Page 61 of Dark Angel
She stopped at the hall closet, threw on a jacket while he shrugged into his cashmere coat. Parked in the driveway was a black four-door sedan, the windows tinted so dark he couldn’t see inside.
“The family will come around,” Slash said.
“Things’ll calm down when I’m gone,” he replied.
“I love the mayhem too,” she said. “But we’ve got so many cases at ALPHA, I’m getting five hours sleep a night, max.”
The back window of the Mercedes-Benz S Class rolled down. Sinclair Develin shot them a smile. “Get in.”
After hugging Gabriel, Slash said, “If you need my help, I got you.” She pulled a knife from its sheath strapped to her ankle. “Igot the weapon, love using it.” After securing it, she stood. “Make me right and get it done.”
He kissed her cheeks. “Love you.”
“Love you back.” She tossed him a nod. “By the way, I ran this by Sydney and she agrees with me, one hundred percent.”
He wasn’t surprised. He and Sydney had had each other’s backs for years.
Sin slid over, Gabriel ducked into the four-door luxury vehicle.
“Going through a rough patch at work?” Gabriel asked as Sin’s driver backed out the long driveway.
Sin’s eyebrows jutted up.
“I never figured you’d be doing rideshares for extra cash,” Gabriel said.
Sin laughed. “I’m bailing your ass out.”
“I could say, ‘I don’t need my ass bailed out?—”’
“Or you could say ‘thank you.’”
“That depends on where we’re going.”
“Touché,” Sin said.
As the Mercedes drove out of the neighborhood, Sin said, “I had Teddy show me the video from the ambush. I recognized one of the men, a guy named Babin. He came looking for work at my children’s shelter.”
“Jesus.”
“His background check was non-existent because he’s from?—”
“Russia.”
Sin nodded. “I did some digging. Babin’s a convicted Russian pedophile, an inmate from Black Dolphin Prison who escaped during transfer, went into deep hiding, emerged here.”
Sin explained that Babin moved around, never staying anywhere more than two weeks.
“I’ll call him for an off-the-books job, tell him the meeting will be off-site.” Sin’s phone rang. He glanced down. “It’s the boss.”
Sin answered, “Hey, babe.” He listened. “See you soon.” He hung up, regarded Gabriel. “There’s an abandoned warehouse in Springfield. We’ll have the meeting there.”
“We?”
“Your brothers think you left. I haven’t been on a job in a while, and I love taking out the bottom feeders.”
Gabriel extended his hand. “Thank you.”
Instead of driving him home, the sedan pulled into a parking lot. Gabriel glanced out the window at the familiar neon sign on the windowless building.
