Page 28 of Burn

“You’re welcome.” He moved to begin cleanup at the stove and Alphabet eased his way over to the sink. The slow pace betrayed his discomfort. His leg was still bothering him. Lunchbox said it was hurting the day before.

We were going to lock down here at least one more day before we put him back on the road. No one spoke while we finished cleaning, then I carried the coffee pot back to the table so everyone could refill their cups.

Unsurprisingly, Lunchbox and Alphabet took the chairs on either side of Grace. They were already invested. Successful jobs required a certain amount of dispassionate commitment.

“Ms. Black,” I said, opening the conversation. “We need to ask you a few questions, but before we do that—in the interests of covering all our bases—can you fill us in on the details of how you came to be aboard that rig?”

“Yes,” she said, not playing any games. I appreciated the directness. “I can tell you what I know. First, however, I want answers tomyrequests beginning with a phone so I can call my sister.”

“You’ll need to wait a little longer,” Voodoo said before I could respond. “I will get you a burner you can use. If you are being tracked, which the pair of five-man teams who attempted to reacquire you suggests, then we don’t want to leave a digital trail for them to follow.”

She paled at the suggestion.

Alphabet blew out a breath, his expression turning grim. “He’s not wrong. Our phones are encoded and linked. If we used one of them, we’d need to dump them all and start over. Right now, we can’t do that.”

All rational explanations. We couldn’t do it because we didn’t have Alphabet’s gear here. For her part, Grace worried at her lower lip.

“That means my sister is in danger.”

“Highly probable,” I told her and ignored Lunchbox’s sharp frown. I didn’t see any use in mincing our words. “That means the sooner we have actionable intel, the sooner we can make some decisions.”

“But what if they get her while we wait for another phone?” Those words cost her, the hell in her eyes made that clear.

Time to rip this particular blinder off. “I would propose if she has been targeted the same as you or in order to get to you—then she’s already been taken. Calling won’t help her and will only endanger you.”

The soft blue of her eyes went wet with unshed tears as she put a hand over her mouth. I wasn’t telling her anything she wanted to hear. As unfortunate as that might be, she needed to understand that anyone sending trained teams after her weren’t going to stop.

We didn’t have time to softball this.

The expected tears didn’t fall. We were given a front row seat to her wrestling her emotions back under some control. Thestruggle played out on her face as she finally dropped her hands to wrap around her coffee cup.

“I hate that you could be right.” Temper blazed in those eyes as she raised them to meet my gaze once more. “I hate that maybe she was already gone before I was.”

“Explain,” I told her. It wasn’t quite an order, but the time for coddling was later.

A sigh deflated her and she dropped her gaze to her coffee cup. “Amorette, she’s my sister, and I had plans for a weekend away. She’s an attorney, and a crusader. She’s—the best.” Grace licked her lips, gathering her composure. It was a fascinating process to watch. “We were going to meet at a place we rented at the Outer Banks and just have a girls weekend. She never showed up…”

With each sentence, Grace gained strength until she recited her hours from the drive to arriving to calling her sister and each call going unanswered and unreturned.

Amorette Black was likely gone before Grace left Manhattan, but I kept that assessment to myself. Her time in the Outer Banks probably only delayed her own acquisition.

When she reached the part about driving to her sister’s place and then being grabbed it made me reassess. Maybe Grace wasn’t the target. But who targeted an attorneyandthen took the model sister?

Alphabet’s expression went stony when she described where she woke up.

“They knew you specifically?” Voodoo asked, shifting forward in his seat. “By name?”

The question stymied her for a moment, then she lifted her shoulders. “They kept saying ‘you,’ like they meant me. I assumed they must have known me. Not trying to be arrogant, but I have a very well-known face. So, they might very well have meantmebut not known my name.”

“But your sister is your identical twin?” Voodoo continued and I could see where he was going. Grace’s sudden hard swallow said she did as well.

“You think they took her thinking she was me?”

“We’re not thinking anything,” I resumed the line of questioning. “There are a number of theories we can speculate on, but I’d rather hold on all of those until we have all the information. No sense in wasting time or emotional energy on a worry that might not be one.”

The way her teeth scraped over her lower lip nagged at me. It was such a sign of open vulnerability.

“I guess,” she said with a sigh, then rubbed a hand against her face. “Anyway, the man who was in charge I guess—I never got his name—had the suit whipped for trying to hurt me.”

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