Chasing the White Lion by James Hannibal (mind reading books .TXT) 📕

“Do what?”

Talia wanted to smack him. “Your highness. Princess. What’s it all supposed to mean?”

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug, and that was all she got for a couple of blocks. Then, when her mind had jumped back to the kids in Myanmar, he said, “I dunno. Maybe I’m pulling your pigtails.”

“Pulling my—” She stopped as the meaning caught up to her. Flirting. Was Finn trying to say he’d been flirting with her, on some deeper level than his usual Finn, Michael Finn interactions with women? Before Talia could compose anything close to a suitable response, they came to the 267 feeder. “Take the U-turn under the next overpass,” she said. “We need to run a surveillance detection route.”

“I know how to run an SDR.”

“Then run one.”

“I am.”

“No, you’re heading straight for Wolf Manor. Take the U-turn.”

Finn flipped on the hazards and slammed on the brakes. Cars whizzed by on either side.

Talia checked behind them. “What are you doing?”

He put the Audi in park. “I came to this team with skills of my own, Talia. I bring value. I’m not the chosen one like you, but I’m not support staff to be called up by the ring of a bell either.”

A car swerved around them, horn blaring.

“You win, okay? You have value. Drive.”

“Whatever you say, your highness.” He punched the gas.

The chosen one. Your highness. She figured it out. “You’re not flirting with me. You’re mad because you’re not the center of attention.”

“Flirting?” He signaled left, heading for the same U-turn she’d indicated a few moments before. “Who said anything about flirting?”

“You did.”

He took the corner at high speed, tires squealing through the curve. “You’re unbelievable.”

For the rest of the drive, Talia let Finn make the decisions, even when she would have taken a different road. Best not to provoke the man at the wheel. And by the time he pulled into the circle drive, he seemed like himself again.

“For the record,” she said as they both got out, “I don’t see you as support staff.”

“Right. Then what am I?”

A crash and a tinkling saved her from having to answer. Darcy and Mac had been loading up a pair of cargo vans and dropped one of the crates. Silver discs like plug nickels lay strewn about the drive. Both had dropped to their knees to scoop them into piles.

Talia glanced at Finn across the roof of the Audi. “Should we ask?”

“Do you want to help pick those up?”

“No.” She had important business to discuss with Tyler.

“Then let’s go inside.”

Finn went upstairs, but Talia headed straight for the great room and Tyler. “I’m in.”

“You’re not in.” He lounged in a leather chair, playing with a novelty toy—a magnetic ball and a copper tube with a long slot cut out of the side.

“Why not? For the last week, you’ve practically begged me to join you.”

“Begged is an overstatement. I’ll admit, your involvement would greatly improve our odds of success”—he dropped the magnet into the tube and watched it slowly descend as if magically resisting gravity—“but you’re not in.”

“Who’s not in?” Eddie emerged from the kitchen with a miniature tart in each hand—one lemon, one strawberry.

Talia’s hands went to her hips. “We literally just ate at Bill and Wendy’s place.”

“But Conrad made them.” The geek popped the strawberry tart into his mouth, chewing and repeating his question at the same time. “Who’s not in?”

Tyler caught his magnet and dropped it into the tube again. “Talia.”

“Talia’s out?”

“She was never in.”

“Hey.” Talia glared at both men. They were doing this on purpose. She could tell by the smirk on Eddie’s strawberry-stained lips.

The magnet dropped from the bottom of Tyler’s pipe. He caught it and looked up. “Yesterday, you left no doubt you wanted nothing to do with this job. Now you want in. I need a good reason.”

Talia opened her box of adoption paperwork and removed the file she had slipped inside—Jenni’s file. She tossed it in his lap. The page with the picture of the little girl slid out a few inches.

Tyler drew the paper out and held it at arm’s length, finding a focal point for the small print. “Missing children. In . . . Ban Doi Henga . . . Thailand.” He lowered the page. “What’s this?”

“Thirty-four children went missing during a fire on the Thai/Myanmar border. You said Boyd’s crowdsourced crime syndicate has a hand in human trafficking through Rangoon. I think this is him.”

“Could be coincidence.”

Without looking, Talia pointed at the geek. “Eddie, what did we learn about coincidence at the Farm?”

Silence.

Tyler raised an eyebrow.

Talia dropped her shoulders and glanced back. “Anytime now, Eddie.”

He was licking his fingers, still chewing his second tart. “You told me it was rude to talk with my mouth full. You can’t have it both ways.” He swallowed hard and wiped his lips. “The textbook answer is ‘There are no coincidences in intelligence, only overlaps and intersections.’”

“See. Operational overlap.” Talia flicked the paper in Tyler’s hand. “Your favorite. Look at that report. On a per-deal basis, human trafficking is the most lucrative illicit trade in Asia.”

“So?”

“So, this kidnapping is too close to Boyd’s Frenzy—both in time and geography. It has to be one of his big players. The Hyena or the Liger or . . .” She signaled Eddie for a little help.

“The Hyena, the Snow Leopard, the Clouded Leopard, or the Maltese Tiger. But it could also be one of the three hungry panthers competing to supplant them, or the big boss himself—the White Lion.”

Talia gave Tyler a What he said look. “You hate coincidences as much as I do. This kidnapping is connected to Boyd’s Jungle. It has to be. So am I in?”

“Nothing that caused your earlier reservations has changed. You understand? I—” He glanced past her toward Eddie, as well as Finn, Mac, Darcy, and Val, who had all walked in from the kitchen. “We will follow this rabbit hole wherever it leads. Even if that effort digs up past skeletons you don’t want to see.”

Talia took the file and showed him the picture