Page 175 of Back in the Saddle

But let me tell you. They weren’t.

First, I had to set my alarm for 3:00 a.m., which didn’t seem like a big deal, until it went off at 3:00.

Then, I had to call out for my alarm to snooze, something I did. Twice.

At 3:14, I had no choice but to drag my ass out of bed, brush my teeth, wash the sleep out of my eyes, throw on some black clothes (at least that wasn’t a problem), and drag my tired ass down the stairs to where Eric told me he’d pick me up. And true to his word, there he was waiting for me in an idling Denali outside the security gate.

I climbed in, stretched across the cab to give him a brief kiss, then I ordered, “QuikTrip.”

He grinned and drove us to a QuikTrip.

We went in, got two giganto cups of coffee, and I abandoned my corn snack theme. On the fly, I created a donut snack theme by bagging two chocolate long johns, two cinnamon rolls, two old fashioneds and two cream-filled Bismarcks.

On Eric’s part, he nabbed two Kind bars, which I ignored because it made me question my dedication to falling deeper in love with him.

Eric butted in to pay, whereupon I shared, “Arthur reimburses us.”

To which Eric said, “And so does Mace.”

Okay then.

I let him pay.

We walked out, drove south, parked five blocks away from the warehouse and had to hoof it in, going out of our way to do so to be absolutely certain we weren’t seen by anyone who might be watching.

Once we hit the warehouse, we had to climb up two flights of stairs.

By the time we made it to the area set up to surveil—which had two folding camp chairs (the pimp ones with the beverage holders built into the arms) and a camera with a long-ass telephoto lens on a tripod, and that was it, and thus this setup wasn’t super welcoming—I was done with the stakeout.

Alas, it had just begun, and I had no choice but to get stuck in doing it.

We greeted Cap and Raye, who, for obvious reasons (and it wasn’t the donuts I offered them), seemed really happy to see us.

Cap took a Bismarck, Raye took a cinnamon roll and handed me a set of funky-ass binoculars.

“Night vision,” she explained the funky-ass part.

Oo.

Cool.

Night vision!

That was so awesome, things looked up.

Briefly.

They left.

I put the strap of the night vision binoculars around my neck and Eric warned, “It’s strange at first, Jess. You gotta get used to it.”

I went to the grimy window, and I could see, even in the mostly dark and through the aforementioned grime, it had a full view of the encampment. I put the binocs to my eyes.

Yes, it was weird, but it was also easy to get used to.

And when I got used to it, I noted all was quiet on the camp front. Not a creature was stirring.

Eric had his own binocs, and he came up beside me and had a look.

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