The Cyber Twins novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Crowe's Gala

Crowe's gala filled a glass ballroom over the water.

Two hundred guests stood under chandeliers, drinking champagne he had bought with money stolen from my boyfriend's family.

I wore Gia's red dress, taken in at the waist, and a flesh-colored earpiece in my left ear.

Nico stood three feet behind me in a black suit, with a hand at the small of my back.

"Say the word and we leave," he murmured.

"We stay."

"You're sure."

"You asked me, and I answered," I said. "Now let me work."

His fingers pressed once, and I felt him let go.

Gia waited at a table by the bar with her arms crossed.

She lifted her glass to me across the room.

Desmond Crowe came down the staircase to applause.

He wore a camel overcoat over his dinner jacket, even indoors, and he nodded to the room on both sides.

Jillian walked a step behind him in emerald silk.

My stomach turned over.

She saw me, and she smiled and waved with the tips of her fingers.

"Miss Vandemark," Crowe said, taking my hand in both of his. "My bookbinder."

His palm was dry and cold.

"Mr. Crowe."

"You brought your guard dog."

"He brought me," I said.

Nico said nothing, and he did not take his eyes off Crowe's hands.

In my ear, a guard's voice said very quietly, "Boss. Container 4417 just opened at Crowe's pier. Three men, no papers."

Nico did not move a muscle.

But his hand pressed against my back again, twice.

It was Jillian, then.

Only she had seen that line.

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