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Fifty

I’m never going to eat again,” Madison moaned. She hadn’t eaten the entire jumbo bar, but she’d inflicted some damage.

Troy laughed. “Just because the Hershey’s bouquet arrived didn’t mean you had to sample it right away.”

“You’re kidding, right? It’s Hershey’s.” All the explanation needed. She’d always find room in her stomach for chocolate.

“So…” Troy’s expression had become serious, and his tone further reflected that sentiment. “We need to discuss our next steps, but should we give this mission of ours a code name?” The suggestion was an obvious attempt at lightening the somberness of the conversation.

“Sure. If you’d like.” She smiled at him.

“All right, then. How about Stiles Clean Sweep?”

“Fine, but I don’t really care what we call it, honestly. I just want Murphy held accountable for what he did. We’ll start there.”

“I can get behind that.”

“I’d also like to out any and all corrupt cops.”

“Who do you suspect so far?”

“Two, and both you know about. Dustin Phelps and Garrett Murphy. There’s probably more. I’m just getting started. As I told you, I’ve staked out at Club Sophisticated a couple times. I want to identify all the players involved with the mob and do whatever we can to stop any criminal activity.” The fact one of those “players” was her ex-boyfriend Blake Golden might complicate things a bit. She went on. “There’s this woman… I had no idea who she was at the time, but I followed her from the club last weekend.”

“Two Saturdays ago when you said you were working late?”

Her gaze flicked to his. “I did go to the club that night, yes. What made you think—”

“Just the way Terry looked at you in the hospital when I made some comment to the effect of you working all the time.”

“Can’t pull much over on you, can I?”

“Remember that.”

“Yes, I went there that night, but I also returned on Sunday.”

“When I was at work.”

She nodded. “That’s when I followed that woman. She was driven to a house in Deer Glen. The property is registered to a numbered corporation. I could only find one name associated. Roman Petrov.”

“Roman? I thought he was dead.”

“Me too. But I’ve got it on good authority that he staged his death.”

“Good authority?”

She took a deep breath. “Leland King.”

“He’s involved with this war against the Mafia too?”

“Not anymore. His advice is that I leave it alone.”

“It’s probably wiser than either of us want to admit.”

Silence spanned between them for a while.

She took a few deep breaths. “He also told me her name is Tatiana Ivanova, and she’s Roman Petrov’s second cousin and star assassin.”

Troy sat on the edge of the couch cushion. “Shit.”

“Yeah, we don’t need her attention until it’s time for her to go behind bars.”

“Wow.” Troy rubbed his jaw and sank back into the couch again. “Do you think she ordered Murphy to hit you?”

“I hope not, but who knows? Murphy and the Phelps brothers could have acted of their own volition, but I have a feeling it goes deeper.”

“Let’s just start by focusing on Garrett Murphy. If we’re running with the assumption he drove Joel Phelps’s truck, how do we prove that?”

“Talk to his neighbors and see if they give the same story about the truck not leaving the driveway all week.”

“And if they do?”

She didn’t want to go this route, but now it seemed she had no choice. Besides, she came clean about so much else. “I have proof that his truck was used.” She’d pushed the admission out quickly, but if she and Troy were going to be a team, she had to come forward with all she had.

“Proof?” His eyes darkened.

“Pictures.” She got up and went down the hall for her cell phone. She brought up the spread of photos she took.

“Where did you get these?”

“From his driveway.”

“Saturday morning when you slipped out in my truck.” Not a question.

“Yes.”

“I should—” He clenched his jaw and stared in the distance for a few seconds. “You know what? Never mind. You’ll telling me now, and I appreciate that. But why not come to me with this sooner?”

“I didn’t know how to handle it.” The truth was she wanted to avoid confrontation and bringing her little op into the light.

Eventually he said, “Fair enough. We just need to get that indisputable proof that Joel Phelps let Garrett Murphy borrow his truck and they conspired to kill you. But what gets me is why be so blatant about it? Why would Murphy let you see his face?”

She considered his question, one she hadn’t thought of before. “Maybe he thought I’d have been unconscious. Or it was a warning. He might not have intended to kill me at all. It could have just been to deliver the message that I need to back off and stop snooping around.”

Troy balled a hand into a fist. “Intention aside, he almost succeeded in killing you.”

“Maybe we could appeal to Murphy’s humanity. He wouldn’t have known I was pregnant.”

“Do you think knowing would be enough for him to confess to dealings with the mob or to expose their presence in Stiles?”

“I guess not. How do you propose getting Murphy to talk?”

His eyes glazed over with concentration. “I have an idea.”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ll call Garrett and invite him over for beers and a barbecue. I’ll try to get him to open up.”

“So you think burgers and beers will do that?” She still wasn’t seeing where he was headed.

“Uh-huh, and I’m going to use the fact I’d questioned him about the accident to my advantage. The meal will be an apology of sorts, setting things right between us.”

“Ah, so you’ll present yourself as his friend.”

“Yes, but I’ll be wired. Andrea will be brought up to speed ahead of time. You and Andrea can listen in, and whoever else she wants present as a witness.”

“Which would probably be good as we’re all practically family.”

Troy smiled. “We are family, I agree. Maybe we’ll want to include Sergeant Winston.”

“Not sure I can trust him. What about Terry? And—” She stopped. Maybe suggesting who she had in mind wasn’t a good idea.

“Who, Maddy?”

“Cynthia. But I need to talk to her before this all goes down. Let her know. It’s the right thing to do.”

“Except you can’t risk her tipping off Murphy, or Lou finding out and warning his friend.”

“If I tell Cynthia in confidence, I can’t see her passing any of this along to Lou. I do trust her, but just as a preventative measure, we could time it so I’m telling her when Murphy’s already on his way to our place.”

“Now, that sounds like a plan.”