Page 17 of How Much for the Whole Night?

A cat and a kid in the middle of all this shit?

How could this go wrong?

The small comms room was rammed with people who all wanted their say. I’d seen some fancy computers with horrors on their screens. Still, I’d never seen a bank of screens as complete as these. Images of the senator, the covert surveillance on Josh for the night we were due to set him up, IDs for me, Luca, and Ryder, even a profile for Danvers and a spider’s web of names from his at the center. I waited for someone to say something that made sense, but there was a heated debate about how messed up this was and seemed to contain the short, pithy“what the fuck”too many times to count.

I cleared my throat. Nothing.

“Guys,” I said loudly—still nothing.

“Okay!” I shouted.

At last, everyone stopped talking and faced me at the door, a couple moving to one side and letting me in. I didn’t know where to stand or what to do. I was forced to the front and then turned my back to the screens. Four other people were in the small six-by-six space left after the monitors took up most of the room. Of course, Ali was there, her gaze on one of the screens behind me. I didn’t have to look to know which one—she was only realizing the extent of the mess I’d been part of, and she’d known Danvers from when he’d recruited the team after discharge.

Lucky for her she’d turned him down and gone to work for the Sanctuary Foundation instead.

There was the driver guy who’d bought us here—he was observing at the back.

I didn’t know the other two—the ones who’d been having a heated debate, a tall guy and a shorter one with a case full of attitude.

The shorter guy spoke first.

“Tell me again why you pulled us into this,” he demanded, temper flashing in his green eyes.

“It doesn’t matter,” the tall guy said, “whatever, we’re not letting kids—”

“I get that. I don’t like it when we’re stretched thin.”

Great, they were going to start another argument, and I forestalled it all by thrusting out my hand. “Ethan Masters, FBI, or more likely former FBI.”

The blond responded immediately, “Nik, Sanctuary.”

The shorter guy extended his hand with obvious reluctance. “Kayden, also Sanctuary, pissed that we’re even part of this. Doing a federal agent’s job and getting pulled into—”

Our driver placed his hand over Kayden’s mouth and growled.Literallygrowled. Kayden subsided, but he narrowed his eyes at me and was not in a good place.

I focused on our driver, who sighed and extended his other hand. “Jake, I own and run Sanctuary.”

I paused for them to explain, but it seemed they needed prompting. “Ali is with you, but I don’t know much about your foundation, or you… ”

“All you need to know is that you’re safe here, your unconscious friend is safe, and the kid will be safe when he arrives.” This was from Jake, who still had his hand over Kayden’s mouth.

“Don’t forget the cat,” Nik interjected. “I ordered in cat food and litter stuff.”

“Good call,” Jake murmured. “You want to tell us what is going on from your perspective?”

I nodded; my throat dry. “State Representative Rouxier, Valdez syndicate movement, and various tendrils of the same, out of Texas, and human trafficking.”

Jake let his hand drop from Kayden’s mouth, but Kayden didn’t talk; instead, he scanned the screens and the pictures of the missing kids and put two and two together.

“Children? Are they trafficking kids? That’s … fuck...”

“We have thirteen connected missing child cases from this side of the border. God knows how many from south of the border, and we think this man… ” I pointed at Rouxier. “… is benefitting financially from it all.”

Someone gasped at the door, and we all turned to face the new arrival.

Only the wall was holding Josh up, and he was stoned, sick, and shocked all at the same time.

“Is Ben here yet?” he grasped at the doorjamb. “You said… ”

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