James hung up and hurried out to where Gabriella was waiting. “I caught him in time,” James said as they went down the stairs. “He’s not going to go into the building. I made him promise not to even turn on his damn car again until I tell him to.”

“So, what’s our plan?”

“We cleanse that store. Go in, see what’s there. If it’s physical, we tranq it and get it out of there. If it’s not, we seal off the store, cleanse it, and keep working the case. Maybe try to get Janis and Jeremy to stop this, if they are there. I’m going to hope this is the end of it, because I’m fucking sick of this.”

The wind was bitterly cold as they walked to his car. The neighbors across the street had an elaborate Christmas display up that he hadn’t noticed as he’d walked in earlier. Santa and his reindeer were blinking on the roof while the yard had a gaudy nativity scene with what he was pretty sure were Peanuts characters. But before he could look too closely, they were in the car and heading down the road.

“We need to get it out of the store,” James said. “And protect whoever’s in there. My guess is that these two jerkoffs got too confident with their relationship with this Polly Grace nightmare. If she’s destroying their shop, maybe she’s not on their side at the moment.”

“What, do you think the Delinskys paid her more?”

“Please, this is too undignified for them,” James said, pulling onto the main road. “No, they kill people by preventing them from collecting unemployment. Totally different.”

“You hate them, don’t you?”

James sighed. “Don’t you?”

“I guess, yeah. But you seem like you get along with Zach. Even all my comments aside, which I still stand by.”

“I do,” James said. “Yeah, I like him. He seems like a good guy, if a bit of a rich kid. But his family is revolting. And the more I learn about them, the more I hate them. I hope this makes him think about his future in the company.”

They were quiet for a moment as James pulled onto Route Two. It was almost fully dark now, and the traffic was pretty light on this side of the highway, though he could see the river of headlights on the westbound lane. “Listen,” he said. “This could get ugly.”

“I know,” Gabriella said.

“Like, violent. This thing already tried to kill me and Amelia.”

“What, like nothing’s ever tried to kill me on this job?”

She wasn’t wrong. “Still,” James said. “Just be careful, okay? We don’t know exactly what we’re walking into and we’re definitely not prepared enough.”

Gabriella didn’t answer, but he wasn’t too worried about it. Instead, he focused on driving, trying to keep his mind occupied by looking for his next exit and not on exactly what they were driving into. After a little while, Gabriella spoke without looking at him.

“Do you think they’ll just keep sending us into cases like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like, unprepared and hoping for the best?”

“Of course.”

Another beat. “Do you think if Robin had succeeded, that would still be the case?”

This time, it wasn’t a curse that made James nearly drive off the road. He veered the car back into the lane and tried to keep looking at the highway ahead of them. “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “Gabs?”

“No, seriously. I’m not looking for pity, I’m asking the question. Do you think if he’d killed me, he would have gotten the support he was trying to get?”

“I don’t know. Dammit, why are we even talking about this?”

His hands were shaking on the steering wheel. “I don’t know,” he snapped. “But we’re not going down that road. We’re never going down that fucking road. He was wrong.”

His voice was rising by the end of it, and he stopped short to avoid shouting at her. The last thing they needed was to be fighting and scattered when they got to the actual fight in thirty minutes.

“They’re wrong,” he said finally, keeping his voice low as Gabriella looked over at him. “The Foundation is wrong to under support us. The Delinskys are wrong for how they treat their employees like they’re nothing, and these two are wrong for murdering people. It’s that simple and not at all simple, you know? So let’s just finish this so we can get back to doing work that’s actually fulfilling.”

Gabriella didn’t answer and James was afraid to look over in case he’d made her cry. But then he stole a glimpse and saw her looking thoughtfully out the windshield ahead of them.

“Okay,” she said. “But do you think if we solve this, then maybe either of the extremely wealthy parties involved in this mess will pay us a little extra for our trouble?”

“Not a chance in hell.”

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 23