Douglas let out an impatient huff. “Not someone I’m familiar with but I’ll put in an inquiry.”
“You might want to provide feedback about the lack of finesse your current man has while you’re at it.” All right, that wasn’t necessary. She had a mean streak to her and she also didn’t have the opportunity to taunt her opponent directly. But she was both irritated and appalled by the explosion and the collateral damage it might’ve incurred.
And she was also sure now that she wasn’t going to be head-to-head with Jewel.
“Have Yeun come get his family at 2:00 a.m. on Harbor Island,” Douglas growled. “B-Two Ten on the lot.”
“Will they actually be there?” Lizzy took her pitch back to a sweet lilt. “I’d really prefer if he believed everything was going the way I said it would.”
“They’ll be there. We’ll deal with everyone at once.” He was sure of himself.
“Pleasure doing business.” Lizzy ended the call before the guy warmed up to his super villain role. Really, could the man get any more predictable?
She and Kyle stepped into Post Alley, making a show of cuddling in a doorway. “Seriously, how did you stand working for that man?”
Kyle’s arms tightened around her waist. “I’m overjoyed not to have to report to him any longer.”
She sighed. “I’ve arranged a time and a place for a theoretical trade to get them back. You have about thirty seconds to decide whether I’m actually going to hand you over to him.”
He’d be stupid not to consider it. But they didn’t have much time for him to decide whether he was going to trust her or not and he definitely didn’t have time to seek out other alternatives.
“Well, when you put it that way, how can I possibly doubt you?” The amusement in Kyle’s voice tickled her.
He was a smart man and she’d had the discussion right in front of him. So maybe she wanted to hear him say he trusted her. Especially considering the way she’d gone harsh on him directly before the explosion. The weight of his arms around her, the twinkle of mischief in his warm brown eyes and the upturned corner of her mouth were all reassurances.
At least one of them liked the person she was.
“Tonight, I’m going to prove your confidence in me isn’t misplaced.” But first, she needed to acquire some additional reinforcements.
Chapter Nineteen
“I’m going to need to make contact with Safeguard.” Lizzy tossed the disposable cell phone into a streetside trash can and took out her smartphone, scrolling through screens with her thumb.
“If we’re going to walk all the way to the offices, we’re headed in the wrong direction.” Kyle was not thrilled about traveling the distance. It would take hours. Perhaps she could be convinced to hail a cab. Or they could walk into any nearby hotel lobby and have the bellmen get one for them. It would satisfy Lizzy’s insistence on staying inconspicuous.
“No. We’re staying in downtown.” Lizzy glanced up and around for a long moment before going back to consulting her phone. “Safeguard is managing security for a charity a few blocks from our hotel this evening. Specifically, it’ll be my teammates on duty. We can contact them there.”
“Coincidence?” He had trouble accepting it. It was very convenient.
“Maybe,” Lizzy said slowly, slipping her phone back into her pocket. “Or Diaz wanted to make sure he and the team were close enough to provide support if things got dicey closer to the trial. He’d do it for any of us. The man’s instincts are freaking amazing sometimes.”
Her team was her family, he realized. They trusted each other to stand on their own and they were on hand in case they were needed. It was a far cry from the cutthroat corporate environment he’d been in at Phoenix Biotech and closer to the family business his father had run until they’d been bought out early in his career.
“They’ll be providing private security for a charity event tonight.” She had them pause as she pretended to fix her hair in the reflection of a storefront. “I can slip in and connect with any one of them. It’s just a question of getting in, blending and then walking out again. They’ll be able to finish up the event and meet with us afterward.”
“And we need them?” He didn’t want to spend all night arguing his cause to more people. His family could die while they all told him how important his testimony was.
Lizzy came to a stop and pulled him close, making it look like they were taking a selfie. He complied and assumed a silly pose. On the screen of the smartphone was a horrific image.
He swallowed hard as Lizzy used her thumb to swipe the screen, showing him another, then a third. They were photos of dead people, laid out next to a shipping container. Bloated, discolored, rotted, they weren’t recognizable at all but they were people.