“Jesus Christ, Jeff! How many more times do we have to let you dick fuck us in the ass?”

I let out a sigh. “Kegs, give it a rest. Everything is fine. We’re still on target.”

He narrows his ice blue eyes at me. I can tell he wants to kick my ass. Not that I’m a psychic or anything, but his clenched fists and murderous glare are pretty telling. “Why do we always end up in this place?”

“Because you know I get the job done.” I straighten up so we’re eye to eye. “You complain a lot, but who’s the one who took the fall last time? It could have been any of you guys, but I made sure it was me who got pinched.”

Kegs rubs the back of his neck. “Look, I know you’re on the hook here—“

“Yeah, I fucking am. I’m the one who’s violating parole right now, the one who’s going to be shipped back to prison if this shit goes sideways, the one who will lose the last chance he has with his son.” I rake a hand through my hair, rage bubbling in my veins. “So don’t make it seem like I’m sitting on my ass, waiting for things to happen.”

“The timeline is getting tight. When are we getting that bug planted?”

“I’ll take care of it, just like I always do. Don’t worry. Just be ready.”

“Jeff…” Kegs collapses against the counter in the stark, otherwise empty, office. “You’ve got to separate yourself from this. I understand why you want to bring that asshole down, but this isn’t about righting wrongs anymore. It started out as a way to give back to the people who’d been victims of fraud. And I wanted to be a part of that because those scumbags deserved to be punished for taking so much from people who worked so hard for their futures. But this has turned into a personal vendetta. And when emotions drive the decision-making, shit goes bad, fast.”

“I tracked him for years, Kegs. He destroyed everything. I lost everything because of what he did! All of the bullshit companies he’d built and then destroyed, milking them for every single penny, emptying the pension accounts of the people who worked their assess off to secure their own futures. Christ, it makes me sick! Conlon is the reason why we’re here right now; he stole the futures of so many people so he could line his own pockets.” I slam my fists on the counter top. “Personal vendetta? Yeah, it’s fucking personal. And if I get sent back to prison, I want to make sure he’s thrown in the cell next to me. I want to look him in the eye every day, so he knows I’m the one who made sure he didn’t get away with it, that he pays for his crimes.”

“I get it. I just want to make sure your head’s clear. If it’s not, this bastard will crush us. He’s done it before, and he won’t think twice about doing it again. And this time, you might not have to worry about getting sent back up the river because you could easily end up at the bottom of it.”

“You guys have put a lot of trust and faith in me over the years. We’re not going to miss this time, even if I have to go after him myself.”

“He can’t know you’re involved. If he suspects you’re on to him, he’ll change his plan. You know how that slimy asshole operates. He’s got something up his sleeve. The transactions aren’t going to the accounts we’ve been tracking. He must’ve set up many different ones. We’ll be standing around with our dicks in our hands if we can’t get access to the incoming cash before he moves it.”

“I’ll get to Ollie. Maybe he can do something from his end.” Doubtful, but I keep my mouth closed. Ollie is already a sore spot.

A knock at the door startles me from my unpleasant walk down memory lane. The knob turns and Remo pops his head inside.

“Remo, tell me you have something.” I rub the back of my neck to no avail. The crippling knot is still there.

“I do, but you’re not gonna like it.” He sinks into a chair, his long legs spread out in front of him. “Rand and I were able to fix the feed and backtrack about a week. Ollie fucking fell off the grid, and I’m not sure he’s the mastermind you remember. Maybe working in this town has made him soft.”

“Get on with it,” I say behind gritted teeth. “What did you find?”

“Conlon is still planning on stealing the money, but it’s when and where it goes next that we need to worry about. We still don’t know when the wire is coming into his accounts, or where he’s going to route it for laundering.”

“Well those are two pretty big fucking holes in your story, aren’t they?” I lean against a wall and cover my face with my hands. I got us all into this mess, and now I need to find the way out, so we can do everything we planned and watch that bastard plummet head first into an empty concrete hole with no net to break his fall.

“Yes, but there’s more.”

“Don’t make me beg for it, Remo.”

“We reviewed the feeds for the past week. Whatever we were able to recover, anyway. Guess who’s been there, as recently as this morning?”

I scrub my hands down my face. “Tell me.”

“Ariana Carlson. And they looked pretty chummy, too.”

“Fuuuuck.” Kegs slams a fist into the wall. “This was your brilliant plan to use a hot piece of ass to get to Conlon. Well, now we’re in, with no information other than the fact that Little Miss Tits and Ass has something going with the Big Bad Wolf.”

“Do you think she’s involved?” Kegs narrows his eyes at me. Like I fucking know.

“She said she’d plant the bug for us, for the investigation. But I told her no, that it has to be Scarlet. She didn’t mention that she knew him personally.” I tap my fingers on the countertop.

“I don’t think she would’ve let that little tidbit drop if she knew you were working against him, dipshit.” Kegs rolls his eyes. “Did you really expect her to bare her soul to you?”

“So what do we do now? Get her attention with another Photoshopped picture of Scarlet?” Remo points to a laptop sitting on a nearby table. “Somebody better call Rand and tell him to get to work. My photo editing skills are shit.”

“No, I’ll figure this out.” My mind is spinning, and I’m not sure what to think anymore. Is she fucking Conlon? Is it about keeping her career intact, or something more? Is he an investor for her company? Is she—

The thoughts keep popping like blisters, but there’s an unwanted heaviness in my chest, one I’m not sure I want to acknowledge.

I take a deep breath. “What did you guys find out about the money he’s planning to steal?”

Kegs and Remo exchange a look. My spine stiffens. I’m not going to like the outcome of this conversation, I can tell already. Kegs speaks up. “From what we were able to piece together from the crappy feed, it looks like he’s going after the pension account of Markum Industries. It’s worth hundreds of millions.”

“Who on Conlon’s team is going to hack that pension system, Kegs?” I clench and unclench my fists, waiting for an answer I know they don’t have.

“Don’t know, but it sure as hell won’t be Conlon. He’d never get directly involved.”

“Do you know where the money will go after they steal it? Aren’t we monitoring his offshore accounts?” I clench and unclench my fists. Do we fucking know anything?

“We’re keeping tabs on the ones we know about, but it’s been awhile. He may have new accounts set up.”

“Guys, how the hell are we going to get our hands on that money if we don’t have these key details? They’re pretty fucking important to this job, don’t you think?”

Kegs rakes a hand through his close cropped blond hair. “Jeff, we’re doing the best we can. And remember, we’re doing this for you, putting our necks on the chopping block to finish what you started all those years ago. Give us a break. Maybe if you hadn’t gone to Ollie, we would’ve found someone who knew what the hell he was doing, and we’d already be inside Conlon’s house.”

“Don’t start that again! You guys are the best, so get it done.” I point to Remo. “Find Rand. He can connect to Conlon’s cell phone through a spy program. We need to know who he’s talking to, and when this is going to happen. We can’t take any chances right now. If the security feed isn’t working, we need another way to get the information.”

“Sure thing, Jeff.” Remo pulls out his phone and starts stabbing at the keyboard.

“We need to make our move. He’s not getting away with it this time. We’re taking him down. Just get me the details as soon as possible.” I press my fingers to my temples.

I need to get to Ariana. What the fuck was she even doing there? She never once indicated they had any kind of relationship. All those bullshit excuses she fed me, ideas to get in front of him…fuck, she had his ear, and Christ only knows what else, the whole time. My chest tightens and I need to punch something. Someone.

She knows something. I have to find out what it is - if she tipped him off, if they’re working together, if she’s fucking him.

Yeah, just thinking about that last part makes my stomach turn like a carton full of month-old milk. I grab my keys. “Guys, keep me informed. I’m going to find Ollie.”

Something tells me if I find him, I’ll find her.

“Do us all a favor and don’t give him any more tasks,” Kegs calls out as I storm out the door, slamming it shut behind me.

I walk down the stairs and scroll through the contacts on my phone. I try Ollie first, and no surprise, the call goes directly to voicemail. Same with Ariana. I launch my arm back, ready to hurl the phone at the brick wall, but let sanity wash over me. It may be fleeting, but it prevents me from trashing my sole communication device. What the fuck is going on? How am I going to get ahead of it before everything crumbles around me?

And how the fuck could she be sleeping with that sonofabitch? I fist my hair. Dammit, this is exactly why I should’ve told her to make that phone call to get her room key last night! Fucking that sweet pussy has scrambled every single one of my carefully-crafted plans. With each passing hour, the future of this job looks bleaker and bleaker. And I know if I fail again, I lose everything.