Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Actually, I was starting to think it might be a problem.
When I checked my messages that day, I had a voicemail from my friend with a contact at the DMV. She apologized for the delay—she’d been on vacation and was still catching up—but said she had an answer for me. The beige Honda was registered to a rental agency at the Traverse City airport.
Later that afternoon, I went out onto the porch while Kelly was in the shower and called up another friend of mine, a guy named Zach Barrett. He was also a former SEAL who worked for Cole Security. He’d worked out of the San Diego office and I’d been mostly east coast, but our paths had crossed every now and again, and I liked him a lot. Solid, trustworthy, and skilled. Plus, he could be a scary motherfucker.
Last I’d heard, he’d married a girl who lived not far from here, and he worked only part-time.
“Barrett here,” he answered gruffly.
“Hey, Zach. It’s Xander Buckley.”
“Hey, Xander. It’s been a while.” His tone lost its hard edge. “How are you?”
We caught up for a few minutes, and I learned he lived about two hours from me, was married to a woman named Millie, and they had two kids.
“You’ve been busy,” I said with a laugh. “Are you still working for Cole?”
“Here and there. I cut way back on travel because Millie—that’s my wife—owns a business and with the two kids, it was hard being gone all the time. Plus, I don’t want to be gone. I don’t want to miss anything.”
“I get it.”
“What about you? Did I hear you’re opening a sports bar?”
“Yeah. Hopefully, I’ll be up and running soon. Just waiting on a few last-minute things.”
“I’ll have to drive up and check it out.”
“I’d like that. So listen, I have a favor to ask.” I explained what I was doing and why. “I’ve got no proof the car is connected to the asshole who was on the property taking photos or whoever snapped the shots at the bar, but I had a bad feeling when I saw it.”
“I’d trust my gut on it too.”
“Any way you can get the name of the guy who rented it?”
“Let me see what I can do.”
After we hung up, I glanced at my screen and noticed today’s date—it rang a bell in my head, like it was significant for some reason. Devlin’s birthday—that was it. I decided to give him a quick call.
“Hello?”
“Hey, brother. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks. How’s everything going with the bar?”
“Okay. Still on track to open next Friday night.”
“Can’t wait to see it. I might be back next month.”
“How did the lunch with Granny go? I never got a chance to ask, you left town so fast. You sweet talk her into accepting your millions?”
“Ah, not exactly.”
I had to grin. “What? I thought this was a done deal.”
“It should have been a done deal. But there was a complication in the shape of a granddaughter who joined us for lunch.”
“Granddaughter?” I pictured a child. “How old?”
“Late twenties, maybe. She grew up there and works there, and she’s totally against selling. She’s got some ridiculous notion she can get investors who will help turn the business around. My offer was much higher than anything else she’d get, but she refuses to listen to reason.”
“You mean there are actually humans alive you can’t sell to?”
“There’s one,” he clarified. “And it’s only because she has the wrong idea about me.”
“Maybe she noticed you were trying to bamboozle her granny over French onion soup.”
“No, she arrived at the table with preconceived notions about my character. She was prejudicial and biased against me from the start.”
“Why?”
Devlin exhaled loudly. “Because we’d met before.”
“Where?”
“Remember that gorgeous brunette I left with the night we all went to The Broken Spoke?”
I started to laugh. “That was the granddaughter?”
“I didn’t know it at the time, okay? We didn’t get into a lot of personal details, we just had a good time. But no matter what I say, she doesn’t believe me. She’s convinced I sought her out and slept with her for nefarious purposes.”
“So now what?”
“Now I have to figure out how to make this deal happen even though she’s working against me at every turn. My boss won’t accept anything less.”
“You’ll be fired if you can’t make it happen?”
“I might not be fired, but instead of the promotion I want, I’d probably be relegated to sales manager in Bumfuck, Nowhere.”
“Well, hang in there. I’m sure you’ll find a way.”
“I better. So how’s everything going with you and Kelly?”
“Fine.”
“Still strictly professional?”
“Uh, it’s slightly less than professional.”
Devlin laughed. “That didn’t take long.”
“But she’s heading back to Nashville at the end of the week.” I hoped I sounded more neutral than I felt.
“Will you see her again?”
“I doubt it,” I said, again trying to come off like I didn’t really care while a pit opened up in my gut.