Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“Are you weirded out our first date has lasted sixty-one hours?” I asked.
“No. Though I am mildly disturbed you counted the hours,” he teased.
I shot him a grin.
“Are you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. So, you showing tonight with more clothes, what do I stock to prepare? Protein powder? IV hydration packets? Raw meat? Ninja stars?”
He burst out laughing.
I kept smiling as he did.
“I’ll cover myself,” he said and lifted the coffee in his hand. “You got a travel mug, baby? I gotta hit it.”
That meant our first date was over.
Which sucked.
I frowned.
But he’d be back that night.
I grinned.
“Jesus,” he whispered.
I focused on him to see him very focused on me.
My nipples tingled.
“What?” I asked.
“Waited fifteen years to find you.”
My breath left me with a whoosh.
So it was a wheeze when I repeated, “What?”
“One of a kind,” he replied.
But he said no more, and for some reason (self-preservation? me not doing the seemingly impossible and running him off by launching myself over the bar and ripping his clothes off?), I decided to let it go.
“Travel mugs are hidden behind the coffee mugs,” I told him.
He saw to that, came around and did the hair-pulling, loads-of-tongue kiss thing.
He lifted away to say, “The schedule of my day is never guaranteed, but I’ll keep communicating. I’d like to cook for you tonight, don’t know if I can do that. But you’ll know in time to make your own plans.”
“Okay.”
“That set of keys on the hooks by the door your extras?”
“Yes.”
He lifted his brows.
“Take them, honey.”
He smiled on the outside.
I smiled on the inside.
He kissed me again.
And he was gone.
On our way to Clarice Davis’s offices, I was troubled by two things.
One, the amount of effort Luna had put into making this meeting, which included telling Tito we needed to take a few hours off and her talking the weekend shift into coming in to cover us.
Two, that Cap and I had a sixty-one-hour first date, a lot had happened, a lot had been shared, and I hadn’t told him about Clarice Davis’s visit.
Honestly, it hadn’t really crossed my mind with all that was going on.
Still.
I’d have to rectify that, even if I sensed Cap wouldn’t be a big fan of whatever this was. But it was clear we were both riding the same wavelength of what was going on between us, and I couldn’t inject subterfuge into that, not ever, really, but definitely not at our beginning.
Clarice’s offices were in a high rise two blocks down from NI&S’s Phoenix branch. Parking required validation, so Luna was sure to bring the ticket with her, and when we hit her offices on the tenth floor, even after seeing her Louboutins and Birkin bag, I was taken aback by how swish they were.
The credenza behind the reception desk was all but covered in a massive bouquet of fresh flowers, which had to have cost at least three hundred bucks, just sayin’.
Once we announced ourselves, we were immediately led back to a corner office. I was filled with trepidation, but Luna was strutting through it like she paid the lease.
“Aren’t you nervous?” I whispered to her.
“Why?” she asked. “It’s just a chat.”
Right, right.
That was all it was.
Just a chat.
We hit her office, and it was all modern glass and chrome, and lots of pristine white (including the fluffy rug that looked like fur under her desk), with Clarice sitting behind the desk, this time wearing a figure-skimming, fire-engine red dress with a notch at the collar and cap sleeves.
On her feet were patent black pumps, no red sole, but I still knew they were designer.
Seriously, the woman was top-to-toe class, but I was thrown by the fact she’d scored a primo corner office like this one. She had to be a really good lawyer or come from money to have this setup, and she didn’t look much older than us.
“Glad you came,” she said, standing but not approaching us. “Coffee? Sparkling water? Soda?” she offered.
“I’m good,” Luna told her.
“Me too,” I said.
She nodded to the receptionist, who took off without a word, then she gestured to the white leather chairs in front of her desk.
We sat.
She sat.
Then, with no further ado, she launched right in.
“What we can offer is resources. For instance, if you need extra stun guns, Tasers, or surveillance equipment, like telephoto lens cameras, you’ll text a number I give you, and within an hour, that will be sourced for you. You need a pickup, you text, and depending where you are, within ten to thirty minutes, that will be provided to you. You need research, data, intel, you share what you need, within twenty-four hours you’ll have it, unless the dive has to be deep, but you’ll have something to work with as fast as we can get it to you. You need additional transport, like a van, that will be provided for you. You need cash for bribes or to loosen tongues, you submit a request, and if it’s approved, we’ll get that to you too. The deal is, first, no guns. Second, you don’t get your asses in a sling. If you’re in the field, you’re on your own. So my recommendation is you do not go out alone, and my further recommendation is you recruit some new Angels.”