Page 56 of Back in the Saddle

Therefore, I texted,What happened to “tonight?”

The whoosh barely sounded on the sent text before my phone was vibrating with a call.

It was Eric.

Whoa.

That was quick.

While I answered, my heart started beating hard, not only because Eric was connecting, but what it said he did it so quickly.

“Hey.”

“You home?” he asked.

Oh.

Well then.

He didn’t get in touch because he knew me and the girls were rolling that night, as he would, since Cap undoubtedly told him.

“I thought you tracked my car.”

“Your car has been sitting at the Oasis all night.”

Right.

Whoops!

He continued, “Cap said you took off in Luna’s ride then took the Kia. He hasn’t reported you’re back.”

Seemed Cap and Raye got busy when she arrived home.

Also seemed the Nightingale team knew about our storage unit setup and tracked those vehicles as well, because I hadn’t noticed Raye use her phone all night to report to Cap.

I was not mad about this.

Never hurt to have a badass (or better, half a dozen of them) keep an eye, especially when you were a totally untrained, amateur sleuth in a satin bomber jacket out interrogating skeeves.

“We’re back,” I pointed out the obvious.

“That didn’t last long.”

“We didn’t get much,” I informed him. “What about you?”

“We’ve asked around. Nothing yet. This is a hole in our operations here in Phoenix,” he shared work stuff, surprisingly openly. “We’ve known about it since we started setting up. None of our men are locals. It takes years to develop an information network in a city, and we’ve only had months. We need a local guy. We’re just having issues recruiting one who fits with the team.”

Supreme badass skills derived from time in the military or law enforcement or some other kickass former occupation, plus insane good looks, plus ridiculous sex appeal, plus complete confidence in their abilities, plus melding perfectly with the unit…

Yeah.

I could see that’d be hard to recruit.

“Raye told me the General told you that Jeff shared where I work,” I said.

His voice was sweet when he noted, “Means he’s good for now, Jess.”

My voice was quiet when I replied, “Yeah.”