“No,” said Tristan immediately.
Shae didn’t look at him, instead focusing on Toni. “Scott said that he wants to rattle him, maybe cause him to make a mistake. Send me in front of him. Get me a one-on-one conversation, and let’s see what he says. You’re not the only one who wants to know why he wants that property so bad. Don’t just hide me away in this stupid house. Let me do something to help.”
“I can’t have you getting in the way, even if you only have the best of intentions. Trust me, we’ve got this.”
“I’m not your client. You said it yourself. Why not use every resource available to you? Besides, don’t you owe this to your actual clients? Getting this settled as quickly as possible. If I can get you some kind of leverage over Damask, let me get you that leverage.”
“Fuck no.” Tristan stepped up. “She has no experience. She doesn’t know how to shoot a gun, doesn’t know how to fight, and she sure as hell doesn’t know how to lie. No.”
“I don’t need to lie. I’ll get into his face and tell him what I really think of him. Like I said, rattle him and see what comes out.”
“This is needlessly reckless,” said Tristan.
“Needlessly reckless is staying here with a bunch of you criminals. I don’t know you. I sure as hell don’t trust you, especially not you.” She narrowed her eyes at Tristan. “But I’m here taking a risk because I want this to stop. If you think I’m going to sit back and hope you strangers take care of it, you’re wrong. You told me where the door is and that’s where I’ll go. To find Damask, to confront him. Whether you are with me or not is up to you.” And with that, Shae strode toward the front door and walked into the bright Florida sun.
She didn’t have a car, but her phone was fully charged. One little gift from Toni. She was just going to have to figure this out on her own. Yet, as she walked, she held her breath. The driveway was massive, and she couldn’t see any other houses. Wherever they were, this was a large private lot. The walk to the road might be a quarter-mile. And then who knew how long she’d have to walk until she would find some civilization. She had been here once before, but hadn’t been paying attention to that from the comfort of her car....
She looked down at her phone. At least there was good reception. Could she get Uber here...?
Thankfully by the time she was halfway down the driveway, she heard footsteps behind her. She hadn’t realized how nervous she’d been until she heard those steps. She turned around to see Tristan approaching.
“You’re an idiot,” he said by way of greeting.
“You steal for a living. Don’t accuse me of being an idiot. At least my work is legal.”
“Legal will be the least of your concerns if you go through with this. You know Scott’s practically salivating to have you put yourself in danger.”
She held her hands out. “Then let me go in the line of danger. I’m smart. I’m reactive. I might not be some world-class criminal, but I think I can handle myself, especially if I have someone like you backing me up.”
“I don’t want to back you up in a situation like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to get hurt,” he blurted. “Now come on,” he said with a jerk of his head. “If you do this, we have to plan it right.”
A grin spread across Shae’s face. “If we do this? You mean you agree? You’ll actually let me help?”
“I’m not agreeing to anything. This is a team, and not a democracy. Apparently you’re more convincing than I am, so pat yourself on the back. That doesn’t happen often. At least now when you get yourself killed, you can be proud when they bury you.”
“They’re not going to bury me,” she muttered, wishing she sounded more convincing.
“Just get your ass in the house. If you’re going to do this, you need to get washed up and Toni is working on getting you a change of clothes. And you better not die. Because if you do, I’m just going to have to kill you again.”
Shae smiled at the lightweight threat. She was a mix of terrified and elated that she wasn’t going to be stuck in the corner. Then, as she approached the house, she started to wonder.... Why exactly was Tristan so reluctant to have her go out? Did he really care about her?
The idea of him caring about her gave her a little thrill. It shouldn’t. They’d had this conversation last night, and it had made a lot of sense. They just met. He didn’t care about her. He just wanted to find out more information on Blackthorne.
But as she walked to the house, she couldn’t help the little smile that remained on her face.
As excited as she’d been when they allowed her to be part of the plan, the excitement quickly turned to boredom as the day wore on. She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t sitting around and twiddling her thumbs. Apparently getting in touch with Damask was easier said than done. Toni was trying to track him down, and all the guys had gone off to their corners of the house and ignored her.
The only company she had was the equally out of place Melissa Slade. However, this gave her a great chance to pump Melissa for information. Not that Melissa knew all that much. Apparently her brother was like one of these guys: tough, scary, and not exactly a fountain of information. “I’m really not one of them,” insisted Melissa. “I just do busywork. Office kind of stuff.”
“What kind of office work do people like this have? Is there, like, an accounts payable and human resources department?”
Melissa laughed. “Nothing like that. I mostly check emails. If somebody needs to get a hold of Hart Securities, they contact one main email address. I screen the emails and, if I see something that seems worth following up, I forward it to Toni.”
“That seems pretty important.”
She snorted. “I mostly screen out the penis-related emails. Besides that, it’s a lot of calling people, fact checking, running references. Better than what I was doing before.”
“What were you doing before?”
“Well.... Nothing, I guess. I was helping to raise my nephew and waitressing to get by. Now with Slade back in the picture.... Waitressing isn’t as much fun when you’re just doing it for yourself. When I had Josh, I did everything for him. I would’ve waitressed for the rest of my life if it meant I could’ve given Josh new clothes and proper school supplies.”