Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I stood still a moment, contemplating why Carmy from The Bear didn’t take his time stuck in the freezer to rethink his life choices in a more positive way: that being getting out of that freezer and running for the hills.
Then I went to our freezer and banged my head against it.
Raye came to me and stroked my back.
“It’s okay,” she soothed. “Luna will be here soon. We’ll get the others in. We’ll figure it out.”
I stopped banging my head and turned to her. “That’d be good.”
“I’m scared to ask about how Gabe carried you into your apartment last night and didn’t come back out.”
I turned back to the freezer.
She grabbed my shoulders and moved me to face her.
“We’ll leave that alone for a while,” she offered.
“Good call,” I said.
She swept a hand over the baked goods. “I’ll take some of these to the cases. Cool?”
I nodded.
She grabbed a tray of chocolate chip pecan muffins.
I followed her with two trays of cookies.
Angels Confabs were rarely attended by all the Angels because we all worked, and a few of us—me, Joey, Gemma—had second jobs.
But boy howdy, did those bitches traipse in after they heard a) the erroneous information Mr. Shithead cornered me and b) Gabe spent the night.
We gathered behind the bar at The Surf Club, which wasn’t optimal, but it happened often because a) we all worked there and b) we all had bills to pay, so it wouldn’t do to be too far when someone wanted to order a cookie or a refill.
“So, you’re finally not treating Gabe like he’s patient zero with the next coronavirus,” Harlow started it.
No, it was Gabe who was avoiding me.
But…
Was I treating him like patient zero?
Crap.
I was.
Mostly because he was avoiding me.
Well, also because he was the snack to end all snacks. Nope, he was a seven-course meal.
And I was a starving woman who, even so, was on a diet.
However, Gabe should not be where this Confab started.
Luckily, Tex and Tito butted into our Confabs, and although Tito didn’t say much (he was a diminutive Santa Claus-looking guy, if Santa was on vacation in Hawaii, such was Tito’s daily uniform, and as if this didn’t give enough vacation vibe, his ever-present sunglasses did), Tex didn’t give much of a damn what anyone thought of what he had to say.
And Tex wasn’t about hashing out relationship stuff.
“This isn’t about Gabe,” he declared. “This about that honky ambushing Willow.”
Honky.
Oh yeah, Tex could sometimes be a hoot.
Still.
“Okay, let’s get this straight,” I stated. “I was not cornered or ambushed. I was surprised. Surprised. He was not a threat. He was here asking for help.”
“Oh my gawd,” Gemma breathed, her gaze aimed at Joey. “We’re finally in on a real, honest-to-goodness mission.”
“I know, right?” Joey replied, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
When Arthur had given indication we were supposed to recruit them (this being him sending their Andy Warhol-esque portraits to us at the storage units), we’d had one itty-bitty case we worked to break them in. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just proving some friend of Clarice’s boyfriend was cheating on her (he was, and it didn’t take long for us to figure that out).
But yeah, this was their first real, honest-to-goodness mission.
Luna ignored both of them and asked me, “Help with what?”
For the bazillionth time, I said, “I don’t know. He didn’t get a chance to say. But he was jittery as all get out. Every car that passed, he thought they were coming to get him. Shaw showed, and he took off, and I mean the man hoofed it. He said ‘they’ were watching him. He said ‘they’ couldn’t know he was coming to us.”
“Shit, did you notice if he was followed?” Jessie asked.
I shook my head. “No, but I asked him that, and he said he didn’t think so. I didn’t see anybody. Then again, once Mr. Shithead took off, I had to deal with the cavalry, so I didn’t get a good look.”
Jess nodded and Raye inquired, “Is that all he said?”
I shook my head again. “No. He said they have someone. A woman. He definitely said ‘her.’ He started to tell me more, and he was going to show me something on his phone, but that was when the cavalry arrived.”
“And that’s it?” Shanti asked.
“Mostly,” I told her. “Though he did say she was the only one who treated him decent, and it was abundantly clear he was worried about her, and as such, she meant something to him.”
We all sat with the knowledge this unknown woman was the only person to treat Mr. Shithead decently, until Harlow said, “I just knew we were being mean and he needs a friend.”
“He takes porn as payment for information,” Luna pointed out.
Gemma made a gagging noise.
Joey grinned.
Yup.
Those reactions were Gemma and Joey to a T.