Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“But they were in your store?” James asked, frowning. “How? You don’t let any of them in your store.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe they dressed up like the developers or something. I’ve been racking my brain, but I can’t figure it out.” She paused for a second before looking up at him. “Wait… you don’t know who attacked you?” she asked.
To that, James’s jaw went to steel. “They came up from behind. Knocked me out cold. I never saw anyone.”
“Why wasn’t it reported?” she asked as she gave him his wallet. “We watched the news, but it was never on there.”
“We have a protocol for if something happens to me. Being how… things are,” he said, not wanting to openly admit to being dirty and in the pockets of the local criminal organizations. “We can’t have it getting out that I am in a coma or dead, or there would be fucking chaos in the streets. Why do you keep looking at that?” he asked when she stared down at his wallet.
“It had a tracker in it,” I told him.
“What?” James barked, loud enough that the often unflappable Traveler jolted.
“Yeah,” I said. “It was in one of the pockets when the hospital gave it to Traveler. We debated what to do with it before ultimately deciding to bring it to the police station and leave it there. Figuring that if these people were tracking you, they would think you were at the hospital for quick treatment, then back to work to try to figure out who attacked you.”
“Smart,” he said, opening and closing his wallet a few times, pausing to glance at the picture he had in it of himself and a young Traveler.
“What are you thinking?” Traveler asked, watching her father.
“I’m thinking not many people would have access to my wallet for long enough to stick a tracker in it,” he said. “Except for someone at the precinct,” he added, jaw twitching a bit. “I leave my wallet in my desk,” he added, working things out aloud.
One would imagine that he had his own office. Which meant that none of the local criminals would have access to it.
“That leaves, what? Three hundred suspects?” Traveler asked, exhaling hard.
Did knowing how many cops there were in the district have more to do with her dad, or her community outreach work?
“More or less,” James said, voice tight. “There are some men I know to be loyal,” he went on, and I assumed he knew that because he had dirt on them to keep their loyalty.
There wasn’t usually a way for any criminal, and James Moon, despite being the chief of police, was undoubtedly a criminal himself, to have such certainty in someone’s loyalty unless there was the potential for blackmail involved.
You could get a lot of ass-kissing from people whose lives you could implode with one picture, video, or recording.
“But it still leaves a lot of others,” James went on. “I’ll know soon enough. I’m heading there after this.”
“Shouldn’t you be avoiding that place if there are people there who want to kill you?”
“They only managed to get the jump on me because I didn’t know there was a threat. They won’t get the better of me now.”
“That’s ridiculous. There’s always a chance—”
“I will have five of my best men stationed at your shop from now on,” he cut her off.
“Dad, that—“
“We are not discussing this,” he cut her off again. “I need to know you are safe. You will be safe with these men. Your uncles, plus three other men I would trust with my life.”
James was an only child, so I assumed that these “uncles” were very good friends of James’s, likely all the way back to his Academy days. Men Traveler would be comfortable with as well since she likely grew up around them.
“Dad, I can wait to reopen until things are… settled,” Traveler said.
“Absolutely fucking not,” James said, shaking his head. “I will not have your life on hold because of this. That’s unacceptable.”
I could see why Traveler had a complicated relationship with her old man. He seemed like the kind of person who was used to getting his way, to having his demands obeyed. And to a headstrong and independent woman with many of her own strong opinions and feelings, attempting to reason with someone like James Moon must have felt like screaming at a brick wall to try to get it to move.
Granted, it was clear that the man absolutely had her best interest at heart. But Traveler clearly bristled at the way he wanted to take charge and make decisions for her.
The thing was, her dad was right.
She couldn’t have her life on hold forever.
Even from a financial standpoint, she had to know that. I wouldn’t pretend to know everything about her finances, but she shared a duplex. She drove an ancient truck. She never closed her shop to have time off. You had to assume that she was likely not more than a few weeks away from ruin if she didn’t get things going again.