SS:TIE 015

Sally shakes her head. “Don’t do it. Hell, if we drag her in, the others might cut and run. We’ll get surveillance on her. We’ll get her phone, her ISP. We can make her life hell. Try the carrot.”

“She seem like the carrot type?” Shelby snorts as she follows Sally back to the car.

“She seems like the brains. We fuck up with someone like that, and it could come back harder on us.”

“She’d crack. Five minutes alone with her,” Shelby says wistfully. “They shot Alison, Sally. They shot her. And you want to take it easy on them.”

“Forget it. It’s not worth the risk.”

SS: TIE

The yacht is vast. Maybe it’s a superyacht; Elsa is no expert.

It’s packed. Photographers from Buzzfeed and TMZ are present, along with at least a dozen recognizable influencers. Elsa expects that a fair few of the girls dancing feverishly are sex workers; she’s seen a few of them leading guests away into the boat.

Lili was always the pretty one. Elsa’s copious tattoos give her a little novelty; some people fetishize that, but Lili is the one carrying them. Her thong bikini is meant for someone with more of a butt, but overall, it’s working.

They blend amidst the sweaty bodies and pounding music under the blazing Miami sun.

Adella Salazar is on a balcony overlooking the wading pool, which is the heart of the party.

The bodyguard at the top of the stairs is only a temporary obstacle. Elsa uses the elevated position to track guard movements and their schedule while Lili coaxes the stairway guard behind a curtain. Elsa takes that opportunity to slip into Adella’s area, where she leans on the railing, bending over and putting a little curve in back. As she gazes at the party below, she can only hope that Adella Salazar is gazing at her ass.

SS: TIE

The delivery uniform is a bitch in this heat, and circumstances demand that Rey be an even bigger bitch.

“Listen, asshole. You hear the party. You know whose boat this is.” Rey laughs incredulously as she stands at the end of the gangplank with her cart. “What, exactly, do you think is going to happen if they run out of champagne up there? This is the order.” She shoves the clipboard into the guard’s arms. “They gonna pour gin on a stripper’s tits? Get out of my way. Jesus.”

The guard takes off his sunglasses and puts his submachine gun over his shoulder so that he can examine the clipboard properly.

Rey’s eyes dart left and right. Her hand is on her hip, and in it is a knife. If this goes bad, she has to hit him in the throat and get him into the water before anyone notices and without anyone seeing. It’ll be a gamble.

The guard hands the clipboard back and opens the lid of the cart. Cold mist rises from the champagne within. He closes it and moves aside.

“Thank you.” Rey grunts as she shoves the heavy cart forward, bumping over the rubber non-slip mats lining the ramp. She doesn’t blame the guy for not offering to help after her little performance. “Christ,” she mutters, sweat dripping from her face. It takes all of her strength. She hopes Cheese and the others are having an easier time than she is.

SS: TIE

Chica removes her earpiece and tents her fingers as the AC blows on her in a stolen Bronco. All signs point to Captain Powers playing ball. The police radio chatter has made it clear that their instructions are being followed. The cops are canvassing miles away, and that’s causing all sorts of problems and eating up a lot of resources.

She takes off her sunglasses and opens her laptop, donning her headset. She initiates a VoIP call with the script prepared by Lora.

“Hi,” she says cheerfully. “Uh, OK, I’m Cindy Smith, and I work at the counter here at the Bakersfield. Look, there was this guy. He checked in a few minutes ago, and he had this long bag. I don’t know if it’s a rifle or not, but my manager told me to call you. I can give you his room number. We heard some weird stuff up there.”

Miami Dade only has one SWAT team that they can quickly mobilize, and they will have **** but to send it as backup to probe this tip. That will place the most bothersome cops far away. The downside is that they will already be spun up and mobile. Chica has considered this at length and determined that it’s worth the risk. She has confidence in the team, but this is not their usual job. Adella Salazar’s party isn’t a hard target, but it’s exposed, and it has a lot moving parts. Chica has little confidence that this will be clean, especially with so little prep time and the limitations imposed by having to lie low.

She closes the laptop and puts the car in gear, rolling around the corner and down the ramp. There, she lowers the window and considers the boat in the marina. This is the one with the worst security, and she has two candidates for making this getaway: a sleek MTI and a 25-foot Yamaha with a roof. Nothing else moored down there will be an option. She can go to another marina to look for more, but that’ll increase the risk of getting caught, which risks the police being activated prematurely.

She bites her thumb. The MTI is a go-fast boat that will offer a significant advantage in speed, but there’s very little passenger space and zero cover. The Yamaha will be easier to handle and offers at least a little cover.

It would’ve been better to set up the boat in advance, but that would risk tipping their hand. The task **** knows they’re getting out, and any one of them being spotted at a marina in this area would give away the score to any half-decent detective. There just wasn’t time to put this job together.

Chica checks her watch. By now, Rey will be aboard the yacht, and Elsa and Lili should be making their move. There isn’t time for an in-depth analysis. Chica has to make a choice.

Take the MTI? Or the Yamaha?