“Yeah, I do,” I’d said firmly. Because it was the truth.
But I’d meant what I’d told him too. I’d burn down the world if he was hurt. Hell, as wired as I felt at that moment, I’d burn it down if he was mildly inconvenienced. I had a whole new appreciation for what folks like Carter and Yolanda’s wife went through when we were out on a dangerous op.
Once Quinn’s car was gone, I’d barked at the team to get back to work. It took about half a second for them to start peppering me with questions.
“Was that such a good idea?” Kev asked, wringing his hands. “Quinn’s kinda scrawny.”
Hux, who was the shortest one of us by far, crossed his muscular arms in front of his chest and glared at him. “Small doesn’t mean you can’t fuck a guy up.”
Kev’s cheeks turned pink, and his eyelashes fluttered.
Riggs nudged me with his elbow. “We loading up in the surveillance van? I know we said we’d let him go it alone, but…”
Everything inside of me screamed to go after him in the van, put as many eyes on him as possible, and be prepared with an arsenal in case things went south.
“No. He’ll recognize the van and think we don’t trust him.”
Elvo shrugged. “Doesn’t take a van to keep an eye on the guy. Not when Hux has loaded Quinn’s phone up with the usual security suite.”
I turned to pin Hux with a glare. “You hacked his phone?”
Hux firmed his jaw and opened his laptop without looking at me. “He’s family, boss. I don’t make the rules.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Carter turn to Riggs with a questioning eyebrow raise. Apparently, my second-in-command had neglected to tell his man that we looked after our own, even when it involved a little bit of invasion of privacy. Riggs shook his head in a not now gesture.
I was torn between wanting to prove I trusted Quinn and wanting to keep him safe.
Ultimately, there was no question.
“Hux, pull up the feed. We’re going to trust him to make this happen, but we’re going to have his back too.” I turned to Elvo. “Let’s assume we’ll still need to get into that vault our way. With the wedding off, we’re gonna have to do a smash and grab if things go south.”
“You got it.” Elvo returned to the vault and his pile of tools to get back to work on our Plan B.
Meanwhile, Hux pulled up the tracking information for Quinn’s phone. “Champ.”
The team rarely called me something other than “boss.” I stepped closer to look at his screen.
“What did you find?” On the screen, I noticed a tiny wedding cake icon approaching a red devil icon on a map of Licking Thicket. “What the fuck am I looking at?”
“Erm. The wedding cake is Quinn. And the devil icon… Let’s just say it’s possible that I neglected to deactivate the tracking device I put on Vince’s phone a while ago.”
Riggs stepped in to look over Hux’s other shoulder. “He’s not going to the farmhouse, boss. Quinn’s at the motel where Vince is staying. The plan called for him to talk to Tommy first.”
I stared at the red devil as my anger grew to resemble the same. “That fucking bastard,” I murmured.
Riggs straightened up. “Okay, calm down. I’m sure Quinn doesn’t intend to—”
“I don’t mean Quinn,” I gritted out. “He’s probably tackling the hard part first. It’s one of his things.” One of the ridiculous quirks that had become so incredibly important to me somehow.
I clenched my hands into fists. “What I don’t understand is why the fuck Vince cares about this so much. He used to be a total rule follower. Not the kind of guy to be skulking around trying to obtain a Horn without a warrant with the help of an untrained wedding planner. For damn sure not the kind to be leaving written evidence that he’d offered that wedding planner a bribe—”
“Marlon Waters sent over his security footage,” Hux said as a notification chimed on his computer. “Sweet. Looks like he’s got it set to record only when it senses motion. Saves me a shit ton of time.”
Hux tapped a key, and a grainy image appeared on his screen, showing the dark alley behind Taffet Events… and an even darker blob jogging across it.
“Well, that’s fucking anticlimactic,” Elvo said. “Our intruder appears to be a kangaroo.”
“I was thinking capybara,” Carter commented. “Those fuckers are scary.” Riggs shot him an amused, besotted glance and rubbed a spot on his chest.
“Have faith, people. Jesus.” Hux froze the frame during the one instance where the blob appeared to be facing the camera and tapped several more keys in quick succession. The image resolved and brightened like magic until Vince’s face appeared on the screen.