I take a couple of deep breaths. “They’re watching me. I’ve made my cyber security as solid as I can. I need you to keep an eye on me. You’re still getting alerts on my vitals, right?”
“Yeah. One went off last night and another this morning, you dog.”
Both damn good orgasms. “Fuck off. You didn’t check in with me either time.”
“I did. Your creeper in Singapore or wherever the fuck he is told me you were busy with your girl. What’s the deal with the closet?”
I’m going to have to limit Squid’s access to my camera feeds. “None of your business. I’m going to take a trip to England for a few days. Otherwise, I’m going to hunker down. My place. NYU. Logan’s place. Oh, and I’m going to the movies with Cynnie tonight.”
“Send me your schedule every day and text me if anything changes. You want me to set up surveillance on your building to see if we can catch the drone?”
“No, I’ll get some cameras in my windows. I might need a body man to come with me to England, though. You got anyone?”
“Yeah, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Not Pig-Pen again. I swear, Manny, anyone but that guy. His body odor could kill a goat.”
Manny chuckles. “No. De Leon.”
“What? Fuck no. Logan mentioned him the other day, too. What the fuck? That guy’s a complete grocery store short of a fruit basket. Someday I’m going to turn on the news and see his name on the FBI’s Most Wanted.”
“Yeah, look, I know he’s a little psycho?—”
“Alittlepsycho?”
“Okay, a lot psycho, but I’d trust him to take down anyone who tried to snatch you, Maxie. He wouldn’t hesitate. My other guys? They’re good guys, but they’re not special forces. De Leon is. And he has a plane. He can get you to England and back without you having to take commercial flights. You know they could track you that way. And, uh, he wants in.”
“What do you mean, he wants in?” I ask, my stomach sinking.
“He’s . . . bored.”
“Good. Mass murderers should be bored. It means they’re not mass murdering.”
“C’mon, Maxie. He’s not a mass murderer. A lot of those Special Forces guys do things they can’t forgive themselves for. He’s trying to atone, I think. He went to Mass with Jen a couple of times.”
“You’re fucking with me. Wait, he’s here in New York? Lo said he was living off the grid somewhere.”
Manny clears his throat. “He is. But like I said, he’s bored and, uh, a little lonely. He’s got a place in the City. He pops in and out.”
I rub my forehead to ease the tension headache that’s returned. “Just what we want. The ex-spook popping in and out. It’s not even Halloween.”
Manny chuckles at my lame joke. “Just think about it, okay? I’d feel a lot better about you traveling internationally if De Leon was with you.”
I grumble but drop it. It’s a problem for another day and if there’s no better solution, at least I won’t have to put up with Manny’s buddy’s body odor. It really isthatbad.
“You’re going to England for this thing with Logan’s ex, right?” Manny asks.
“Yeah. He tell you about it?”
“Enough, yeah. I can’t imagine being where he is. On top of everything else, Jen would fucking kill me. How’s Emily holding up?”
“She seems okay, but it’s got to be stressful for them both. We need to do everything we can to help. I’ve never seen Logan fall apart like that, not even after Ernie was killed. On top of his injury and everything else, it’s too much, Man.”
Manny grunts. “Then you’re not going to like this. Rick-the-Fucktard got out of the hospital and went straight to a building on Lexington Avenue. There are a couple of different offices in that building, but one of them is a law office.”
“How d’you know that?”
“Rick’s an idiot. For all his bitching about the panic button Logan had made for him, he hasn’t taken it off. I’m still tracking him.”
