Wolfe pulled into traffic, his phone sitting in one of the cupholders. He ended up behind a FedEx truck that blocked most of his view of the road, which always made him a touch nervous.

“Why did you give her a hundred dollars?” Shel asked.

“Try and make nice with the little people when you can,” Wolfe said. “It’ll come back to help you some day.”

“’Little people?’” Shel asked and laughed. “You just told me she’s crazy rich.”

“Well, consider it respect then—I’d kinda been curt with her, so that was a way to make sure next time she has a tip she’ll call me again.”

“That makes sense. Thanks.”

They drove in silence for a bit before Shel asked another question. “When can we look for Kevin?”

“Who the fuck is Kevin?” Wolfe asked, then immediately knew whom it had to have been. “Sorry. Your brother, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Look, we got up a couple of hours ago after four hours’ sleep. Let me touch base with Big Man Grimm—which needs to come first—call my guy about card and leveling opportunities—which are gonna be gone very soon, as everyone is out looking for them—and then maybe we can take a nap. Then we’ll go searching for him later this evening, all right?”

Shel bit her lip but nodded, and Wolfe dialed Big Man Grimm.

His menacing voice came through the other side. “Wolfe?”

“Yeah.”

“Talk to me.”

“Cobras got Heinrich and took most of his cards. It was obviously a fast job… the one card they missed had simply fallen under a nightstand. Not sure if they got lucky or if they really are getting inside information, but it’s suspicious—especially with everything else that’s been happening.”

There was a pause on the other end. “Whatever happened with the mole?”

“What?” Wolfe asked, surprised. “Didn’t Damian tell you?”

Shel was staring at Wolfe. He would bet that she heard Big Man Grimm from where she was sitting.

“I haven’t seen either of my sons since last night, nor heard from them—and neither is answering their damn phones.”

That… might be bad. It would suck if the Cobras killed Big Man Grimm’s sons. Wolfe briefly remembered his conundrum via Damian. Although it might work out for me.

“I see,” Wolfe said, trailing off for a moment. What does one say to that?

Wolfe decided to just do his job. “Well, the mole wasn’t a mole but did have some low-level police contacts. Damian said we can use her to plant information against the Cobras, and I’ve been training her to use her deck. It’s mixed Divine and Mortal, but that gives her at least some cards that are effective against Infernal, which we’re going to need—especially with Heinrich gone. We’re a touch low on Deckbearers at the moment.”

Shel briefly pressed her hands together and bowed her head to him, then started to say, “Th—”

Wolfe violently waved his hand at her and mouthed, “Shut up!”

“Keeping a police contact around is stupid,” Big Man Grimm ground out, apparently not having heard Shel. “You should have killed her.”

Shel’s eyes went as wide as dinnerplates.

Wolfe was silent, and after a moment, Big Man Grimm spoke again. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t crap all over my son’s plan immediately. But be ready to salvage this if it goes south, got it? We can’t afford anymore fuckups. You kill her if you think she’s going to be a problem.”

Wolfe nodded. “I’ll make sure we’re good.”

Shel was still staring at him.

“You know we have to retaliate for Heinrich, right?” Big Man Grimm said. “An eye for an eye.”

“Yeah, I know how it works.”

“I want you to find, and kill, one of the Cobra deckbearers,” Big Man Grimm said. “Make sure you carve Heinrich’s name in his chest when you’re done. Also, kill whomever offed Heinrich regardless of whether they were a deckbearer or not.”

Wolfe sighed. He would get it done, but his heart wasn’t really in the fight this time. Still, he knew it was needed. “I’ll do it.”

Then he had a thought. “I already killed one, by the way. It occurs to me that, since you haven’t seen Damian, you probably don’t know that, either.”

“What?” Big Man Grimm asked. “When? And how am I finding these things out so late?”

“Sorry. Damian stopped by the warehouse last night. I just assumed he had gone back and told you about all this. They tried to take me out last night—they jumped me coming out of the party. Four of them, one deckbearer.” Wolfe paused. “Like they knew I was coming.”

“We really do have a mole somewhere,” Big Man Grimm ground out. “Or the club is bugged. Fuck.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Then his voice changed slightly, and a dark joviality entered it. “Well… you already got one of their deckbearers. Kill another. In fact, for now, it’s open season on the Cobras. They’ve started this war—attacked my best runner, my accountant and cousin, and now my best enforcer. You’ll make sure they pay for their hubris.”

Wolfe nodded before remembering he was on the phone. “I’ll take care of it.”

Shel frowned at him. He wasn’t sure what her objection was.

“Make sure you do,” Big Man Grimm said. There was a brief pause. “I’ve been thinking this war was coming. I booked Miriam a plane ticket to Paris. A month-long trip through Europe. Can you escort her to the airport tonight?”

“What time’s the plane leaving?”

“8:10 p.m.”

“Yeah, I’ll handle it—although I’ll need to borrow your ride. My car was busted up pretty bad in the attack last night.”

“Done. Pick her up around 5:30 at the mansion.” Big Man Grimm hung up.

Wolfe thought about the conversation. It’s a really bad sign that we’ve fallen so far in the number-of-trustworthy-guys-left department that the boss is just counting on me to escort his daughter. It seems the Cobras somehow have a better set of men.

Although Wolfe knew that if Big Man Grimm ever took the field directly, the Cobras were probably fucked. It had been a long time, but once, Big Man Grimm had been a killer as good as Wolfe. And his deck was way better. He had started with a god-gifted deck he had now been working on for forty years, with a lot of killing and money to make levels and get really good cards both.

But if the boss was needed, the family was probably already fucked.

Shel was still staring at him. “Would you really ‘take care of me’ if I were a problem?”

Wolfe gripped the wheel tightly as he turned onto a side street. The FedEx truck was still pissing him off.

“What good does asking that question do?”

“What?” Shel asked.

“If I say yes, you’re all cut up and weepy and shit. If I say no, I give you ammunition to get me killed by Big Man Grimm—or if this car is bugged, I’m just fucked. Let’s not ask shit whose answers can only cause problems, okay?”

Shel stared at him with a slightly furrowed brow but didn’t respond to his comment.

After a moment, she asked, “So… what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to put one more call in, to Victor—he owes me and is a bit of an information broker. See if he knows about your brother or any odd happenings that might be Drop Night goodies running around. Unless he has immediately useful shit, next we’ll go catch a nap.”

Shel yawned with almost perfect timing and Wolfe chuckled before continuing. “After that, we take Miriam—Big Man Grimm’s daughter—to the airport.”

“To keep her safe? She isn’t a part of the gang?” Shel asked.

“Nah, Big Man Grimm kept her pretty sheltered, and while she’s figured it all out by now, she doesn’t seem interested. Plus, she’s studying the law. Pretty sure running a mob family precludes admission to the bar,” Wolfe replied.

Wolfe turned onto Main, heading toward the part of town where he lived. “Tonight, once we’ve handled Big Man Grimm’s daughter, we take care of our own shit. Look for Cobra gang members. Find one and make him tell us where your brother is. Rescue your brother. Along the way, try to get a few cards for our decks.”

Shel gave a half-smile. “That’s a lot for one day.”

“We’ll be the most overachieving thugs the world has ever seen,” Wolfe quipped, grabbing his phone.

“Should you be calling people while driving?” Shel asked.

“Girl, I’ve killed people while driving. I can handle a damned phone.”

Wolfe expected her to make some snappy comeback or roll her eyes or something. But she just nodded.

Wolfe dialed Victor the fence.

Victor answered almost immediately. “Wolfe, my best friend, what can I do you for?”

“Information, Victor. I want to know three things: First, if you know of a new gun carrier for the Cobras, name of Kevin Lyon.”

“The second?” Victor asked.

“Name of a Cobra with a devil tattoo on his neck and a license plate that reads ‘M I L F K C R.’”

Victor laughed. “What a douche. I don’t know offhand, but I’ll check on it. Last thing?”

“Anything really exciting that you’ve heard about Drop Night specials where I could get cards fast. Monsters, dungeons, puzzles… whatever you’ve heard.”

Victor sounded hesitant as he answered. “Well… I gave most of that information to Damian when he called a few hours ago. I did hold something really juicy back, though…”

“What?”

Another pause. “Look, this one is pretty good, legit. Full dungeon, unusual appearance conditions, almost certainly not picked over yet. If I give it to you, we’re clean, okay?”

“Fine, if you also tell me about Kevin,” Wolfe said. “We’ll be square for Janine.”

“All right. You know the Noimore City Pound near Main, just down Industrial, near the airport?”

“Yeah. It’s where I got my old dog, Pierce. Why?”

“Late last night, after the pound closed, while the moon was out, a dungeon entrance opened in the back near the kennels.”

A moon-based dungeon in the pound? I’d bet anything it’s a beast dungeon, almost certainly werewolves. “How’d you find that out?”

“A janitor—sorry, sanitation worker—there sells me things sometimes. He sold me the information.”

I’ve gotta get some more contacts myself. “And Kevin?”

“He’s training under Nico, but they’ve already thrown him a beating. Not sure he’s gonna last.”

“Fuck,” Wolfe said with feeling. “I fucking hate Nico.”

There was laughter on the other end. “Everyone knows that—if you’re gonna give me information, give me something I might be able to sell.”

Wolfe sighed. Nicholas Rain was the Cobras’ number-one enforcer. He was a decade younger than Wolfe and had a deck to boot. Almost every encounter that Wolfe had had with a deckbearer that had ended in him being chased off and or nearly killed had been with Nico. Figures.

Plus, if they’ve thrown Kevin a beating after just a couple of weeks, he’s already fucking up bad. They’re gonna put a bullet in his brain soon.

“That cover it?” Victor asked.

“Yeah.”

“And we’re square?”

Wolfe gritted his teeth. “We’re square, Victor. You can charge me like everyone else now.”

Wolfe hung up before Victor could get any other quips in and tossed his phone hard into the cupholder. He was home, and he turned his busted car into the driveway.

“What’s wrong?” Shel asked.

Wolfe got out of the car and slammed the door, a tiny piece of glass shaking free from the window and landing on the cement with a plink. “Your idiot brother is being trained by Nico himself, and he’s not doing well—they’ve kicked his ass once already. Nico is a God-gifted deckbearer from last drop ten years ago. Someone I haven’t been able to take out till this point. It’s gonna be a whole thing.”

Shel’s eyes widened. “How do we rescue him?”

Wolfe paused. “I’ll think of something. But for now, I’m going to go sleep. You call Detective Laurel, tell her what we talked about. They should have dropped the body by now.”

Shel nodded.

“Then make sure you get some sleep. We need to be up in four hours or so again. A lot of stuff we need to do.”

Wolfe unlocked the door to his small house, turned right, and went down the hall to his room. He closed the door behind him and lay on his queen-sized bed, pulling the blanket over himself. He could still faintly smell his old dog, Pierce, and loneliness briefly struck him.

He rolled over, held his hand on his chest, and then pulled his cards forth.

A second later, Cereboo jumped onto his bed, licking his face from three angles. The giant, red boxer then circled on the bed before slumping down, his back facing Wolfe. Wolfe knew he would have to put Cereboo back in the deck when he got up, but he smiled to see the pup.

Wolfe reached out and pet his new dog once, then settled into his bed, happier than he’d felt in a while.

He was asleep in less than a minute.