Page 30 of Tenderfoot

Raye studied her fingernails.

“I thought you didn’t do girl talk,” Jess remarked to Tex.

“Just to say, I got experience with this shit too,” Tex began, then he homed in on me. “And I’ll say to you what I said to my girls in Denver. I don’t know why you women fight it. These are good men. Javier Montoya is as solid as they come.”

He so was, solid in his opinions and his ability to share them.

Yuck.

Whatever.

“Okay, today, I don’t do girl talk,” I declared.

Shanti made a noise.

Luna did too.

Raye studied her shoes.

Jessie said, “Moving on.”

“That’s it? These men are robbing their dates?” Tex asked.

“That was it, until Trev got that necklace,” Raye answered.

Tex blew out a breath, and it was so big, my hair wafted back. “Things have been chill with you girls. I haven’t had to build a bomb or pull out my grenades. Not once. That’s the sweet spot. Men turning up dead a few hours after your fake date goes south isn’t close to that sweet spot.”

He could say that again.

“Have we contacted Clarice or Arthur?” I asked.

“Yes, both,” Raye answered. “No word from either, yet.”

“Titus?” Jessie queried.

“I didn’t think about Titus,” Raye said.

Luna pulled her phone out of her apron. “I’ll drop a line to Titus.”

We met Titus on our last mission. He was the bomb. Super sweet. Very handsome. I wasn’t sure what his occupation was, but on the streets, he was known as a fixer. Not like a Quentin Tarantino one. Like the kind who got people who were shooting each other to stop shooting each other.

And he had the best man cave in history.

I hoped we got to go back.

“I hate to say this, but it’d probably be good if Willow had a meet with Kevin,” Raye said carefully. “We need to get as much information out of him as we can so we can make sure none of this leaks into Willow’s life.” Raye turned to Willow. “I know that sounds strange, asking you to meet him when we don’t want his shit screwing with you, but right now, you’re our best bet to find out what’s going on.”

“That isn’t happening unless I’m there,” Shanti decreed.

“We can make that work,” Jessie said.

“He did ask to come over tonight,” Willow told us.

Willow had recently moved into the Oasis. Since the waiting list was huge to get a unit there, and she’d only put her name on it a couple of months ago, the mysterious forces that owned the building obviously bumped her up the list (and whoever they were, they were like Arthur: awesome, but no one knew who was behind Dreamweaver, Inc., the only name we knew that was attached to ownership of the complex).

Now she lived a couple of doors from Shanti.

I couldn’t help but think that Arthur was somehow behind that, seeing as all the Angels now lived in one place.

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