Page 47 of A Cursed Heart
“It is. I knew he was practicing magic and should have thought he might try to trace the gem in other ways.”
“Mal, shut up,” came Lydia’s harsh voice from the other end of the phone. “You can’t know or be responsible for everything. There was always a chance Scythe could figure out where the gem went. Question is, what do we do now?”
“Where is the ruby?” I asked.
“In the U bend of the sink in Freya’s bathroom. That sink hasn’t worked for a while, and it pretty much blocks it, but we haven’t used it in ages. It’s safe there.”
“Smart.” Lydia clearly approved. I had to agree. No one would think of looking there.
“Okay, we need some time for Ryan to go through the remaining files. He needs to stay away from Salvatore, but he does not want to let him go so easily. How can we keep him away?” I was anxious at the thought of Ryan being near the man. He just needed a few days to go through the remainder of the files. Surely he could take time off work to do that?
“We need a distraction,” Lydia said.
“I think I might have one.” Ryan’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “We need to keep him busy, right? He’s been looking for a mole. Why don’t we give him one?”
“Who? The bodyguard?”
“Nah, Anders knows too much about us. We can pick someone from his company.”
“Ryan,” Lydia’s voice held a touch of warning. “That’s not right. You’re potentially giving someone a death sentence.”
“The way I see it,” he explained, “is that they’ve been working for Scythe. They know what shit goes down. Anyone in that building is complicit. If it’s a choice between a random stranger and my family, then I know what I’m picking. Oh, and we can hand over the company that was investigating him.”
“Ry—”
“Lydia, I’m sorry. I need to protect Freya and Mal. If you’ve got another plan, I’m all ears.”
There was silence at the end of the line for a moment. Eventually she said, “You could give everything you have to the FBI now.”
“And pass over proof about Jasmine? Fuck no. They’ll get all of it, just minus any mention of me.”
I was in agreement with Ryan over this. He had to protect himself from the fallout of the FBI investigation, or else all of this was for nothing. The random person at the offices was collateral damage.
She sighed. “Okay. Do what you need to do. Just answer your fucking phone, alright?”
“You got it.”
Ryan hung up and immediately went to his computer. “You up for vanishing over there to plant this? I can walk you through it.” The reflection of his screen shone in his eyes. His lips were still puffy from earlier. All I wanted to do was get back to where we were before Lydia interrupted.
“Will I get another kiss after?”
“Maybe even more.”
