Ineffable ꕥ Joost Klein ꕥ

24.

One side of the room held a smugness that Joost tried desperately to ignore. While standing in front of Alanis' monitors, the Klein looked down at the iPad on the table. Everyone sat with tight lips and the desire to make jokes about Joost's new haircut and glasses was absent.

'When the hell would someone have gotten that close to slip it into her bag?' Daan asked, not expecting an answer.

'What about her office?' Stuntje looked to Alanis. 'Anyone who could be linked?'

'I've checked everyone. I've done my best-'

'Exactly. This was out of our control,' Apson intervened. He didn't like to hear his girlfriend try to defend herself. He threw a glare towards Stuntje, who shrunk back with his hands held up innocently.

It was true. Alanis had investigated all of the people within Elke's consultancy. There was no one who had previous affiliations or significant criminal records. Just to be sure that they couldn't be first-time offenders, Alanis had logged their calls. None of them went to the same numbers that seemed to be calling what used to be Roan Colijn's phone.

Joost ran his finger along his bottom lip absently. He stared at the sim card that sat next to the iPad. Despite it's miniature size, the mundane piece of technology was the dull subject of the meeting. Ever since Joost found it in Elke's bag, he questioned how close Nathan really was.

He thought that Elke hadn't seen any of Roan's 'friends' since before his passing. She never mentioned them and frankly, Elke had made it clear that she was content with never seeing any of them again. Joost was confident that Nathan had stayed away from Elke, but he had been proven wrong once again.

Not only did Joost's guilty snooping tell him that Elke was still on Nathan's radar, but it told them that Nathan knew they were tapping Roan's phone. Why else would he plant the sim card in Elke's bag? Was he also tracking it like they were? If that was true, why did Nathan call it?

'Well, I have a solution-'

'No,' Joost paused his fidgeting and shut the man down. 'I don't want to hear about what you want to do, Donnie.'

'Oh, come on, Joost. Up until this point, your tiptoeing has gotten you no where. You've got the sim, fucking use it.'

Donnie gestured to the card from across the metal table. Between himself and the blonde, everyone did their best to keep to themselves. Tantu, who had never warmed to Donnie, scratched the back of his neck and lowered his head to control his tongue. He sided with Joost wholeheartedly, not just because of his stance on keeping Elke completely in the dark, but he didn't want to take Donnie's approach, either.

'And do what?' Joost said in exasperation. He found himself helpless against Donnie, questioning everything he ever suggested.

'Call Acid and tell him you have that money. Give him a time, a place, and we'll be ready to give him what he deserves.'

'What makes you so sure that he'll actually show up?' Enzo intervened. 'How do we make sure he's not going to set us up, again?'

'How have you guys been doing things up until now?' Donnie raised an eyebrow at the man to his left. 'I shouldn't have to tell you how to clear an area, listen to police radios and load up on bullets.'

'We're not going to walk right into a potential shoot-out.'

'Neither would Acid. There won't be a shoot-out. I thought you guys raced. I thought that was your style of handling things, Joost?'

Joost clenched his teeth at Donnie's address. He glared at him from the other side of the table and felt the attention turn to him. The eyes of his friends were inquisitive, knowing that what Donnie said was true. But what they didn't know was the conversation that Joost could sense was about to be brought up.