Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Empty.
He was at odds.
Restless.
And, frankly, unhappy.
He was a man who needed his time occupied, all of it, and he knew that about himself.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t relax. He could check into a book. Check out for meditation. Go to the driving range.
But he was goal-oriented.
Driven.
He needed a challenge.
Mika’s envelope certainly filled that bill.
The problem with that was, he’d turned it around in his head, and he had no clue even where to begin.
He’d made a call to a friend to get some advice and was waiting for a callback.
The bottom line was, what was in that envelope was too important to fuck up, but he knew one thing. Whatever needed to be done, he didn’t have the skills to do it.
Concerning him even further was trying to understand why it had landed on Mika’s doorstep in the first place.
Something that was moving out of concerning him, and instead beginning to annoy him, was that Paloma was dodging his calls and vagueing her return texts.
She’d phoned once, when he was at brunch after he and Clay had saved the kittens, and he’d had to cut that conversation short because he didn’t have time to get into what he needed to discuss with her.
Since then, he’d had no meaningful communication with her.
He sensed she knew his decision, and she was avoiding it. He’d left three phone messages since Saturday, twice as many texts.
The texts didn’t go unanswered, but her responses were ambiguous and had no follow-through. She was out to dinner. A friend was in need. She was making plans to go skiing in Aspen, You should join us, darling, but his reply of, I’d really like for us to sit down and talk went unaddressed.
Anytime he made clear they needed to speak, it was either ignored or, I’ll call soon, and then she didn’t.
It was disquieting how little he cared.
He could end things now, or he could end things when she was ready. The result would not change, just the time it happened.
He still wanted it done, rather than allowing it to linger.
Because now, he had Mika, and he knew what he wanted to do with her.
And he couldn’t, until things had been settled, officially, with Paloma.
He hit his office, touched his phone, and saw two messages on the screen he knew he intended to deal with immediately.
He started with the priority.
Opening the text string he’d begun with Mika.
His last was a picture of Nala from that morning’s feeding. She had formula all over the fur around her mouth. It was a picture Mika had requested. Or more to the point demanded. She, and Cadence, wanted a running photographic report on how the kittens were faring, and Tom was giving it to them.
Mika’s response to the latest was, Cadence wants to learn to bottle feed. Can we come over and do that soon, before they’re all fully weaned?
Absolutely, he replied. Tomorrow?
He then went to the second text, read it, sat behind his desk and made his call.
“Hey, Tom,” Jamie Oakley answered.
Jamie was Judge’s dad, Tom’s friend, and the person Tom had decided to reach out to try to strategize what to do about what was in Mika’s envelope.
“Hey, Jamie. Thanks for finding time to talk,” Tom replied.
“Always have time for you. But it must be said, your text was intriguing,” Jamie noted.
Tom had been vague, but not about the urgency of needing to talk.
“It bears out, though not in a good way. I need some advice on how to proceed with something that’s extremely sensitive.”
“That being?”
Tom laid it out about the envelope Mika received, he did it in short, but he was nevertheless thorough.
“Well…fuck,” Jamie muttered when he was done.
“That covers it,” Tom agreed. “Now I need the information validated, without tipping things for Core Point or Winston, but also not triggering any of the women, if what was reported is true, or even if it’s not. In other words, I think I need a talented investigator. But mostly, I’m calling to ask advice because I’m not sure what I need.”
“You’re right. You need an investigator. I have one in-house,” Jamie replied. “She’s exceptional at what she does. This isn’t her normal line of inquiry, but I suspect it’ll be something she’ll…I can’t say enjoy, but she’ll definitely get something out of sinking her teeth into it.”
Tom’s phone notified him a text was coming through, he took it from his ear, checked the screen, and saw it was from Mika.
Sounds perfect. Time?
He was smiling when he put his cell back to his ear.
“Are you sure you want to be involved?” he asked Jamie.
“Can you scan and encrypt what you have so she and I can go over it?”
“I can have that to you this afternoon, or my afternoon, your evening.”
“I’ll give her a heads up. Let us have a look, and I’ll call tomorrow. But I can say if it is what you say it is, I don’t have any issues being involved.”