Page 14 of SEAL the Deal

In the passenger seat the Chief looked up from the book he was reading. “Trust me, it’s the best way.”

Rick glanced up at a huge sign announcing the Bellagio Hotel. “Come on. We’re here. Surely we can stop overnight. Maybe catch a show at the Spearmint Rhino.”

TJ shook his head. “Negative, we need to be in Fallon by lunchtime.”

Rick glanced in the rear-view mirror. The other two passengers, Dean and Ernie were fast asleep. “Is that where we’re changing teams?”

“Yeah, why? You getting tired?”

He yawned. “A little.” Rick had been driving since they left San Diego five hours earlier.

“OK, pull into the next gas station and we’ll grab some coffee and switch.”

Twenty minutes later Rick sat in the passenger seat with a can of energy drink in one hand and his phone in the other. TJ was now behind the wheel, and Dean and Ernie were awake.

“Are you kidding me?” Rick exclaimed as he stared at the phone.

“What’s wrong? Already run out of Tinder matches?” asked Dean.

“No, worse. There are literally zero strippers within a hundred miles of Oakridge, Oregon.”

“Oh no, essé. What are you going to do? You might have to dress up and give Mike a lap dance,” said Ernie.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You sick little midget.”

“No need to get racist,” replied the Latino.

“What, how is midget racist?”

“You were implying that Mexicans are much shorter than black men.”

Rick turned with a cocked eyebrow. “Brother, you’ve got a serious complex.” Returning his attention to his phone he missed the wink that Ernie shot Dean.

“OK, looks like your crappy little town has a pole dancing studio. That’s pretty much stripping, right?”

TJ shook his head. “It used to be such a quaint place.”

“Is that where you grew up?” asked Ernie as Rick thumbed an email on his phone.

“No, used to visit a lot. My grandfather built the cabin when I was a kid. We’d head up there most summers. Swim in the lake, raft the river and hunt deer. Some of my best times were had in those mountains.”

Rick continued on his phone.

“What about you, Dean?” asked TJ. “You and Mike get out in the wilderness much?”

He nodded. “Yeah, we grew up on Navy bases though, so we spent more time in the water. The old man was posted to Pearl for a few years. We got up in the mountains there a fair bit.”

“Mike doesn’t talk much about his dad,” said Ernie.

Dean nodded. “When dad died he took it pretty hard. They were real close. Mike idolized him. I was always closer to mom.”

“Jackpot!” Rick punched his fist in the air.

“Tinder match?” asked Dean.

“Better, we’ve got ourselves a pole dancer for tomorrow night.”

“You could turn a nun’s picnic into a gangbang, couldn’t you Rick?” growled TJ.

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