Page 3 of Wizard

“We need to catch her in a con,” Echo added as he sat back and propped an ankle on the opposite knee.

“Exactly,” Shadow agreed.

King folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against his chair. “How do we get her back in the game?”

“Bait,” Cross tossed out. “A fish so big and illusive that she can’t help herself.”

“Appeal to her ego and her love of the thrill,” Echo mused.

Ace rapped his knuckles on the table twice, then snatched my laptop out of my hands.

“What the hell?!” I bellowed in outrage.

Everyone stared at Ace, absolutely dumbfounded at his temerarious action. Touching my equipment was tantamount to treason in my mind. And the motherfucker had just stolen it. He was a dead man.

“Chill the fuck out, man,” Ace said distractedly as he quickly typed. “Not like I stole your kidney or something.”

I was so irate that I couldn’t even form a sentence. My face was probably turning purple as I seethed, glaring at Ace venomously. My hands curled into fists so tight my knuckles turned white and cracked.

“You gonna save his ass?” I heard Echo ask quietly. Probably to Blaze, who was sitting next to him.

“Nah,” Blaze responded lazily. “Fifty says Ace ends up in the hospital tonight.”

A pretty safe bet,I thought.

There were several murmured agreements, and King chuckled, making me glance at him with astonishment.

He watched the two of us with amusement, something we rarely saw from the prez unless he was with his old lady or son.

“You have a death wish, Ace?” Cross murmured, watching me warily from the treasurer’s other side.

He grunted and tapped hard on one key, then slid the laptop back over in front of me. Saving his life for the moment.

Taking a deep breath, I slid my eyes to my computer screen and scanned it. Irritation bloomed in my gut when I had togrudgingly admit, “This is good.” Then I gave him another death glare and snarled, “Not gonna save you from being stabbed in your sleep when you’re least expecting it, though.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “It will if you want my help with the financial shit.”

Fuck.Knowing I’d never decipher all that crap by myself, I ground my teeth into dust so I wouldn’t say anything else.

“You two done?” King grunted, his face back in its usual scowl.

Ace gestured to the computer and explained, “Wizard and I have the beginnings of several aliases set up for cases when we need to get someone gone fast.”

The Hounds of Hellfire were known for our ability to make people disappear…for a price. Not the hired killer kind of disappear, though. We gave people a new life. Under the right circumstances, we did it for free, but mostly, it was the MC’s main source of income. Seeing as how we had experts in all the fields necessary for that kind of shit—a wizard at the tech stuff (hence my road name), a forger, a money guy, etc., etc., etc.

We’d long ago learned that it was helpful to have some of the legwork already done for several identities in case it was an emergency that required an immediate extraction.

“One of them is for a high roller,” Ace explained further. “Someone who wants to disappear with their fortune and can afford to pay us to do it since it takes a fuck ton of work.”

I nodded. “Won’t take much work to get this up and running. The backend is as solid as they get. Breaking this identity would take years for the best of the best. Once it’s live, we filter word of the new man through the grapevine, and as long as we’re reading her right, she’ll bite.”

“Volunteers?” Ace asked with a smirk.

Echo sighed. “It’s my op, so I’ll do it.”

Blaze and King shared a look, then they both grinned and King suggested, “Bring Violet in here to tell her.”

Oh, that’ll be good. I highly doubted Violet was gonna let her man date another woman, even if it was pretend.

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