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)
Eric slid his hand along the small of my back (nice) as he moved from my one side to the other to open the packet of fresh fettucine I bought.
After he did this, he said, “I know. Raye told Cap. Cap told me. I sat down with Mace. The men are going to do the surveillance with you.”
My head twisted from the oil in the pan to him. “You are?”
He shrugged. “It’s a good idea. We’ll have men undercover in the camps, and they’ll have comms so they can communicate. But Mace and Lee have been uneasy about Tex and Duke being in there without backup close. If we take shifts with the Angels, we can keep a better eye on them.”
Lee was the managing partner of the Denver branch of NI&S. He was also the hero of one of the Rock Chick books, seeing as he married a Rock Chick. To end, his last name was Nightingale, so he’s the one who started the whole thing, literally, as his book was also the first book.
I dumped the mushrooms in the pan and stirred them around before I said, “Two important questions.”
“Hit me.”
“One, who’s Duke?”
“Duke’s a friend in Denver. He’s around Tex’s age. He’s a biker, so we can make him look like he’s been sleeping rough. He’s also sharp as a whip. And he’s got a few years on him, but he can take care of himself. Though, normally, he works at Indy’s bookstore.”
Indy, by the by, was Lee’s Rock Chick wife (I met both of them at the funeral, she was gorgeous and very sweet, he was the requisite hot).
“What’s question two?” Eric prompted.
I gave it to him. “You need to tell the boys they need to be all in for my corn nut, corn dog, corn chip and salsa theme for stakeouts. I’m not sitting around for hours, staring at a bunch of people who are just living their lives, hoping for the bad guys to show up, without the appropriate snacks available.”
Eric smiled. “I see stakeouts with the Angels are gonna be a whole fuckuva lot better than the ones we do on our own.”
“What are your snack themes?”
He started laughing. “We don’t have snack themes. So already your stakeouts are better.”
I shot him a smile and turned back to the mushrooms to give them a swizzle.
I did this asking, “So, how was your day?”
“It was a day.”
I thought he was blowing me off, but he continued.
“We have an established rep in Denver and LA. But as I mentioned to you before, we’re starting from scratch here. Things have been slow. However, our rep in those other places is such, they weren’t that slow. That said, now shit’s sparking off. Since we’re picky with recruiting, there’s gonna be a lot of shuffling of staff until we can get another couple people on the payroll. This isn’t going to be easy. All the men in Denver have families they don’t want to be away from for very long. All the men in LA primarily do security details, and they can’t get away. It’s good Roam is moving down. That’ll help.”
“I thought Roam just made the decision to move. Is he fully down already?”
“He’s gotta move his shit, but he’s staying with Mace and Stella while he looks for a place and meshes with the team. Soon as he finds a place, he’ll go get his shit.”
“Right.”
“Also, we’re bracing for a showdown at the office because Shirleen has decided she’s going to be the firm’s Operating Manager with her base here, but Mace had just talked the woman who worked with us in LA into moving to Phoenix, so we don’t know how that’s gonna go.”
I turned to him again as he continued talking.
“They’re both spitfires, so unless we can figure that out, it’s gonna spark off too.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” I noted.
He shook his head. “Shirleen manages the entire operation of NI and S. Payroll. Billing. Accounts receivable. Bookkeeping and accounting. Marjorie, who has already retired, twice, the second time when Mace and Stella moved to Phoenix, would only manage Phoenix operations, which means local staffing, case reporting, filing, receptionist functions and acting as a personal assistant to Mace.”
“So they won’t clash,” I remarked.
“No. They’ll clash. Shirleen has a laissez-faire work ethic. She gets it done and done well, but if she feels the need to take an afternoon off to go shopping, she’ll go. Marjorie has a Puritanical work ethic. She’s there on time. She’s highly organized. She’s obsessively professional. The only thing they have in common is that they’re both ballbusters. If they work together, shit will undoubtedly get real.”
“Well, at least it’ll make the office interesting.”
His eyes twinkled, and I noted how good of a look it was for him, before he said, “Yeah. And fortunately for me, I don’t have to be in the office very often.”