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)
“What’s that?” Raye asked, her eyes lighting.
She started this shit and was our unofficial ringleader, so they would.
“One of us go undercover in a camp,” I announced grandly.
All the women made faces, and I got that, because it wasn’t a super glamorous undercover mission, but Tex leaned back and shared, “Boys already thought a’ that. They’re gettin’ me kitted. And Duke’s flyin’ down. I’m goin’ in tomorrow at your camp, Duke’s going into another one where people have been snatched.”
I blinked at him, and my blink wasn’t about the fact I had no clue who this Duke person was.
Okay, bummed my bright idea was already thought of by the Hottie Squad.
But one could say Tex would definitely melt into that world a lot better than me or any of the girls.
And I’d really like to see what he’d do to someone who tried to snatch him.
Everybody gazed expectantly back at me.
I lifted my hands. “That’s all I had.”
“I have a thought,” Harlow said timidly.
We turned to her.
She bit her lip, took a big breath into her nose and said, “Okay. So, Jess has been hitting these encampments regularly for a while now. And, I mean, before you commit a crime somewhere, you case the joint. Yeah?”
How could she still be adorable when she said shit like “case the joint?”
It was just the way of Harlow O’Neill.
“Yes,” Raye encouraged her to go on.
“So, the bad guys probably keep an eye. They’ve probably seen Jess. They might not know what she’s doing, maybe they think she’s a do-gooder, like Mary did,” Harlow went on.
“Yeah?” Luna prompted.
“So, two things. One, the people in the camp trust Jess, and the baddies have maybe seen her, so they won’t think anything of Jess showing. So maybe she could go in, with us going with her, and ask a few questions. Even the Hottie Squad can’t get them to talk, but maybe Raye could, and maybe they’ve seen something. Something that will give us leads,” Harlow suggested.
And it was a good suggestion.
“Eric and I are having truffle fettucine tonight, but I can be in to do that tomorrow night,” I said.
“Truffle fettucine?” Raye asked.
“It’s all in the truffle butter,” I told her like I knew what I was talking about, when I really didn’t, but I suspected it was a good guess.
“That sounds awesome. I need to share that with Cap. Do you have a recipe?” Raye asked.
“Sure,” I said.
“Focus,” Tex grunted.
Right.
Focus.
“Maybe we should wait for a weekend,” Luna remarked. “Do it during daylight hours. When are more of them around?” she asked me.
“At night.”
“Okay then, we do night,” Luna stated.
“What’s your other idea?” Raye asked Harlow.
“Well, it’ll be boring, but a stakeout.”
Oh yeah.
I liked this idea.
We could get corn nuts and corn dogs, and rounding out the theme, corn chips and salsa and drink lots of coffee to keep us awake and have concentrated girl time before we catch the bad guys in the act.
I was feeling this.
“Cap told me the Shadow Soldiers have cameras on the camp,” Raye noted.
Shit.
There went my corn-snack theme stakeout.
“Cameras aren’t being right there, seeing shit going down and being in a place to intervene,” Luna pointed out. “We don’t have to go up against these guys, but if they grab someone, we can follow them, so we know where they’re taking them, and call the Hottie Squad or the cops to move in. Or at least we could get license plate numbers, so we’ll have a lead.”
Right on!
My corn-snack theme stakeout was still on the table.
“We’d have to find a place, like high ground,” Harlow continued planning. “Where we could maybe watch the bad guys watching the camp. If something goes down, we might not be in position to follow, but if we see anything, maybe we could take pictures so we can show the Hottie Squad and the police, and of course, get license plate numbers. We’ll need to ask Arthur for stakeout equipment, but he’s never denied a request, so we should be set.”
We all jumped, Harlow especially for obvious reasons, when Tex dropped his big mitt on the top of her head and said, “I thought you were a grown-up cheerleader. Like, an airhead.”
I winced.
Raye winced.
Luna’s eyes narrowed on Tex.
Harlow stared up at Tex with his hand still on her head and her mouth hanging open.
“You aren’t. You got chops, Peewee,” Tex concluded.
Peewee?
She wasn’t short.
But she was the shortest of us, and way shorter than Tex, so I could see that.
He took his hand from her head and looked between all of us, ordering, “Go out in twos or more. Always. Get army knives and carry them in your back pockets. That way, you get zip tied, you can get it out and cut yourself loose. Then, you get the opportunity, run. You get in a physical skirmish, go for the gonads, hard as you can. You don’t got an opening, the instep or the butt of your hand to their windpipe. Then, again, run like hell. Fuck it. I’ll get you the knives.” He looked at Harlow. “They got ’em in pink. You want just pink, or pink camo?”