s dead. He just don’t know it. Angel?” Nico says my name.

The way she melts into me whenever I kiss or touch her.

“Angel?” he repeats, louder.

Shit.

“How much damage we talkin’?” I ask.

Focusing on the task at hand, I compartmentalize. Thoughts of Giselle need to subside for now.

But she’s not gone. My Little Doll is always there. Always circling the periphery of my brain.

“Give me a sec,” Luc says, and I know he knows what I am really asking for.

It’s not about the money for me. It’s about how much of our not so legitimate business is gonna take heat for this from the feds.

“Well, the good news is ninety percent of the inventory at that particular warehouse was all legal imports. The bad news is, it’s going to cost us about six million.”

“What’s the other ten percent?” Nico asks, already zeroing in on what I’m concerned with.

“The remaining ten percent are listed as old office appliances and computer hardware.”

“Like fax machines and shit?” Nico asks.

“Well, on paper, yes. But we were using some of those machines for storage for our old, old books, Boss.”

Fuck.

“Was there evidence it was destroyed?”

“No,” Luc says, frowning as he continues to read. “Whoever did this, they stole those old machines before setting the warehouse on fire.”

“Angel,” Nico says my name.

“On it,” I tell him.

And I am.

Whoever this new enemy is, he just fucked with the wrong people. I grab my laptop, and I start going through the feed for that property.

“Most of it is damaged from the heat,” I tell them, and I am so pissed.

Whoever this guy is, he’s smart. He doesn’t want to get caught, and he is covering his tracks.

“What’s in those files?” Nico asks.

“My best guess is early affiliations and business deals. It’s all coded though, and I doubt he will be able to understand it,” Luc says and shrugs. “Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s the why that bugs me.”

“As in, why is some fuck digging into us at all?” I chime in, and Luc nods.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s got a death wish,” Nico growls.

He’s not wrong.

Obviously, I am going to have to find and take care of this jerk.

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