Page 24 of The Gambler

“You need your computer stuff.”

“Spoken like a true dinosaur, Mr. Detta. Yes, I need my computer stuff.”

“Are you always this crabby in the evening?”

“You mean, after witnessing a murder, or do you mean like a Gremlin after midnight?” Of course, he wouldn’t get that reference. Mr. Boarding School had probably never seen—

A smile tugged at his lips. “Don’t worry. I’ll be sure not to feed you or get you wet after midnight.”

Well then.

As Luca drove over to her apartment, once again, Tess found herself wishing she had magical powers. For starters, the power to vanish. An amnesia serum would come in handy as well. Especially in the “not having to remember throats being sliced” department of her brain. Furthermore, she would use it to make both her father and Luca forget she even existed, so they would leave her alone.

No, that wasn’t right. This mess hadn't started out with her going to Luca to help him. If she was being honest to herself—which she sometimes loathed—it had begun the day she met Onyx on the dark web. The day she had discovered she wasn’t the only one with fingers that could weave digital magic on a level only a few people could.

That fateful day, she believed she had encountered a group of kindred spirits and eventually had gone on a “quest” with them. Except it hadn’t been to Mordor, which would have been better than where she had ended up with them. Going to a fiery mountain to drop a ring in it was far more to be preferred than going to a power plant to blow it up. And the aftermath, oh, the aftermath of it had been worse than someone biting off half your finger. She would have gladly sacrificed a finger instead of having to look down into the eyes of that dead guard. An innocent man that had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. She believed her penance had been over when she’d helped Luca, another casualty of Onyx, get free, but maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe he was just the beginning of righting a wrong. Perhaps she should just come clean. But how? How could she ever explain to him what had truly happened? He might hate her. Also, he had no idea how dangerous the group was that had targeted him. He truly believed he’d just been set up by his former partner, Cruz.

You can’t tell him about Onyx, Tess. Shut your pie hole.

If he went after Onyx, there was no telling what could happen to him this time. Then there was the fact that Onyx and Tess had never met in real life, which she’d prefer to keep that way. It was never good to meet your heroes, especially not when said hero was sending her warnings by playing cards. She couldn’t afford to be more than a blip on Onyx’s radar. The second she challenged the black hat hacker, only one of them would come out of that battle alive. No matter how many enemies Tess slew on the battlefields as an elf, in real life, she couldn’t even stand the sight of blood. Onyx, on the other hand, had already shown he was capable of anything.

The best way for her out of this mess was to find this Cruz person. Which would hopefully lead to Grace’s killer. Luca might be hell-bent on revenge, but she was just as passionate about not getting murdered by Damon, simply so she wouldn’t be a liability. It was amazing to what lengths some people would go to eradicate the minuscule chance that she would be a threat to someone they loved. Though she had to admit that she understood Damon all too well. On that account, they were cut from the same cloth. The difference being that she dealt in information, not bullets.

Note to brain; find useful info on the twins.

It could never hurt to have a backup plan. Then, when everything was said and done, she would extract herself from Luciano Detta’s life.

When Luca killed the engine in front of her apartment, a sense of peace entered her. It always happened when she got closer to the one place in the world that was her center of gravity. It was a two-bedroom apartment and didn’t account for much, but to her, it was a castle. And other than her grandfather, she usually didn’t allow anyone in.

They went up the stairs only to find out that her front door was open. Her heart started to pound.

Luca grabbed her arm. “Wait here.”

She didn’t really want to but needed a minute to compose herself. The little voice in the back of her mind told her this wasn’t just an ordinary burglary.

Luca returned with a grim expression on his face.

“How big is the damage?” she asked.

“Actually, less than you’d expect. Only one room was ransacked.”

“My study.” She dashed by him, going for her “headquarters,” as she’d dubbed the place. Crap. Her favorite room was turned into a digital ghost town. All her computers, laptops, screens—basically anything having anything to do with technology had disappeared. All that was left were a few old computers that had sentimental value.

“That’s not all,” Luca said. His eyes went to the whiteboard opposite her desk.

Her heart went to her throat when she saw what object was clipped to it.

Queen of Spades.

So much for flying under the radar.

Luca looked at her questioningly. She knew he probably had, like, a million questions, but she couldn’t answer them. Not the ones he really wanted and needed to know.

“It’s just a warning,” she explained. A deadly warning, but nevertheless just a warning. Sadly, it also meant Onyx knew her identity, which sucked.

“What the hell do you mean by a warning?”

“It’s just the Queen of Spades. No need to worry just yet.” Of course, she’d be screwed if it were the final card, the Ace of Spades.

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