Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“He’s a fucking asshole,” I said, getting a surprised chirp of a laugh out of her.
“Yeah, he is that,” she agreed, her smile blooming across her distractingly gorgeous face. “But you’re right; I know how to handle him. I think I was just extra freaked out tonight because I was in his office and worried about him being suspicious. It’ll be fine.”
Some part of me wanted to tell her to forget it. The snooping. The schmoozing.
I wanted to tell her to keep the money and just move on from the place and her asshole boss.
If this was my job, maybe that’s exactly what I would do. But this wasn’t my operation. This was Remo’s call.
I couldn’t call it off now that he knew I’d gotten her to agree to work for us.
But I could make sure she was safe and had everything she needed to not get caught.
So I had a lot of shit to track down the next day.
“I can’t technically walk you home. But I’m gonna be following.”
“I’ll be fine.”
It wasn’t the worst area I’d been in at night. But there was a pretty heavy drug presence, and desperate people might see a girl in a nice dress with a diamond on her neck and decide she was worth robbing.
“Probably. But I’m going to make sure. So you just head out and start walking. I’ll be a couple dozen yards behind.”
To that, she gave me a sweet smile. I could see the relief in her shoulders as she moved away from the wall and stepped out of the alley.
I hung back in the shadows, watching her, then watching the street, trying to see if there was anyone who was watching her too closely. People seeing her as a mark, sure. But maybe even more than that, anyone who might be working for her boss.
Seeing nothing too off, I made my way out and leisurely followed behind her until I saw her climb the steps up to a place that had to have been a hotel at some point, but the sign now claimed it was an apartment building.
I didn’t turn up the next street until I saw her disappear into her apartment and flip on the light.
And I was only maybe a few buildings down before a familiar voice spoke from the shadows of a closed-down parking garage.
“Everything alright?” Remo asked.
“Are you always just skulking about in abandoned buildings?” I asked, shaking my head as I moved the blockade out of my way so I could step inside with him.
“You’d be amazed how much you see from inside these places. Helped me get to know the area, its players, and its problems real quick.”
I imagined that was true. People acted differently when they knew they were being watched. Hiding out in one of the area’s many abandoned places allowed him to see things no one else would.
“Why would they close down a parking garage this big?” I asked, looking into the cavernous space.
“This was the valet garage for a casino,” he explained. “Casino closed down, so did the garage. This one is out of my price range,” he admitted. “But I imagine some developer is going to come in and turn it into a luxury condo building eventually.”
“Luxury condos?” I asked, looking over toward where, just across the street, two people were shooting up right in the open where they could be seen.
Remo shrugged. “Not a lot of shore towns left that haven’t been taken over by the elites. They’ll find their way here eventually.”
“And you want your slice of it all before that happens.”
“Something like that. Is the girl okay? Saw her rushing out of the casino.”
“She was in Frank’s office. But she’s quick. She saw the camera right off and pretended to be waiting for Frank.”
“Who, unfortunately, showed up.”
“Yeah.”
“Gonna say, I don’t like using a woman as a spy,” Remo admitted, exhaling hard. “But she’s also the only insider we can tap. I’ve been looking into it.”
“I’ve got some ideas to keep her safer. I told her just to go to work tomorrow. Give me some time to work on things.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“Yeah, actually. Anywhere to get a signal jammer around here?”
“I’ve got a few. Where are you jamming?”
“Thinking the camera in the office.”
“Nah, don’t think that’s gonna work.”
“Why not?”
“Frank hasn’t upgraded anything. His cameras are all the old-fashioned hardwired kind.”
And jammers were useless without a signal to interrupt.
“Shit.”
“I’m assuming it is set up to face the door, too, so she can’t just casually block it without being seen.”
“Yeah, sounds like that.”
“How about one of those blinding flashlights?” Remo said. “You’re gonna have to ask her if she could inch the door open without being seen. Just enough to turn the flashlight on at the thing. As long as it is on the camera, she wouldn’t be seen. Should give her five minutes to search. But she likely won’t get a second chance after that if someone is watching the cameras.”