Page 134 of The Twilight Theft

“Reynolds Recoveries is a family business. That means family comes first.”

“That man wants to be your family.” I gripped the poker chip harder with my hidden hand. Why did she have to be so thick about things? “Don’t you get that?”

Malcolm wassoserious about their relationship, he’d already talked to me about whether he should ask my permission or Mum’s. I’d said yes. Mum would say yes if it were advantageous in some way. I’d told him to focus on getting Scarlett completely over what Noah did to her. But here she was, letting the snake back into the garden.

She was amazing at reading a mark, but the people around her? She’d missed everything between Jayce and Drew, and now she was risking her relationship with Malcolm without even realizing it.

Either that or she was sabotaging things.

“The target is a wealthy businessman with homes in at least six countries. One of them—where he normally keeps the scarab—is in Monte Carlo.”

“No one’s hired us to get that back, and you’re already calling the man a target?”

“Returning the huma bird was prepayment.”

“That’s a relief.” My eyebrow involuntarily rose to punctuate my point. “We’re not just doing his dirty work, because he’s our client now?”

“He’s not. I said he wasbehindthe tip, not that he was the one who contacted us.”

“Wonderful.” Now we were playing semantics, so she could defend him. It hardly mattered whether he’d called us or told someone else to. “He’s our broker now?”

“The letter said there’s a fracture in The Fenix Group and Drew confirmed it. The kidnappers and extortionists are on one side. They wanted to sell the bird to a group in Iran, while Noah’s faction wanted to return it to its owner. Noah believes in the goodness of their cause.”

I ripped my hand out of my pocket and raked my fingers through my hair. “Goodness of their cause? Are you fucking kidding me? They broke two—”

“Keep your volume down!” she snapped, her hands flying up as though they could calm me down.

I hissed back, “They broke two of my ribs, fractured my orbital bone, and threatened to kill me five times a day! I still have headaches from the fucking concussion!”

Her shoulders dipped—I didn’t have to look at her feet to know those toes were scrunching, just like how Mum taught her to conceal her emotions.That’s it, Scar, bottle it all up. “That wasn’t him.”

Noah hadn’t touched me. It was mostly Enzo and a few shots from the other two working with them. That was hardly an excuse. He was the reason they grabbed me in the first place.

“It doesn’t matter if it was his fist or boot or someone else’s.” I shoved my hand into my pocket and gripped the chip one more time. “Noah’s one of their leaders, you said. He’s as guilty as the rest.”

“That’s the thing,” she said. “Jayce said he and Enzo were the only ones with the phoenix tattoos. Same thing in Venice and Rome—no one else had tattoos. She and Drew also said the two of them were obviously in charge. So if he and Enzo are at the top of the organization and they’re battling things out, I think Noah’s trying to make a play.”

“Let me get this straight…” I sucked in a slow breath, attempting to calm my heart. “He’s not just our client now, but that snake has you wrapped so firmly around his little finger that we’re going to help him take over the organization behind my kidnapping, who tried to kill more than one of us in Rome, and who tried to shoot Jayce two days ago?”

She cocked the damn eyebrow again. “He saved Jayce’s life. And Drew’s.”

“I’m done.” I turned and grabbed my messenger bag, tossing it over my shoulder. “We can talk about this at home.”

“Em.” She gripped my arm, and I paused. “There’s no way Malcolm or Rav will agree to me going to Monte Carlo to lead a mission based on Noah’s information. That means it’ll be your job.”

“Tell Mum.”

“I did.” Her voice held a note of apology. As it should have. She should have talked to me about this.

I faced my sister. “Mum’s already approved it, hasn’t she?”

“Scarlett? Emmett?”

We both looked toward the plane, where our flight attendant, Patricia, was beckoning us to board.

Scarlett waved and nodded, then held out a hand to encourage me forward. “I think Mum’s looking for a reason to go on the offensive after… after everything you mentioned. But now that we know there’s blood in the water? She’s ready to attack.”

“Great.” I had a lot of pull in the company, but if Scar and Mum had decided, my role was to support them. Question them, suggest different approaches, ensure the job went off as smoothly as possible—but in the end, support them.

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