Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Harlow’s return text came in, and both Luna and I looked down at it.
“Jess asked if she got Javi’s number,” Luna explained to Raye. “And Harlow said, ‘No! Why would you ask that?’”
Because we might need to get hold of him, I texted, and Luna recited it when it hit her phone.
“‘Oh, I didn’t think of that. Sorry!’” Luna again read Harlow’s reply out loud, climbing way up on the last word in a great imitation of Harlow.
“I’ll call Joshua. Get him to get a message to Jeff to get a message to Javi that we need to continue our talk,” I said into the cab.
“And I’ll email Arthur to see if he can get comms on this guy,” Luna added.
“I know Harlow will probably tell Knox and Brady, but can someone text Cap? Or Jess, text Eric, and let them know about this Lil Clown character?” Raye requested.
“On it,” I said, and turned back to my phone.
I gave Eric the highlights, including Javi, and hit send.
Raye kept driving.
Eric texted back.
“He said, ‘Got it,’ and ‘Good work,’ and ‘We’ll get on it and give the heads up to Tex and Duke to keep an eye out for this guy,’” I told them.
“Well, at least the night wasn’t a bust,” Raye said on a sigh. “We got a possible lead, and Harlow might possibly get laid by an enormous but gorgeous vigilante.”
I’d bet, with all that bulk, Javi had learned how to be gentle in bed.
Which reminded me, we’d already made plans and Eric was picking me up at 3:30 for our stakeout shift. And while we did that, the icebox cake would be sitting lonely in its pan in my fridge, and my vagina would be sitting lonely in my jeans.
“This guy better team up,” I complained. “Because if his pride drags this out, and I don’t get laid by a muscle-bound, gorgeous PI, and soon, it’s gonna piss me off.”
“Sounds like she’s already there,” Raye whispered to Luna.
“You have Cap. He gives it to you regular. How fun was it, the delay you two endured before you connected?” Luna replied.
“Copy that,” Raye said.
I let out a breath, sat back in my seat and looked out the window at the city passing me by.
I did this wondering what drug dealers would do with a bunch of homeless people.
I came up with no answers, except the fact that, whatever the answer was, it was nothing good.
NINETEEN
EXPAND
Stakeouts sounded like they were all fun and games.
But let me tell you. They weren’t.
First, I had to set my alarm for 3:00 a.m., which didn’t seem like a big deal, until it went off at 3:00.
Then, I had to call out for my alarm to snooze, something I did. Twice.
At 3:14, I had no choice but to drag my ass out of bed, brush my teeth, wash the sleep out of my eyes, throw on some black clothes (at least that wasn’t a problem), and drag my tired ass down the stairs to where Eric told me he’d pick me up. And true to his word, there he was waiting for me in an idling Denali outside the security gate.
I climbed in, stretched across the cab to give him a brief kiss, then I ordered, “QuikTrip.”
He grinned and drove us to a QuikTrip.
We went in, got two giganto cups of coffee, and I abandoned my corn snack theme. On the fly, I created a donut snack theme by bagging two chocolate long johns, two cinnamon rolls, two old fashioneds and two cream-filled Bismarcks.
On Eric’s part, he nabbed two Kind bars, which I ignored because it made me question my dedication to falling deeper in love with him.
Eric butted in to pay, whereupon I shared, “Arthur reimburses us.”
To which Eric said, “And so does Mace.”
Okay then.
I let him pay.
We walked out, drove south, parked five blocks away from the warehouse and had to hoof it in, going out of our way to do so to be absolutely certain we weren’t seen by anyone who might be watching.
Once we hit the warehouse, we had to climb up two flights of stairs.
By the time we made it to the area set up to surveil—which had two folding camp chairs (the pimp ones with the beverage holders built into the arms) and a camera with a long-ass telephoto lens on a tripod, and that was it, and thus this setup wasn’t super welcoming—I was done with the stakeout.
Alas, it had just begun, and I had no choice but to get stuck in doing it.
We greeted Cap and Raye, who, for obvious reasons (and it wasn’t the donuts I offered them), seemed really happy to see us.
Cap took a Bismarck, Raye took a cinnamon roll and handed me a set of funky-ass binoculars.
“Night vision,” she explained the funky-ass part.
Oo.
Cool.
Night vision!
That was so awesome, things looked up.