Page 27 of Dark Endures

Was the bakery just the start? “How much?”

“Not much. Like two hundred.”

Odd.

Ace walks in the open door. “Did you guys throw a party and not invite me?”

“We always invite you. You make the best food.”

Pit isn’t wrong. Fea brings the treats. Ace brings the food. “We’re just dealing with a little problem.”

“Well, I have another one. Someone robbed the restaurant.” Ace doesn’t seem at all stressed about it. But then again, it usually takes explosives to get him a little concerned.

“Don’t tell me a small amount of cash was transferred to an account named Jokesonyou.” Is this some rival playing a game with us? A warning of some sort.

A quirked eyebrow is all the response we get from Ace.

“Someone call Enzo.” He’s our resident computer geek. Enzo isn’t quite at a hacker level, but he’s trustworthy and knowledgeable.

Pit walks over to the bar and pulls out a bottle of root beer and a box of snacks. “Who wants a drink?”

“You aren’t really going to eat those?” Fea wrinkles her nose at the chips.

“Sure am.” Pit tears a bag open.

Ochs steps into the open doorway. “The gang having a meeting?”

No, but the dumb blonde with the gun is sounding better and better every second. What if I handed Mindy a gun—That would be sexy, but wrong. She’s too sweet to play with weapons.

“Like Fea would be here if we were.” Pit holds up a root beer. “Want one?”

“Nah, I gotta get back to the gym before those boys end up killing each other. Just wanted to mention we had a tiny banking issue. I already sent it to Matthew, but I thought I’d notify you.”

“I come to meetings.” Fea closes the shades covering the windows with the snakes and curls up in the corner of one of the couches.

How could I have forgotten to do that for her?

“Two a year for parties doesn’t count,” Pit parries back with a grin.

Fea is too gentle to handle what we talk about at most meetings. She comes when we need to discuss an issue with the kids or The Street’s organization. “Back to the topic at hand. Ochs, your petty theft of two hundred dollars happened to other businesses as well. Tell Matthew we’ll handle it for now and read him in if we need help.”

“Will do.” Ochs nods as he turns to walk away, almost knocking into Enzo.

“So, we’re being hacked?” Enzo strides in, carrying his blue light glasses. One of the million nutty precautions he uses to avoid eyestrain.

“Looks that way.” I push a button on my tablet, opening the doors to the computers we use as The Street’s security hub, among other things. It’s secure and invisible, which is perfect for this kind of job.

Enzo gets to work and the rest of us settle in to watch him work, which is a complete waste of time, but it’s not worth the effort to try to shoo them away.

Dyce swaggers in. “You need a lawyer yet?”

“Enzo just got here. We don’t know what body to put in the ground. Yet ” Pit pulls out some of the freshly pressed juice concoctions I keep in here for Dyce.

Dyce joins Fea on the couch and opens a brief. One of Dyce’s superpowers is tuning out the noise and working through the chaos.

“While Enzo twiddles his thumbs over there, can we talk about menu ideas?” Pit yanks open another bag of chips.

“I’ve told you three times I’m not adding blueberry lemonade and fried pattypan squash to the menu. They’re out of season.” Ace shuts him down.

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