Page 119 of Never Enough

Midas cleared his throat. “I was watching the bid.Apparently, The Collector came out of retirement.” His eyes looked across the table to TB.

Nemo’s head snapped to look at TB, and everyone followed his gaze. Stunned, he asked, “You bid on the job?”

TB nodded. “I figured if I logged in as The Collector and bid on the job, offered a high enough price, no one else could take it.”

Nemo floundered. “That’s… The risk… The cost had to be huge! Fuck, if that links back to you… Flame? Your…” He caught himself before revealing TB’s secret.

“Turns out Nova is really good at creating fake photos. We provided proof of death to the Kaders. Gem died in the crossfire inside the Murphy Mine.”

“I applaud your ingenuity, but what happens if someone ambitious traces the money?” Waters asked, concern on his face. “Identifying The Collector after all this time would be quite the coup.”

TB turned his gaze to his boss. “Fourteen accounts, remember? But no one will link it back to me. Golden Fingers over there”—he nodded his head toward Midas—“with the help of Nova, put several additional layers of protection on me, and suddenly, all of my accounts disappeared. Oops.”

“That’s everything you worked toward for years.” Nemo was in awe.

His teammate shook his head. “I just said it disappeared, not that it was missing.” TB shrugged with a knowing smile. “As you’re so fond of saying, what’s life without a little risk? Besides, I owed a favor.” His eyes flashed to Nemo. “A life for a life. If I’d lost everything, it would have been more than worth it.”

Haskell watched the two men share a moment, and Nemo gave a near-nonexistent nod to his teammate.

“Thank you, TB,” she said.

TB gave a single nod and a cocky salute to her.

Loki broke the moment and cleared his throat. “What will Tribe do now?”

“We’ll be heading home,” Waters claimed. “We’ll be continuing our search for Ka-Bar. If you receive more information, we’d appreciate it if you’d share it with us.”

Loki nodded. “And we hope you will do the same.” He stood at his seat. “We’ll be leaving at five a.m.”

The Mythos team members stood and began to push away from the table. She looked at Loki. “I’ll meet you at the airport in the morning.”

He looked at her with a hard expression. Then his eyes flicked to Nemo, who stared back just as hard. When he glanced back at her, he ordered, “Don’t be late.”

The group filed out without saying goodbye or handshakes.

Once they were gone, Demon whistled. “Those are the weirdest motherfuckers I’ve ever met. Present company excluded, Gem.”

“No offense. They all have some strong past ties to the Salieri, and it’s made them a bit darker than most. I’m not technically a member of the team, just a contractor, so I have no connections other than what I’ve seen and heard, but that’s bad enough.”

Nemo’s fingers were drumming on the table. “Waters, I’m going to take some time. I won’t go far.”

Waters looked steadily at him. “Keep your watch handy. Don’t turn it off.”

“I won’t.”

He got up from the table, Scheherazade following with joy at the thought of a walk. When he pulled the door open, he pulled so hard it went as far back as it could, then slowly began to close on its automatic hinges. Scheherazade stopped in the doorway, looking back at Haskell. Her head tilted, and sheyipped as if to say, “You coming?” When Haskell remained seated, the dog chuffed and took off after Nemo. There was silence as the door continued to close.

Haskell sighed. “I’ll go after him.”

“Gem?”

She knew what question TB was asking, and she shook her head. “I can’t. Please understand. This is just too important.”

“Maybe it’s just best to let him go, then. Kinder to him,” Demon intoned, refusing to look at her.

“Maybe. But I can’t do that either.” She stood and crossed to the door. Turning back to them, she thanked them. “Thank you. For everything. I hope…” She didn’t finish the sentence. It was just too hard to speak around the lump in her throat.

She slipped through the door and jogged to try and find Nemo.

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