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has been sticking pretty close so that he could move in on us whenever Vale snapped his fingers. We know his favorite places to hang. Cliff Castle Casino being one of them.”
    â€œDane would go through the roof that we’re even talking about this,” I warned. Not that I changed the subject. “Trying to get a confession out of Wayne would put me in more danger. Dane’ll throttle you if anything goes wrong. Amano, too, if there’s anything left of you.” I rolled my eyes. “Dane would strangle you just for strategizing with me.”
    â€œGoddamn it, Ari,” Kyle said under his breath. Although no one else was in the room, neither of us would be shocked if Amano lingered close enough to pick up on any scheme we might concoct to help with the investigations and do whatever we could to put an end to the reign of terror.
    How could we not want to do whatever possible to help neutralize this situation?
    Kyle continued. “As stealthy as Dark Knight is, Dane can’t be in five places at once. There’s still so much he has to do—he can’t even get to the hard drive he needs that’s sitting in a safe-deposit box in Switzerland, because he’s supposed to be dead.”
    â€œThat cover’s pretty much shot to shit now.” I cringed at my crappy choice of words as much as at how I feared the society might now know he was alive. With a shake of my head, I said, “We have to stick to whatever plan Dane and Amano devise, or we could throw everything out of whack.”
    I believed that was the only reason Amano hadn’t followed through on his threat to shoot Tom in the head. The reason Dane hadn’t taken matters into his own hands when he’d had the chance—and the justification—to leave Tom Talbot a bloody mess on our kitchen floor.
    Kyle kept at our confession-reaping scheme. “Even Dane conceded our idea was reasonable when he’d heard of it.”
    Amano had not only put a stop to our plotting but also shared our tactic with Dane for good measure—knowing he would lay down the law that left no room for interpretation. We weren’t to make any aggressive moves. Just follow his and Amano’s lead.
    He’d be pissed to high hell that we revisited this subject. Yet I was pissed, too. Had every right to be. And I wanted to do something about it.
    Still, I hedged as I thought of Dane with a hole in his shoulder. It brought back too many excruciating and insidious memories of when I’d believed him dead—and when I’d seen him for the first time after months of suffering under that belief. He’d been severely injured and had the scars to prove it. I couldn’t go through that again.
    Bringing home the salient point that if anything went wrong on mine and Kyle’s end it’d devastate Dane.
    So I said, “I’m not stressing him out further, Kyle. My God. He took a bullet for me today. So did you.” I gave him a contrite look. “I would try to send you away one more time, but now I’m thinking it’s better you stay close. You might be a sitting duck all on your own.” I tossed the towel aside and let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “You’re a sitting duck by staying with us.” This nearly shredded me. “Christ, Kyle. You could have been killed today.”
    â€œWouldn’t be the first time I was on the ragged edge.”
    â€œDon’t act like this is some cool Vin Diesel movie,” I snapped, my nerves—and my concern for Kyle’s well-being—getting the best of me. “That day on the switchbacks was seriously hazardous to our health. This was even worse.”
    â€œAri.” He gave me an unfaltering look. “You’re wigging, and I understand why. I get it, okay? This was yet another full-on game of chicken that, fortunately, we once again won.” He gripped my shoulders and said, “Splash some cold water on your face