Page 52 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“Can you leave it until later? I need them to board up the windows first,” he said.

“Sure.” She glanced down at her ruined nightwear. “I could use a shower and change anyway.”

Noah watched her walk into the building while making a mental list of everything they needed to shore up the place. He hoped Annabelle hadn’t been too emotionally attached to the contents of her aunt’s old shop because they were gone. At this rate, they wouldn’t have to worry about moving Annabelle—the building would disintegrate around her, and she’d be forced to leave by default.

He sent a quick text to the triplets, who appeared almost instantly. Once they were set up, he went upstairs to find Annabelle and Katrina clearing up the latest mess in her apartment.

Annabelle smiled at him. “Abasi and Rodrigo were looking for you. I think they’re down in the office now.”

“You okay?” he asked, searching her face for the truth.

“I don’t know,” she said with a tight laugh. “Ask me again later?”

“You’ve got it.” After one last glance at Katrina, who nodded that she had everything under control, he went back downstairs.

The damage on the second floor was minimal. The Demons had focused on setting fire to the first floor, blocking exits, and attacking the top floor. Although their use of fire, supplemented with smoke bombs, meant the whole building reeked. They’d intended to smoke Annabelle out, literally. Almost succeeded too. But he couldn’t think about that.

He found Rodrigo and Abasi sitting at Evan’s computer station, while he was downstairs helping his brothers board up windows. They looked to be deep in conversation, which stopped abruptly as soon as he entered the room. When they saw it was him, they looked relieved.

Curious.

“Is Violet on patrol?” he asked as he pulled a chair up beside them.

“She’s stationed herself on the roof for now,” Rodrigo said, “and she’s armed to the teeth.”

Noah wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “What’s up? Annabelle said you were looking for me.”

Rodrigo got up, crossed to the door, and shut it.

Curiouser still.

“We have a plan,” Rodrigo said when he sat back down, keeping his voice low.

“Is it a plan Rochelle wouldn’t approve of?” Noah asked.

Rodrigo smiled with amusement. “Oh yeah.”

“Is somebody gonna tell me this plan, or do I have to guess?”

“Abasi and I have been talking,” Rodrigo said. “We don’t like the current situation. We’re living on borrowed time just sitting here, waiting to be attacked, and we reckon it’s time to change the game.”

Noah frowned at Abasi. “You can’t shoot anybody in the head.”

“This is a new plan,” he drawled, perfectly relaxed.

“You see.” Rodrigo sat forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “We can’t start a war with any of the other gangs because nobody’s dumb enough to take on the Demons. But there’s nothing to stop us from disrupting their day-to-day activities.”

“I thought we were doing that.” Noah rubbed his chin, suddenly aware that he smelled like a smokehouse too. “Aren’t we chasing their money?”

“We’re talking about something a little more immediate,” Rodrigo said. “They have supply chains going through Texas. If we found out the where and when of what they’ve got going, we could sneak in and mess things up for them.”

“No business. No money. No power,” Abasi said. “And a whole lot of pissed-off customers.”

“They’ll have plenty to worry about other than Annabelle’s testimony.”

Noah considered their proposal for a moment. They were right that Rochelle would never go for it—especially if it meant interfering with ongoing official investigations. “I assume you mean for this to be a three man operation.”

“Violet isn’t good at stealth,” Rodrigo said, which was a massive understatement.