Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Because you and Javi are together and have had lots of phenomenal sex?” Willow guessed.
“Yes, that, but mostly because I can tell Javi is really, really happy.” I put my hand to my chest. “Because I make him that way. Can you believe that?”
“Of course we can,” Jessie said tartly.
She was just the greatest.
I looked at my bestie. “I’m the real me when I’m with him, Jess.”
“I’m glad about that, even if I’m not sure I understand it,” she replied.
“I’m pretty,” I said.
“Uh…yeah. You’ve seen yourself in the mirror,” Raye said.
“No. I mean,”—I leaned into them again—“I’m pretty.”
They didn’t appear to understand.
I leaned back. “I’m okay. No. I’m great. Being a server, or say I decided to study rocket science, and then I was a rocket scientist. Either way, I’m great just as I am.”
“Your fucking mother,” Jessie groused, hitting the nail on the head.
“I should have known, because of the way you guys are with me,” I noted. “But I don’t know…walking into Geordie’s with Javi…no, before that, just the way he looked at me when I came down the stairs at his place and he saw me all done up. It just…clicked. I was good, just me.”
“Right or wrong, good or bad, a man who looks like a Greek god squires you into the most romantic restaurant in Phoenix, it’s gonna put a pep in your step,” Luna remarked.
Totally.
“He fucks you so senseless you go to work with sex hair, stamped official,” Raye added.
She was so right.
Willow grabbed my other hand. “I love that you and Javi had all that this weekend.”
“I love it too,” I whispered.
We all sat with that for long moments, all of us loving it (though none of them more than me).
However, since it wasn’t all about me, I looked to Raye. “Are you and Cap okay?”
“Well, I did manage to retain my snit while fucking him stupid because he’s such a kickass badass, but I couldn’t sustain it after he made me Nutella and toasted almond crepes for breakfast and brought them to me in bed yesterday morning. So, yeah, we’re good.”
“Awesome play on his part,” Shanti remarked.
“Word,” Raye agreed.
“Javi and I decided to avoid any talk around Trev, Kev and what happened on Saturday,” I informed them. “It’d kill the vibe. So does anyone know if anything is happening with that?”
“Well, first, a bit of SC news,” Jessie declared.
I looked at her, but Raye spoke.
“Tito took Luna aside this morning and told her they hired Dream.”
Uh-oh.
I turned my attention to Luna. “You okay with that?”
She shrugged. “Tito said she’s going to do half shifts both Saturday and Sunday. He also said Tex only agreed to this if she had a probation period.”
I wasn’t sure what I was getting from her, but whatever it was, I was more confused by it than just not knowing what it was.
“That doesn’t seem out of hand,” I noted carefully.
“Her probation period lasts four hours, on Saturday,” Luna explained. “Tex is coming in, and if she doesn’t pass muster in those four hours, she’s gone.”
I gawked, because, I mean, even Dream couldn’t learn the ropes in four hours.
“Everyone needs a training period,” I said. “Even Dream.”
“Tex says that no one needs to be trained in how to be nice,” Jessie shared through a snicker.
“Not sure how he’d know, since he’s such a grump,” Willow mumbled.
That was the truth.
“Okay, so if you’re okay with that,” I aimed this at Luna, who gave me a reassuring nod, and then to the rest at the whole group, I asked, “What about the bad guys the boys took in on Saturday, or word about Kev?”
“Unsurprisingly, nothing from the guys. They’re zipped up tight. Though, they haven’t stopped the bodyguard thing, so we figure that means they haven’t solved the case. And Luna got an interesting text from Ally yesterday,” Jessie said.
Ally?
“Ally Nightingale?” I asked.
Ally was book eight of the Rock Chicks. The name Nightingale gives part of it away, but she didn’t work for NI&S, the firm her brother started that eventually expanded to Phoenix. She had her own private investigation firm in Denver.
“One in the same,” Luna confirmed.
“What’d she text?” I inquired.
Luna fished out her phone, found the text, and read it verbatim. “If you can, find his phone, or his laptop. Better, both. Also, look at bank records. When you run out of leads, you have to find them, and as much as it’s a pain in the ass, you can usually find them by immersing yourself in data.”
Oh my God!
She was helping us!
And oh my God.
That was impossible.
“Any chance we can get our hands on either Kev or Trev’s phones or laptops?” I asked.
Raye shook her head. “Probably no chance. We would have grabbed them if they were left at their places, but they weren’t. Though, we do have a request in to Arthur to see what he can do about either of those, if he can possibly get his hands on any police reports, and if he can give us any bank stuff.”