"You think you're so smart, don't you?" Greg Stranger sneered.
It's hard to feel smart when there was a gun pointed at your head, thought Jennifer. "We're just here for my sister," she said carefully, trying not to set him off.
"Well, you're shit out of luck. Get in here, both of you."
Jennifer glanced over at Austin as they both started to walk into the dark office. She wasn't sure whether Austin had any bright ideas to get them out of this but she was drawing a blank. However, there was one fallback tactic that always worked when she was out of ideas. Keep talking until something came to her. "We're not here to cause you trouble. We want to make the trade for Melody, remember? Now, since you backed out of the deal, we came to look for you."
He let out a bitter laugh. "You think I believe anything you or your poisonous family says? No. I'm not going to let you lie to me any longer. Here's what is going to happen. You're going to bring me the Dragon Heart right now or you're both going to get a bullet in your head. Now give it to me!" He screamed so loudly that spit flew out of his mouth.
Jennifer tried to keep her distress to a minimum. The only thing that helped to calm her fears was the sudden voice in her ear of Scott Hart. "Weston, stay on Melody. I'm going in now."
Toni added, "Keep him talking, Miles. I'm activating Plan C right now."
Plan C? She didn't even know there'd been a Plan B...
Austin took a tentative step forward, drawing the gun in his direction. "Hey, if giving you the necklace will make you happy, we'd be more than happy to hand it over. But we have to get it."
"No, you don't. I know you were working with someone else."
"That's all part of the con. Make you feel outnumbered and unprepared. We're the only people here and we have the Dragon Heart stashed in our car at the parking garage. Not exactly the kind of thing you just walk in with if you don't even have proof of life. So why don't the three of us—"
"Shut up!" The gun shook a little and Jennifer could tell the stress was getting to him.
"I want to do whatever we need to do to make sure Melody is okay, Greg." If he was wavering, that was good. Guns were dangerous, but they were horrible weapons for close-quarters combat. If one of them could distract Stranger, the other could go in for the gun.
"I'm all set up, Miles. Tell me when and I'll pull the trigger," said Toni.
Jennifer glanced over to Austin, but his face was blank. What was he planning?
Austin took a step forward and Greg pointed the gun firmly in his direction. Jennifer looked to see whether there was a point when she could take a run at Stranger, but it was too easy for him to pull that trigger.
"I think you should put that gun down." Austin took another step closer to Stranger.
"I'm not doing anything until you give me that necklace!" A bead of sweat fell down Stranger's forehead. He acted as if he were the one with the gun pointed at him.
Austin, on the other hand, set his hands down by his sides and looked as if he were having a casual conversation. "If you don't put that gun down right now, Austin Miles is going to die."
Jennifer didn't know who was more surprised—Stranger or her. "Wait, what?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Stranger at the same time.
"You get around in the underworld. Have you ever heard of me? Austin Miles?"
"Seriously, what are you doing?" she whispered, even though she knew Stranger could hear them.
"He knows what he's doing," said Toni in her ear.
"I'm on the elevator now," said Scott. "Weston, where are you?"
Stranger was oblivious of the conversations going on in their heads. "Austin Miles, the thief? I should've known..."
"Here's the thing. We couldn't get to your safe. But what we do have are your phone logs. Enough to put together a pretty comprehensive client list."
"So you know my clients. That doesn't mean anything."
"No. In the time it would take one hacker to get to do any harm to any of the people on that list, you could've moved all the money ten times over. But if we had an army of hackers all focused on your one client list, that would be a different story."
The gun wavered in Stranger's hand as though he was debating putting it down. "You don't have an army of hackers," he said in a quivering tone.
"But if an announcement along with that list goes out over the darknet, you can bet that there will be an army of other hackers and thieves just like me who want a crack at Austin Miles's last big score."
Jennifer's jaw dropped. "Wait. Plan C is for you to die?"
He held a hand up to her. "A fake death. In name only. But Stranger over here might be facing much more literal consequences when his clients check their empty bank accounts."
Stranger shook his head. "No. This isn't possible. I have firewalls, passwords—"
"It's the Internet. If I give people motive and a few breadcrumbs, that's all it will take for your empire to crumble."
"But I need the Dragon Heart! If I don't get it back, Sterling is going to—"
"What do you think we're going to do to you?" Scott walked into the office behind them. He crossed to stand between Jennifer and Austin, but Jennifer would've been much happier if he had a gun in his hand too. "You're outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Give us the girl and you'll live to deal with Sterling another day. This is your one and only offer."
Stranger's eyes darted all around the room, as though one of them was magically going to offer him a way out of the corner they'd backed him into.
And when Austin stepped forward the two steps needed to bridge the distance between them, Stranger handed over his gun without protest, took out his phone and sent a call.
"I recommend putting that on speakerphone," said Scott.
He glared at Scott even as he hit the button to turn on the speakerphone function. As soon as the call connected, Stranger started without any greeting. "We're done here. Go home."
"We're not going anywhere," said the voice. "Did you get the exchange?"
"It doesn't matter. I'm calling the whole thing off," said Stranger, this time more forcefully.
"Sterling doesn't care what you want. I don't care how many more of these Murray women I need to kill."
The call was over and Stranger stared at his phone in horror.
"Did he say any more of us?" asked Toni through the earpiece.
"Give me your security badge," said Austin.
"I need to—"
Austin grabbed Stranger by the lapels and slammed him into the wall of windows. "Give me your fucking badge!" he screamed. Without waiting, he rummaged through Stranger's pockets until he found his wallet and then pushed him against the glass once more for good measure.
"Weston, are you there?" said Jennifer. "Weston, I need to know if you see any bodies down there."
When there was nothing but silence, Jennifer turned and ran out of the office, not stopping until she reached the elevator. She slammed her finger on the button and willed the damn thing to light up.
"Here," said Austin from behind her as he ran the security card over the sensor that let the elevators work.
"You don't think he meant anything, do you?"
Scott caught up with them right as the elevator arrived.
"And what do you mean you're dead?" snapped Jennifer. "What kind of stupid plan is that and why didn't anyone tell me?"
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to do it," said Austin bluntly. "It was a backup."
"I should've been told about backup plans. And Weston, I swear you'd better answer me in the next two minutes or I'm going to kill you with one of your own guns."
The elevator hit the lobby and Jennifer led the way out, glancing in each direction as she looked for Weston or Isobel or anything that could give her some inkling about what was going on. "Melody was here, right? This was where the GPS said she was."
"It's where her necklace ended up," said Toni softly.
"Let's get to the van and we can regroup." Scott moved in front of Jennifer to lead the way.
Jennifer was torn between following him and running off to find...anyone. Then the gruff voice of Weston came over the comm. "I'm heading back to the van. Meet me there."
"Weston, what happened? Did you find Mel? Where is Isobel?" He didn't say anything and, as Austin turned to face her, his face said exactly what she was thinking. "No, Weston, tell me something. Please tell me you found them."
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