Page 36 of Rattler
I felt a smile curve my lips.“Good morning, cupcake.I can hear you.I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.You and Scrapper have a good night’s sleep?”
“It was okay.”She paused.“I missed you.”
My heart warmed at the wistful tone of her voice.“I missed you too.I should be back after supper today and you can show me how much.”
“That sounds naughty!”She giggled.“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yeah.”I wasn’t about to elaborate.She obviously hadn’t been aware of what the asshole was up to, and she didn’t need to be involved now.
“Is he going to come after me?I don’t have the gun anymore, but even if I did, I don’t know if I could actually shoot someone, even him.”
I wasn’t so sure about that.Hell, she’d bashed him over the head for threatening a kitten.“From what we can tell talking to the locals, it doesn’t look like he knows where you are.Make damn sure you stay out of sight though.Those fucking missing person posters are all over the place up here, and if they get onto social media, they’ll be everywhere.”
“Don’t worry.I’m not going anywhere.”That cheerful lilt in her voice was new.“Janet’s got me and a bunch of the other women helping her stuff gift bags for the wedding guests.I’ve never done anything like this before.It sounds like fun.Oh, and did you know she’s going to have a baby?”
“Yeah, they mentioned the baby thing about the same time she finally agreed to marry Thor.”Hearing her sounding excited and happy made my day.It would be better if I were there with her, but I knew my brothers at Riptide would watch out for her.
We talked for a few more minutes, and I felt better when we ended the call.
“Your sweetie pining away without you?”Preacher grinned as if he’d just made a great joke.
“Of course she is.How could she not miss such a drool-worthy hunk of manhood?”Joker managed to say that with a straight face.“Probably counting the hours until she can rip his clothes off with her teeth and have her way with him.”
“Keep it up.You’re both on overnight guard duty when we get back.”I took a gulp of the coffee.Dark and thick, just the way I liked it.“I talked to Ace and he’s going to talk to the FBI contact about that asshole’s sideline.I think that kind of shit falls under their jurisdiction.Said he’d call back after he hears what they want to do about it, so we need to sit tight until then in case we need to do anything else up here.”
“Like make him disappear permanently?”Preacher cracked his knuckles.“It would solve your woman’s problem, and I bet I could make it look like a suicide.”
I shook my head.“With Lily MIA, she’d be the first person they look at, and that would draw a straight line back to us.”
Preacher grimaced.“Yeah.Didn’t think of that.”
“Which is why Ace is talking to Ben Bradley.Those guys deal with this shit all the time.”Ben was our contact at the FBI, and also the father of Beast’s other half, Piper.If there was a way to take this guy down without Riptide’s name coming up, he’d find it.
My phone rang, the tone signifying it was Ace.I picked it up, aware that both Joker and Preacher were listening intently.Whatever he said would involve them too, so I glanced around to make sure no one else was in earshot before sitting the phone in the middle of the table and hitting speaker.
“We’re in a coffee shop, and I’ve put you on speaker.Preacher and Joker are here as well.”I needed to warn him there was a chance someone outside our circle might hear what he said.
“Roger that.I contacted Ben.He’s on it.Shadow is working with him, setting up a sting.”
I liked the sound of that.“You need us up here anymore?”
“No.”There was a pregnant pause.“Anything else to report?”
I glanced at Joker and Preacher.They both gave negative shakes of their heads.“Nope.All clear here.”
“Debrief when you get back then.”
Ace disconnected the call.Preacher slumped back in the seat.“Guess I’m using the range for practice then.”
“Yeah.Guess you are.”Can’t say that upset me.Assassinating someone on their own turf was always a messy business.Much better to let the FBI handle the details, and prior experience with Ben’s crew made me think the results might be the same.He just had better cover-your-ass connections.I pocketed my phone just as the waitress came bustling over with our food.
“You guys must be hungry.”She placed the plates in front of us.“You want those coffees topped up?”
Chapter Nine
Lily
The guest bags were cute.Janet had them made at a place in town that specialized in custom items.They were a soft cotton with a drawstring closure.The wedding date was stamped on them in a sparkly blue below a picture of entwined wedding bands with T&J on them.At the last moment, Mom had made enough cookies for all the bags using Janet’s recipe and vacuum sealed them into individual packets to go with the recipe.Given the state of the kitchen, Janet had tears in her eyes when Mom presented them to her.
