Chen was friendly, social, and—even built and able to take care of himself in a serious way that anyone could see from just looking at him—he could come off nonthreatening. They never went anywhere without setting up their network, and it was Chen who started that job so they knew everything about their location. Looked into the local politicians and business owners, researched crime rates and who was committing them, and made connections on both sides of the law.

Xun and Wei came later, laying more groundwork. This was mostly making themselves available, offering services, providing favors, establishing trust, proving themselves capable at a variety of shit, and amassing a fuckload of markers.

Abel followed last, never the face of anything they did, connecting with humans very minimally. He received his briefings prior to coming but got fully briefed after he arrived.

But he did the quiet work. The work that needed to get done that no one could see.

And he did it well.

All of this was done because he knew that something would happen eventually and they needed to be prepared in any way they could when it did.

Something had happened, and luckily, they were prepared when it did.

“After lunch, we’ll all go back out,” Abel declared.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Wei asked. “You goin’ with us, I mean. You said you sensed more vamps. If they got your skills, Abel, they can get a lock on you too.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Gets you away from Delilah,” he guessed.

“And hopefully turns my mind.”

Wei nodded just as his phone rang.

But his phone rang at the same time Abel’s phone rang.

They both tensed, looking into each other’s eyes while grabbing their phones.

Abel looked away first, to the screen, and saw it was Xun.

He took the call and put the phone to his ear.

“What?”

“Problem, brother. We’re on it, but we need you upstairs in Ma’s apartment. Like, now.”

Wei was talking on his phone, but Abel was out the door and in Jian-Li’s apartment within five seconds.

He got there and saw Delilah sitting on the couch, wide eyes to him, reacting to his speed and him coming into focus from a blur (something he was able to ignore, seeing as he’d had plenty of experience with that in his life). But one sight of her, his cock twitched, his jaw set, and he forced his gaze to Chen.

“What?” he barked.

“One of the waiters noticed them, told me. I looked. Two men outside. SUV like last night, according to Xun. And they are makin’ no bones about the fact that they’re casin’ the place.”

Chen was at the window, off to the side, peering around the sheers but doing it out of the way so no one could see him looking.