Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“I don’t like Chuck,” Luna chimed in from the back. “How about Charles?”
“Charles is also my dad’s name,” I pointed out.
“Then something else,” she said.
“Dick?” I suggested.
“Good, but no.” She snapped her fingers. “I got it. Arthur.”
Arthur was perfect!
“Word on Arthur, sister,” I agreed.
“Jesus,” Cap muttered.
I decided it was time to get my head in the game and grew quiet.
Luna got quiet with me.
Cap had a mini-battle with his inner caveman when we were at my apartment, and I not only grabbed all the goods we had, I quickly changed out of the cute dress and heels I wore to Luna’s party and put on jeans, a long-sleeved tee and my Nikes.
Luna was a size larger than me, so she confiscated some joggers, another long-sleeved tee, but fortunately we shared the same shoe size, so she put on my Adidas.
To help him get over it, I shared, “We’re not going to go storm the warehouse. But in this sitch, we can’t be in heels.”
My assistance worked, Cap bested the beast, and we trooped out to the Denali he’d parked behind the visitor spots.
We then hit the road.
Cap played fast and loose with appropriate city driving on the way back to his offices, and this normally would both annoy me and frighten me, but the ease with which he did it was kinda surreal. So in the end, I was just glad he didn’t mess around and got us there as fast as we could go.
We hit the reception of his offices, and the transformation was so complete, and it was such sheer class, even in the current sitch, my gait slowed so I could take it all in.
The reception desk had floor lighting built in its base to illuminate it, and above it was a kickass gold and glass light feature. The paintings were positioned to perfection, the modern furniture, sumptuous and expensive. All of this making the gleam coming from the rich wood paneling on the walls gleamier.
If reception at Nightingale Investigations and Security didn’t say “We get the job done!” nothing did.
Cap took us right to a door that was almost invisible in the paneling, if it didn’t have a gold door handle. He slid open an invisible panel and punched in a code in a keypad recessed to the side of the door that I’d not noticed before, and it wasn’t functioning the last time I breached the inner sanctuary the night we rescued Elsie Fay, or it was set to open, because he and Mace didn’t use it.
We were through, down the hall, two doors in to the right, and we went into Mace’s office.
And again, it had been transformed. More kickass paintings and lighting and furniture.
But I couldn’t take it all in.
That was because Knox, Liam and Gabe were there.
But also, Mace, Lee, Eric, Vance…and Tex.
I was more than a little surprised at the addition of Tex, but I didn’t mention it, mostly because Mace pinned me with his jade eyes and demanded to know, “What we got?”
Me and my manila envelope went to his desk.
I pulled out what I had, first the pictures of the women I’d stashed in there that morning because I didn’t have time to put them back up on my wall, and I didn’t want them sitting out. Next came the pictures of the men.
“Sheets, photos,” I said, dropping the first, then putting the second on top of them. I stopped at Sergio Duzek and tapped his pic. “We believe he’s definitely involved. We found that out last night.”
Cap immediately slid the sheet out from under Duzek’s picture and started reading it.
I kept dropping, and when I finally got to the end, that being Cyrus Gibbons, I tapped him too.
“I was pretty sure he was the ringleader. Don’t ask me why. But…”
I trailed off because I felt the vibe in the room shift definitively, and it was pressing in on me.
“Get them vests,” Lee all but barked at Gabe.
Gabe took off.
I looked to Luna.
Her eyes were huge.
She felt it too.
“Lee,” Cap said low.
“Not taking them in,” Lee said the words like a prolonged grunt, his handsome face so intense, it was scary. “But they got this far. They cracked it. We’re taking them with us.” His gaze cut to Tex. “Tex, you’re on the women.”
“Got it,” Tex said.
“Get a vest,” Lee ordered Tex.
“Don’t need a vest,” Tex returned.
“Get a vest, Tex,” Lee said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Tex made a noise that the only way to describe it was a wordless grumble, and he lumbered off.
Lee looked to Mace. “You got Jorge?”
Mace, who was on his phone, jutted out his chin.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Lee looked at me, and if his intensity was a lot when he was ordering other people around, having it aimed at me was knee-weakening at the same time it was awe-inspiring.