Page 150 of The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The Second Collection
“I’m not wearing that,” Lindy objects. “I know where we’re going. There’s no point in covering my eyes.”
The morning sun gleams off the slash of white teeth between De Leon’s beard and mustache. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Max. My way or the highway.”
Lindy’s eyes flick from De Leon’s grin to me. I shrug.
With a sigh, Lindy closes his eyes and stretches his neck, inviting De Leon to put the hood on him. De Leon slides it over Lindy’s shaggy head and rolls it down over his face, tucking it under his chin. There’s a dark circle of mesh in the leather over Lindy’s mouth, but otherwise the leather is featureless except fora seam running up the middle and the zipper in the back that De Leon closes and secures with a click.
Lindy’s shoulders tense. “Was that?—?”
“Hood comes off when I say it comes off,” De Leon tells Lindy. “I’m the only one who knows the combination, so it’s in your interest not to fuck with me. Are we clear?”
“Uh, yes?”
“Yes,sir,” De Leon says, grinning demonically.
“Get stuffed,” Lindy’s voice is slightly muffled by the hood but the words are clear. “I’m not calling you sir.”
De Leon chuckles. “We’ll revisit that later. Gimme your wrists.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to zip tie them so a clever boy like you doesn’t do something naughty like shim my lock.”
Lindy’s hooded head tips back and forth for a moment before he presents his hands to De Leon.
De Leon rearranges Lindy’s hands wrist-to-wrist, then slides a zip tie around Lindy’s thin, hairy wrists. He snugs it and clips the end with a multi-purpose tool he pulls out of his fatigues.
Since De Leon’s occupied with Lindy, I grab our bags and climb out of the limo, stopping to knock knuckles with Manny.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, hermano,” Manny says. “De Leon gave me the where to pick you up. Text me the when as soon as you know.”
De Leon hasn’t given me any of those details. But I guess our time in England was good for something because I trust him to handle them now.
Manny reaches for and clasps my free hand. “Stay safe, Maxie. We can’t do without you.”
I slap his shoulder before heading toward the plane.
When we went to England, I sat in the co-pilot’s seat while De Leon flew. This time, I’m guessing he’ll need me to keepan eye on Lindy, so I settle our bags in the small passenger compartment, pick a seat, and unpack my laptop. De Leon has a decent wireless router on the plane and with the virtual private network on my laptop, I feel safe enough logging in to Snarlzilla and messaging Kinofoo and CenturyGirl.
DM4XX: We’re on our way to the safe room. Couple of hours.
Kinofoo: We’re ready. Energy drinks stocked.
I smile at that, but realize I might need a few if we end up hacking through the night. I’m not twenty anymore and, although I often keep night owl hours, I need some sleep to stay sharp.
De Leon leads Lindy onto the plane, taking care to guide him up the stairs and into a seat with a gentleness I don’t expect. I think maybe I’ve misread him, right up until the point where De Leon zip-ties Lindy to the seat.
“What if I have to pee?” Lindy huffs.
“Better hold it. I haven’t given you permission, and if you piss your pants on my plane, I’ll make you sit in it for the rest of the day.”
I wrinkle my nose at the thought. I really, really like the idea of diapering Cynnie, but I wouldn’t make her sit in a wet diaper for any length of time.
With a pat on Lindy’s hood and a wink at me, De Leon goes up into the cockpit. He leaves the door open as he starts working through his pre-flight checklist.
One of my phones buzzes. I fumble through them until I find the one making noise. It’s the phone De Leon gave me and there’s a new message.
De Leon: We’re not going where he thinks we’re going. I don’t trust him not to have a team in place. I’ve arranged a safe place for you to work through a couple of my contacts. It’s about an hour’s flight. Trust me?
