Page 29 of Dark OZ

“Forfeit what?” Dorothy asked.

“Everything.”

There was a bright flash of light, and the house flickered back to life. A swoosh of air pushed my hair out of my face as the vents once more began pumping.

I looked down at the phone. The call had ended.

“Well, that gave new meaning to, ‘You don’t call him, he calls you,’” Crowe said with an irreverent laugh.

“Do you think that was really the Wizard?” Dorothy asked, looking between me and Crowe, her fingers relaxing from their tight fist, revealing tiny red slashes from where her nails had cut into the bed of her palm.

“Most likely. The security on this house is…” Crowe moved towards her, running a hand down her arm in reassurance. It was surprisingly intimate. “Thea, this place is a fortress. A closed system with an impossible to break encryption. Nobody should be able to hack it, much less control it the way they did. The Wizard is the only person who could pull that off.”

“How did he know about the emerald?” Nick asked, looking at Crowe.

“It didn’t come from me. I covered our tracks. Security was cut, the cab didn’t have anything distinguishable to it, and I eliminated everyone who tailed us.”

“Gigi said she was taking care of things in Eastin’s building. Maybe something happened to her before she could.”

“Thatcagnais just fine.” Nick moved into Crowe’s space. “Someone out there must be talking about it. Maybe while you were busy staring at her tits, she managed to get a message out.”

“I’ve been doing more than just staring at her tits.” Crowe ran his tongue over his teeth.

“We heard,” I muttered.

“And Thea hasn’t had a chance to put her hands anywhere but where I’ve told her. Westin put the hit on Thea within hours of our escape. Maybe that got the Wizard digging into what happened.”

“I don’t like counting on maybes,” I said, tapping at my laptop. The thing was completely fried. “Bastard.” I pushed the useless brick of electronics off the end of the desk. The crash wasn’t nearly satisfying enough.

“How long of a trip is it to E.C. from here?” Dorothy asked.

“Days. Two, maybe three.” I tapped my phone, pulling up a map of Oz.

Crowe wrapped around Dorothy like he was an octopus. “We’ve got a job that has to be done before we can leave. You, pretty girl, are going to have to come with us.”

Dorothy looked thrilled by the idea of doing a ride-along, giving him a look of such adoration that I made my stomach flip. “Get out of here. You’d seriously let me join in on your little heist, con, hit, thingy you all do.”

He kissed the side of her neck. “Sure.”

“Like hell she is.” Nick’s deep timber rattled the glass on the table next to him. “Thea has more stitches than a rag doll right now. She’s not doing anything. I’m not putting myself at risk just so you can drag your new plaything along.”

“She’s not staying here alone, and we need all three of us to do the job,” Crowe snapped back.

I ran a hand over my face, already regretting what I was about to say. “Not true. You and Nick could do it without me. You’re just going to have to be careful. I’ll stay here and babysit the princess.”

“Babysit?” Dorothy glared at me.

“Put the claws away, kitten. You’re not fooling anyone.”

Crowe snickered with mischievous glee. “While we’re out, you’re going to need to take her shopping. Don’t get me wrong, it makes me hard as fuck seeing Thea wear my clothing. But she needs more than my boxers.”

Dorothy looked positively rueful at the idea of forcing me into a store. I groaned. Taking women clothing shopping is one of the rings of hell. I was sure of it.

“The Wizard gave us six days. It’s going to be tight.”

“Then we should start planning this out now.”

I slid my phone to Dorothy. “Order something online from OzMart. I’ll have it delivered. I’m not spending my day sitting outside a dressing room while you try to decide if the black jeans or the blue ones make your ass look better.”

---