Page 157 of To Die For

“The hardware I saw in that town was impressive. You’d think someone was going to start something big,” she added with a knowing expression.

“Yeah, you would,” agreed Devine. “Is that all you came to tell me?”

“The Kings have a large home outside of town. I visited it.”

“And?”

“And I visited it,” she said curtly. “I saw the two guys with you. Capable?”

“One is former Army. The other is a great chef.”

Jackson hiked her eyebrows. “Well, let’s hope he gets an opportunity to flambé somebody, but it’s not exactly the way I would have played it.”

“You play the hand you have,” replied Devine. “And you fight with the army you have.”

She said, “Speaking of chefs, there seem to be too many cooks in the kitchen on this one. It was a fundamental problem in my life as a fed.”

“I can’t disagree with you there, based on my recent experience.”

“My advice to you is throw out the official manual and go with your gut when the shit hits. And it will.”

“Thanks for the input.”

“Okay, to business. Anne was meeting with a guy named Nick. I happened to overhear the conversation.”

“You get a good look at him?”

“Better than that, I took his picture.” She texted it to him.

Devine looked down at the handsome man with a cruel expression. “Any idea who he is?”

“Nicholas Dawkins.”

“How do you know that?”

“He paid the check. After the bitch left, I went over and had a gander at the bill. You should have your people do a deep dive on him. The man’s interests are… interesting.”

Devine glanced up. “What were they talking about?”

“Well, first of all, they’re planning on taking power in this country. And then doing stuff that will piss off even their own supporters. But as Nick said, once he’s in power, they will have no choice but to toe the line, if they want to remain free and breathing.”

“Spoken like every other wannabe dictator in history.”

“They’ve also apparently caught a rat in their midst. They’re holding him prisoner in the government center.”

This news stunned Devine. “What! Who is it?”

“No names were mentioned.”

“Who did the person rat out?”

“It seems that intel has been leaking to a third party and they tracked it down to this person. They’re probably beating details out of him before they kill him.”

“Okay,” said Devine, processing this. “Any idea who the third party is?”

“Take a wild guess.”

“Danny Glass.”

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