Page 92 of Triple Threat

“Not anymore,” Lach said, brushing her off. “The police and the local feds smoked those fools. They were human traffickers and drug dealers, and the ones that weren’t killed are going to prison for the rest of their lives.”

“So, therewastrouble?” she asked.

“There was,” I said. “I prepped the security system and have my surveillance systems on high alert. After we go, say, twenty-four to forty-eight hours without incident, I will stand it down.”

“So, what happens until then? We stay all red alert and stuff?” she asked.

“No, no reason for that,” I said with a dry chuckle. “Our defenses here are not just extensive, they are deep. The first layers are miles and miles from here. I’m wired into systems that let me look into local CCTV, and piggyback into other people’s security. That’s how I caught these narcos and alerted the authorities.”

“If you can do this, why doesn’t the government?” she asked.

“Because they’re too busy fighting with each other, and their objective is more prestige and funding than it is getting the bad guys,” Lach said honestly. “C’mon, how else does a six-foot-tall diabetic Arab hide from us for over a decade in a friendly country? Internal competition and incompetence.”

“He’s talking about Bin Laden again, ignore him,” I said.

“So, if I wanted to spend time with one of you this evening, it wouldn’t be a problem?” she asked.

“No problem at all,” I said.

“What if I wanted to spend time withbothof you?” she asked hesitantly, her lovely brown eyes bouncing between Lach and I.

“I set the system to send notifications to my phone, and still, no problem at all,” I said with a warm smile.

“Okay, good,” she said and Lach eyed her.

“Just what did you have in mind, baby?”

“Um, I don’t know… dinner and a movie?” She made the suggestion as though she expected to be shot down. Lach and I traded a look, and he grinned.

“Sounds good.”

I smiled and felt a tension I didn’t know I carried ease. “What would you like for tea?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sadie…

‘Tea’ as Roan liked to call dinner, was simple fare of soup and sandwich. Of course, Roan couldn’t do anything simple, it always had to be fancy, but this dinnerwasactually pretty simple fare in its fanciness. It consisted of a Brie and butter on baguette sandwich paired with French Onion soup.

I had no idea what had gotten into Kyle but he kept busting up laughing throughout the meal and wouldn’t tell me what was so funny.

“The frogs are good for some things, mate. Their food is one of them,” Roan declared and for whatever reason, Kyle thought that washilarious. The laughter was infectious, and pretty soon I was laughing along too, even though I didn’t know why.

I helped do the few dishes, standing with Roan at the sink who made no comment about my doing them by hand. He simply took them from me one at a time, drying them with a kitchen towel and setting them in the drying rack by the sink.

“Do you know what you fancy for a film, Poppet?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t really know,” I said with a smile. “I just know I wanted to spend a little time with the both of you. I don’t feel like we do, you know?”

“That’s true,” he murmured and I could feel he was just full of questions.

“Go ahead and ask, Conan,” I said gently.

“Did he treat you well?”

I smiled when he finally gave in to his curiosity and I nodded. “He did. He surprised me, honestly.”

“Oh?”

---