Page 174 of Back in the Saddle

“Yep,” I replied.

“He’s alsomuy macho,” Luna put in. “Did you notice how he sidestepped the whole working together thing when, if he came onboard, we’d totally get this done faster. I mean, the man can’t even troll the camps because they’d make him, and he had to wait for us to find out what we got from our questioning. And we didn’t give him shit about asking, we just told him what we found out, even if it wasn’t much. We all play a part in this. He needs to get with the program.”

I couldn’t argue that.

I looked down at my phone and texted Harlow,Did you get Javi’s number?

I texted it to the string, and no one said anything, Raye just kept driving as we waited for a response.

Harlow’s return text came in, and both Luna and I looked down at it.

“Jess asked if she got Javi’s number,” Luna explained to Raye. “And Harlow said, ‘No! Why would you ask that?’”

Because we might need to get hold of him,I texted, and Luna recited it when it hit her phone.

“‘Oh, I didn’t think of that. Sorry!’” Luna again read Harlow’s reply out loud, climbing way up on the last word in a great imitation of Harlow.

“I’ll call Joshua. Get him to get a message to Jeff to get a message to Javi that we need to continue our talk,” I said into the cab.

“And I’ll email Arthur to see if he can get comms on this guy,” Luna added.

“I know Harlow will probably tell Knox and Brady, but can someone text Cap? Or Jess, text Eric, and let them know about this Lil Clown character?” Raye requested.

“On it,” I said, and turned back to my phone.

I gave Eric the highlights, including Javi, and hit send.

Raye kept driving.

Eric texted back.

“He said, ‘Got it,’ and ‘Good work,’ and ‘We’ll get on it and give the heads up to Tex and Duke to keep an eye out for this guy,’” I told them.

“Well, at least the night wasn’t a bust,” Raye said on a sigh. “We got a possible lead, and Harlow might possibly get laid by an enormous but gorgeous vigilante.”

I’d bet, with all that bulk, Javi had learned how to be gentle in bed.

Which reminded me, we’d already made plans and Eric was picking me up at 3:30 for our stakeout shift. And while we did that, the icebox cake would be sitting lonely in its pan in my fridge, and my vagina would be sitting lonely in my jeans.

“This guy better team up,” I complained. “Because if his pride drags this out, andIdon’t get laid by a muscle-bound, gorgeous PI, and soon, it’s gonna piss me off.”

“Sounds like she’s already there,” Raye whispered to Luna.

“You have Cap. He gives it to you regular. How fun was it, the delay you two endured before you connected?” Luna replied.

“Copy that,” Raye said.

I let out a breath, sat back in my seat and looked out the window at the city passing me by.

I did this wondering what drug dealers would do with a bunch of homeless people.

I came up with no answers, except the fact that, whatever the answer was, it was nothing good.

NINETEEN

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Stakeouts sounded like they were all fun and games.

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