Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“You’re on contacting Titus,” Raye said to Willow.
At this juncture, the phones in all of our aprons buzzed, and we looked down at them. We then pulled them out.
Text to the group from Jinx, a friend/informant, ex-sex worker, current student at ASU studying to be a teacher, who was now living with a hot guy with a mansion and a view.
Oh yeah, she’d pretty womaned.
I pulled it up and it said, What? I become invisible? Word on the grapevine is one of Los Guapos WAS SHOT! And NOTHING?
One could say, with recent holidays and our current dearth of missions (so we didn’t need information), we hadn’t been meeting up with our sex worker (and former sex worker) crew.
But they weren’t only our informants. They were our chicks.
Bad form.
Therefore, I said, “We should set up some diner time with the girls.”
“They also might know something about what’s going down with Knox’s family,” Raye said. “I know all of that is down in Tucson, but they may still hear things. Not that we’re going to do anything about it,” she said that last sentence fast when I shot her a look. “Just good to know all you can know, especially when the guys aren’t out of it.”
I thought this was a good idea, though if we did the Russian thing tomorrow, and then did the diner thing, I’d be missing out on eating in front of the TV with Knox two nights this week.
Bummer.
But a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
“You text Jinx, calm her down and set that up,” Raye finished with her orders, that last one was to me. “And we got tables, ladies.”
I looked to the restaurant.
It was filling up.
So I sent a quick text to Jinx that said, Knox is recuperating well. We’ll plan a diner date. And he and I are together.
I was punching my first order in when I got back, Who he?
So I replied, Knox.
And she replied, I get that, gringa. Who he?
Oh, she meant which Hottie Squad member.
Dark hair. Killer bod.
To which she replied, That could be them all.
She was right.
So I said, Hazel eyes. Little cleft in his chin. Football Hottie.
And I got, Nice. Then, Thursday. 6:00. I’ll tell my girls. You tell yours.
Well, that was easy.
I texted the Angels.
My assignment complete, I got back to work.
Because peasant blouses didn’t pay for themselves.
About three hours into my shift, my apron buzzed with another text.
I nabbed my phone and saw a picture of the inside of Knox’s drawer at my pad.
As I was staring at it, I saw an incoming picture of the neat edge of the hang of Knox’s jeans in my closet.
I then got, Babe.
I burst out laughing.
When I could see through my humor, I typed, Deal: I do laundry, you do dishes.
Knox didn’t hesitate to reply, Deal.
We so totally had this partner stuff down.
I sent him emojis of a shirt, dress, jeans, bubbles, and ended it with a pink heart with yellow stars.
Knox replied with just a red heart.
Yeah, we were good at this.
I got back to work.
I was mildly upset that Knox told me he’d be waiting outside when I picked him up after work so I wouldn’t have the hassle of parking downtown and coming up to the office.
I was upset because the NI&S offices were lush and always worth a visit.
I was also upset because there was an ongoing beef happening between Shirleen (overall operations manager) and Marjorie (Phoenix branch manager), and although it was a longshot, I was hoping I could watch those two in action.
This hope was dashed when I saw Knox’s tall frame detach from where he was leaning against the side of the building when he caught sight of me in the Prius.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the expression on his face when he was walking up to my car because I wasn’t certain how to read said expression.
He folded in, leaned across to me, and we shared a peck before he sat back, buckled in and I checked mirrors to pull out into traffic.
I did this asking, “How’d that go?”
“Home,” he replied.
“What?”
“We’ll wait until we get home.”
Hmm.
Not a good sign.
“How was work?” he asked.
“You and me are old, but also new, thus we need to get some things down. As in, do you want to know when Tex threatens to do something crazy?”
“Yes, considering Tex never threatens to do anything. If he says he’s gonna do it, he’s gonna do it.”
Well then.
“What’d he threaten to do?” Knox asked.
“Disable Cheyenne’s car.”
For a second, nothing.
Then I felt him shift so he could pull out his phone.
“You know, if he does, we might not have to worry about her until she gets it fixed,” I remarked.
“Yeah. I also know Tex is an ex-con. He did his stint a long time ago, but he doesn’t need to get wrapped up in my shit and get his ass incarcerated again.”