Page 145 of Back in the Saddle

“What’s your other idea?” Raye asked Harlow.

“Well, it’ll be boring, but a stakeout.”

Oh yeah.

I liked this idea.

We could get corn nuts and corn dogs, and rounding out the theme, corn chips and salsa and drink lots of coffee to keep us awake and have concentrated girl time before we catch the bad guys in the act.

I was feeling this.

“Cap told me the Shadow Soldiers have cameras on the camp,” Raye noted.

Shit.

There went my corn-snack theme stakeout.

“Cameras aren’t being right there, seeing shit going down and being in a place to intervene,” Luna pointed out. “We don’t have to go up against these guys, but if they grab someone, we can follow them, so we know where they’re taking them, and call the Hottie Squad or the cops to move in. Or at least we could get license plate numbers, so we’ll have a lead.”

Right on!

My corn-snack theme stakeout was still on the table.

“We’d have to find a place, like high ground,” Harlow continued planning. “Where we could maybe watch the bad guys watching the camp. If something goes down, we might not be in position to follow, but if we see anything, maybe we could take pictures so we can show the Hottie Squad and the police, and of course, get license plate numbers. We’ll need to ask Arthur for stakeout equipment, but he’s never denied a request, so we should be set.”

We all jumped, Harlow especially for obvious reasons, when Tex dropped his big mitt on the top of her head and said, “I thought you were a grown-up cheerleader. Like, an airhead.”

I winced.

Raye winced.

Luna’s eyes narrowed on Tex.

Harlow stared up at Tex with his hand still on her head and her mouth hanging open.

“You aren’t. You got chops, Peewee,” Tex concluded.

Peewee?

She wasn’t short.

But she was the shortest of us, and way shorter than Tex, so I could see that.

He took his hand from her head and looked between all of us, ordering, “Go out in twos or more. Always. Get army knives and carry them in your back pockets. That way, you get zip tied, you can get it out and cut yourself loose. Then, you get the opportunity, run. You get in a physical skirmish, go for the gonads, hard as you can. You don’t got an opening, the instep or the butt of your hand to their windpipe. Then, again, run like hell. Fuck it. I’ll get you the knives.” He looked at Harlow. “They got ’em in pink. You want just pink, or pink camo?”

“Just pink,” she whispered.

“I’ll take pink camo,” Raye said.

“Do they have them in orange?” Luna asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Tex answered. “I’ll look. Second choice?”

“Camo, any camo, just not pink,” Luna told him.

Tex looked at me.

“Black,” I said.

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