Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“It’s not a big deal,” Hutch countered. “I can step it up for a little while. Big Tag’s letting me bring in a couple of new hires to handle the help desk. It’s been me and MaeBe for too long now.”
“We’re sharing help desk staff with MDWM,” Big Tag announced. “Adam thought he wouldn’t need a help desk since he and Chelsea apparently invented computers, but low and behold, even the brightest stars in the sky don’t know how to turn a computer off and on.”
“There’s a little more to it,” Hutch insisted.
Hutch started talking, but Boomer’s mind was elsewhere.
Something was off with that school. Not the school itself, but Lou’s entire demeanor had changed when they’d gotten close to campus. She’d been a chatterbox the whole walk there. She’d talked about every store they’d passed and asked a million questions about what MaeBe did and what Boomer did and where he’d gotten all his pets and how he and MaeBe had met and what was it like to work for the CIA.
Then they’d arrived at the stately building that held Hanover Prep, and she’d gotten a solemn look on her face. She’d looked down at the watch she wore on her left wrist and sighed before admitting it was time to go in.
It was odd because she’d walked in like she was going to have teeth pulled or something. Her head had been down, both thumbs hooked on the straps of her backpack like she worried it would fall off. The other girls had been talking and laughing and greeting each other.
No one had said hello to Lou.
She’d disappeared behind the ornate doors, and he’d had the most insane urge to go and save her.
The good news was she hadn’t seen the man again, and her mom was picking her up, so she wouldn’t be vulnerable.
“Earth to Boomer,” a deep voice said.
He sat up straighter. That had been Big Tag talking. “Yeah?”
Big Tag sat beside Alex at the head of the table. His wife sat on his other side. Ian Taggart was the only dude on the team who was as big as Boomer. “Are we taking up your precious time with work?”
He was way more sarcastic than Boomer, though. “Not at all. Just drifted off for a minute. What were we talking about? The last thing I heard we were hiring newbies.”
He’d found it was best to simply be honest. If he tried to pretend he knew something he didn’t know, there would be at least half an hour of teasing before they could get on with the meeting.
A brow rose over Tag’s head. “You lost in thought?”
It was funny. From most people he would take that as a jab, but Big Tag didn’t tease anyone he didn’t care about, and if he was asking, he was curious. “A little. So what should I have heard?”
“I was telling you we’ve got a job in San Francisco for Theo, and I was going to send you in as backup. It starts in a couple of weeks, and you’ll be there for at least a week, maybe more,” Big Tag said. “I’m moving MaeBe to their place while Theo’s gone. It’s a little early, but she and Erin have been working on her self-defense so they can train. Talk to Yas to get your flight and hotel going.”
“We’ll get some great seafood,” Theo promised.
“I’ll have the kids get ready to help with the pack.” Tag gave him a big smile. “It’ll be good to have my buddy back.”
Charlotte’s eyes rolled. “You and that bird.”
“We’re soul mates,” Tag replied.
Alex chuckled. “I have no idea how you handle all those animals. Eve and I recently got Vivi a puppy, and our whole house is chaos. I can’t imagine two dogs, a cat, and a bird.”
Those were only the permanent residents of his ever-rotating zoo. Alex didn’t even know about the eggs he was nurturing. He didn’t mention it because he knew someone would get the idea that he was going home at night and sitting on the eggs to keep them warm. There would be numerous jokes about the warmth of his ball sac, and he wanted to avoid that.
And people said he was dumb…
“I can’t go. I just got back from California.” The idea of leaving didn’t compute. He’d promised Daphne he could handle Lou for a while. She needed time to make arrangements.
He needed time to figure out what was going on with Lou. He wanted time to hang with Daphne and see if there was something there.
Tag’s brow rose. “That was eight weeks ago. We have different definitions of just, my friend.”
Had it really been eight weeks? It seemed like yesterday. “I have something I’m doing here, and I need to follow through on it.”
Now Charlotte was leaning in. “What’s going on, Boomer?”