Page 8 of Love vs The Ooze Monster!
Spy or not, did he really want to lose Mabel?
“You think your next employer’s gonna be impressed to see my name on your resume?” He asked in a harsher tone than he’d intended.
“I think so, yes. Your name carries a lot of weight in our circle.”
It took a second for him to understand. “You’re going to get a job with another bootlegger in town?” He asked slowly.
Her head tilted, like that was a silly question. “Where else would I work? This is what I was trained to do. I’m sure someone will want me.”
They wouldallwant her. Every criminal in Volstead would want Mabel just as badly as he did. They’d hire her to fuck with Boyd, and because she was brilliant at her job, and because her eyes had golden swirls.
This was a mistake. All of it.
Boyd knew that the same way he justknewwhen a dockhand was an undercover Prohibition Agent. Some instinct in his body was screaming at him to stop this.Now. No matter what she’d done, losing Mabel Harrison was ahugemistake.
“I’m going to need my baking soda, though.” She informed him.
“What?”
“My baking soda. I’m experimenting with adding it during the fermentation process. It’s a new recipe. Granted, company funds paid for all of it, but I’ll be expecting the sacks shipped over to my new job. What would you even do with a hundred pounds of the stuff, if I’m gone?”
What would he do withanything, if she was gone?
Boyd ran a hand through his russet-colored hair, his mind racing.
“Boyd?” Rico Peretti, one of his lieutenants, came bursting through the door, wearing a white bowtie and fedora. He only ever wore white suits and accessories, which offset his swarthy good looks. Rico also fancied himself an intellectual, because he’d graduated high school, a fact he never let anyone forget. “We got a problem at O'Shaughnessy’s.”
“I don’t care.” Boyd muttered distractedly. His survival instincts were kicking in. Trying to keep him from a life-ending disaster. “Miss Harrison, wait. I’m not firing you.”
Mabel was already waltzing out the door, like she didn’t even hear him. “Patrick O'Shaughnessy is terrible at paying his debts.” She called over her shoulder. “Whatever his problem is, don’t deliver any gin without payment upfront.”
Boyd gave his head a clearing shake. She thought she could justleave? That she’d move on with her life, like Boyd never even existed? She really thought he’d let that happen? Did she not know him, atall? He automatically tried to follow the crazy woman, but Rico got in his way.
“It’s bad, boss.”
“What is?” Boyd resisted the urge to shove Rico out of the way. Instead, he craned his neck to look around the hulking jackass, keeping his eyes on Mabel.
He’d screwed this up, because he’d rushed everything. He needed to calm down andthink. He couldn’t act without a plan. Not if he wanted to keep her. Andof coursehe wanted to keep her! What the hell did he have in this world besides Mabel? No matter the reason she’d arrived in his life, she was now the most important part of it.
Boyd and Mabel wereit. Therewasnothing else.
“We’re not done, Miss Harrison!” He called after her. “We’re not ever gonna be done.”
She kept walking.
Fuck!
“Boss!” Rico urged. “We gotta talk about what happened at O'Shaughnessy’s last night.”
Boyd sent him a vague look, his attention still on his aggravating bookkeeper. “What the hell is there to talk about?”
“About how everybody’s dead.”
Chapter Two
Sipping your noodle juice: (1920s slang) Literally drinking regular old tea
Mabel sipped her noodle juice, the next afternoon, still brooding over Boyd Cassiday.
