Page 53 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“Or at not killing people,” Abasi added.

“The triplets are too young and inexperienced,” Rodrigo continued. “Katrina doesn’t have the training, and Rochelle would stop us. Which leaves us three.”

“How do we find out what they have going on?” Noah didn’t challenge their assessment of the team. “We’d have to bring Evan in on this. If we do it,” he added hastily.

Rodrigo shook his head. “Evan will tell his brothers. Or freak out over whether his mom would approve of whatever he’s hacking.”

“Then where do we get our info?”

“I still have contacts,” Abasi said. “I didn’t burn all my bridges when I took apart the James Family.”

“And,” Rodrigo said with a smile, “we have Elle.”

Noah’s eyebrows shot up at that. “You want to leave our own tech specialist in the dark but call in the one in the London office? Let me count the waysthatcould backfire.”

“Abasi’s practically her brother,” Rodrigo said. “She’d do anything for him.”

Abasi didn’t contradict him. “At least this time, she’s half a world away from any physical danger.”

“Elle can find trouble wherever she is.” Noah wasn’t joking. Sometimes, he suspected the young, blue-haired hacker went searching for it.

“I’ll make sure she knows the parameters of her involvement,” Abasi said.

“So, what? We dig up whatever info we can get on the Demons’ operations and then sabotage them?”

Abasi and Rodrigo shared a look.

“That sums it up,” Rodrigo said.

“And we do this without the rest of the team knowing? Or even noticing we’re missing?”

“Yeah.” Rodrigo grinned.

“I don’t like it,” Noah said. “I don’t like going behind Rochelle’s back. It doesn’t feel right. Plus, I don’t like the idea of leaving Annabelle alone.”

Abasi was unimpressed. “Told you he’d go all Boy Scout on us.”

“He’s just thinking it through,” Rodrigo said before turning back to Noah. “You won’t be leaving Annabelle alone. We’ll get Violet to watch her.”

Noah cocked an eyebrow at him. “Can’t tell you how reassuring that is.”

“Look.” Rodrigo was earnest. “You don’t know a whole lot about my past, but believe me when I tell you that I have extensive experience dealing with organized crime.”

“And I used tobeorganized crime,” Abasi added.

Rodrigo shot him a look that said he wasn’t helping. “Noah, it’s nine days until the trial. Last night was only the beginning. We can’t just fortify the place and sit around waiting for someone to shoot at us. We need to take the fight to them. You know I’m right about this. Benson Security isn’t a passive organization. You’ve been on plenty of missions where the job was to undermine the enemy. That’s all we’re asking you to do here. This op’s covert. Disruption only. It will buy us the time we need to keep Annabelle safe, I promise.”

Noah rubbed his sore leg. It was healing nicely, but he still experienced a twinge of pain now and then. They were right. Things would only get worse if they didn’t do something proactive. But he didn’t have to like it.

“No killing,” he said firmly.

“Stealth operation,” Rodrigo said with a nod. “We’re in and out without them even catching a glimpse of us.”

Noah stared Abasi down. “No. Killing.”

He smiled. “I heard you the first time. Scout’s honor. No killing.”

“And if there’s even a hint that Annabelle won’t be safe while we’re gone, we call it off.”