Taz set the faux wood shell down on the floor. The timer had just over a minute on it. “It’s a motherfucking pipe bomb.”
“Can you disarm it or do we need to evac?” Bianca asked.
Beep.
He leaned down, noticed the frayed edge of the wire leading into the pipe. A fake fuse or was the whole setup just a hoax? He took a closer look. The caps weren’t tightened. The wire didn’t actually connect to the battery, it went under it. Grinding his teeth in frustration even while breathing a little easier, he surveyed the device again just to be sure.
Rolling back on his haunches, he unsheathed the knife strapped to his ankle and sliced the wire. The beeping stopped and the timer froze at twenty-eight seconds. “It’s a fake.”
A wave of relief rolled through the room, followed by an immediate uptick in frustration. He couldn’t blame anyone for that. After six months of tracking down Gidget Harms and the mystery man behind Genie’s Wish, and coming close but not close enough each time, the case was beginning to get to everyone.
Only he and Bianca had been in on it since the beginning at Bisu Manor, where he’d gone to participate in an orgy involving Ft. Worth’s rich and powerful and had instead found love. Bianca's search for Gidget at manor that night had brought them together, exposed the Genie’s Wish drug ring, and had almost gotten them killed when they’d gone in to plant cameras and listening devices for the DEA. Since then, they’d started the B-Squad, formed an uneasy alliance with the DEA and had raided half a dozen sex parties, gambling dens and fight clubs that had proven to be testing grounds for the drug in search of Gidget.
They’d saved lives, no doubt about it, but Gidget and the mystery man behind it all remained just out of reach. It was enough to make him wish he could remember some of his grandmother’s Roma curses that she promised always worked like a poisonous charm.
“That prick is playing with us,” Bianca said, irritation leaking from every syllable.
He nodded and stood. “Seems like it.”
“I can’t wait to track this bastard down,” said Marko, the grim look on his face leaving little doubt as to what he’d do once he had the man behind Genie’s Wish.
“You’ll have to get in line behind me.” Taz worked his jaw back and forth as he gave the fake pipe bomb one last look.
And they would—even Bianca. He loved the men who he’d grown up with and called his brothers even though their family trees didn’t share even a single branch. He’d come to appreciate Bianca’s friends, who she’d known since they all went to that reform school for rich girls, which is what she called St. Bernadette’s. God knew, he’d lay everything on the line for Bianca—and had already, taking a bullet for her during the Bisu Manor operation. Still, no one was coming between him and the man who’d fucked with the people he loved.
That guy was a dead man walking.
“Hey, I found something.” Duke help up a scrap of paper. “It was caught in the filing cabinet.”
His brother brought it over and handed it to Bianca. She held it up to the light. It couldn’t be more than a few inches long and an inch or two wide, but the words on the torn corner of a printed page was clear.
Indulgence Reso—
Reservation #68—
Look forward to your arrival tomorrow and hope that yo—
For the first time since he’d heard that damn beeping, Taz smiled. It wasn’t friendly. It wasn’t nice. But then again, he’d told Bianca before that he wasn’t one of the good guys.
Yasmin
Los Angles, California…
Yasmin closed her laptop and smiled despite her annoyance at the woman weeping beside her. This time had been a dry run to make sure the software would work as expected. Next time, however, Bianca and the B-Squad wouldn’t be so lucky.
Chapter 2
Bianca
Three Days Later
Ft. Worth, Texas…
Bianca wasn’t about to go on a rescue mission without her brass balls any more than she’d leave her SIG SAUER in the armory.
She picked up the giant jawbreaker-sized orbs of solid brass from the top of the dresser. As far as good luck charms went, they were a bit…unusual, but so was just about everything in her life. The light streaming into the bedroom from the skylights dotting the ceiling in the large open-concept loft reflected off the metal balls as she rolled them in the palm of her hand.
They were hard, eye-catching, and had an impenetrable surface that gave no hints about what was inside. Grinning to herself, she shook her head. They were just like the man who’d given her Iron Man’s nads as a gag gift for their six-month dating anniversary.