Page 34 of Breathless
“Nice to meet you all,” Rawlins said. “I’m sorry I didn’t get all the wiring run like I was supposed to before you arrived, but myassignment, Chaney, was stabbed yesterday so I’ve been at the hospital with her. They just released her, and I got her settled at home before rushing over to meet back up with you guys.”
“Is she okay?” Swede asked.
“She is. Thankfully, the blade wasn’t long on the homemade weapon the guy used,” Rawlins explained.
“Was that related to the trial?” Taz asked.
“No. A male resident where she was volunteering got bent out of shape over the fact that he was being moved to a different facility,” Rawlins said. “He blamed Chaney for it because she tried to prevent him from harming a female resident.”
“Bad luck seems to follow her, doesn’t it?” Swede shook his head. “Okay, let’s see what we need to do to finish up running the wire and what we can get started on this afternoon. Because I have a feeling Rawlins may need to get back to Chaney as soon as he can if she is all alone.”
They all climbed back into the truck and Rawlins showed them how to drive around to the back of the facility to get to the male dorm. They unloaded the equipment and stored it in both dorms before getting to work in the male dorm.
“I was almost finished in the ceiling,” Rawlins explained.
“Okay. You and Taz get to work on that while Viper and I start working with the panels and surveillance camera points,” Swede suggested.
Rawlins retrieved the ladder and wiring supplies from the janitors’ closet, and he took Taz with him to the location where he’d exited the ceiling the day before. “How do you like living in Montana?”
“Love it. I met my wife Hannah there,” Taz said.
“That has to be a plus,” Rawlins said.
“Hank said you work for Kenneally out of Virginia. You’re one of the Lone Wolf guys,” Taz said.
“Yeah. Except I work with my twin on cases. So, I guess you could say we are the exception to how Kenneally’s men work alone,” Rawlins replied.
“Twin. Are you identical?”
“Almost. His face is rounder and mine is slimmer. His name is Rafferty,” Rawlins said.
Taz chuckled. “Brown hair, brown eyes, even facial hair?”
“Yes.” Rawlins leaned the ladder into place and started climbing up the ladder to move the tile away so they could move into the ceiling. “We were named after our grandmother’s families.”
“Lucky for your parents they both started with the letter R then,” Taz said.
“Yep.” Rawlins pulled out his small flashlight and stuck the end in his mouth as he began crawling through the ceiling dragging the wire.
“It’s very dusty up here, that means bad ventilation,” Taz mused.
“Mm hum,” Rawlins mumbled around the flashlight.
“The female dorm looks newer. I hope it has a better set up,” Taz added.
They got to work and finished running the wiring before heading back down to where Swede and Viper were working. The two men laughed when they saw them.
“What have you been doing? Rolling around in dust bunnies?” Viper asked.
“Not funny,” Taz retorted. “There’s lots of dust in that ceiling. The ventilation is bad up there.”
“You’ll have to shower before we go to dinner then,” Swede told him.
“I’ve got no problem with that,” Taz said. “You going to join us, Rawlins?”
“I better not. I should check on Chaney.”
“Bring her along if she’s up for it,” Swede said. “We’ve done all we can do here today. We’ll start early in the morning.”
