Page 172 of Back in the Saddle

“We’re going back to drop Harlow. She’s on a surveillance shift in ten minutes,” Raye told him.

“Which one is Harlow?” he asked.

So, Super Street Man didn’t know everything.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t introduce everyone. Raye, the driver. Luna, front passenger seat. And Harlow’s sitting to your left.”

Javi didn’t even glance at Harlow.

He kept his gaze locked on the rearview mirror.

“Surveillance of what?” Javi asked Raye.

“The camp,” Raye said.

We all silently suffered the tectonic plates shifting as he processed this before he said, “The fuck she is.”

“I am,” Harlow piped up cheerily. “It’s my shift.”

Javi slowly turned his head toward her, and my eyes bugged out at Luna, who was still twisted around in her seat.

They were thus at the pounding displeasure filling the cab. Luna’s eyes were bugged out again too. A quick glance at the rearview mirror said Raye was having the same reaction.

“Chill, Javi,” I said soothingly. “Knox is up there, and Brady’s coming to relieve him. She’s not going to be alone.”

Just as slowly, Javi turned to look at me.

Mm-hmm.

Pounding displeasure.

“You sure you got this right?” he asked in a low voice.

“I’m sure Harlow’s a grown-ass woman who can make decisions for herself, and one she’s made is that she’s an Angel. So I don’t know why you’re asking me that shit when she’s sitting right next to you,” I replied.

“Yeah,” Harlow chimed in, and Javi turned back to her. “I don’t know why you’re asking Jess. I’m right here. And I’m an Angel. And I pull my weight.”

Her voice was getting higher on the last few words, which sadly made them sound cute rather than I-got-this badass.

Then again, nearly everything Harlow did was cute.

Javi didn’t have a chance to reply.

Raye decelerated, turned off her lights, and we were all silent as she crept into the abandoned, weeds-growing-through-cracks-in-the-pavement parking lot on the other side of the warehouse.

When we came to a stop, Javi leaned forward, tipped his eyes up and checked out the warehouse.

He sat back and looked at me. “You got a setup up there?”

I nodded.

“Respect,” he murmured.

Apparently, they’d set it up without him knowing.

This made me proud, not knowing why, since I wasn’t on the Nightingale team, and I had nothing to do with it considering the men had taken over that part. If it had been us, there was a good likelihood even the president would know of our maneuvers.

Still.

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