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)
Willow had recently moved into the Oasis. Since the waiting list was huge to get a unit there, and she’d only put her name on it a couple of months ago, the mysterious forces that owned the building obviously bumped her up the list (and whoever they were, they were like Arthur: awesome, but no one knew who was behind Dreamweaver, Inc., the only name we knew that was attached to ownership of the complex).
Now she lived a couple of doors from Shanti.
I couldn’t help but think that Arthur was somehow behind that, seeing as all the Angels now lived in one place.
And continuing my thoughts, I couldn’t help but think he did so in order that the Hottie Squad could keep tabs on us easier.
Which made me think Arthur had some link to the Hottie Squad.
But Cap had looked into it, and then Eric did too, and even with their estimable resources, including some computer hacker whiz they had on staff in Denver, they couldn’t figure out who Dreamweaver Inc. or Arthur were either.
“Invite him,” Raye said to Willow. “We’ll be close, without Harlow, obviously. But do it for later, so we can meet Jinx at seven thirty like planned.”
Willow nodded and got out her own phone.
“We need to cultivate some contacts in the police,” Raye noted.
“This might necessitate us hanging in cop bars,” Luna suggested.
“I’d be down,” Jess said.
“Me too,” Raye said.
“You could also, I don’t know, ask one or another of the badass motherfuckers you two girls are sleeping with every night,” Tex remarked, glancing between Raye and Jessie. “Seein’ as they know pretty much everything that goes down in this town, now that they recruited the Shadow Soldiers.”
That was probably a better idea.
“Eric isn’t feeling super helpful on this one,” Jess shared.
“Cap put his hand in front of my face when I started talking about it after I gave him the initial lowdown, kissed me, and walked out this morning, so I’m not sure he’s in to help either,” Raye said.
“We should have a cop or two to hit up anyway,” Luna declared. “It’s a missing link in our network.”
“You girls got a lot of missing links,” Tex muttered (it was still a kinda boom).
Since Tex bought us our penknives and had grenades (I hoped we never needed them, but again, I’d read the Rock Chick books, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance), we all studiously avoided replying to him so we didn’t tick him off.
But for what we were talking about, he wasn’t wrong.
“Anybody know a cop bar?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know a cop bar, but I know a cop,” Shanti put in. “He’s my cousin.”
“Awesome!” Raye cried.
“I try to stay away from him,” Shanti shared.
“Why?” I asked.
“He got married a year ago. His bitch is extra,” Shanti told me.
Shanti was hugely laid back. She didn’t let a lot bother her. So this note that his cousin’s wife was extra meant she was extra.
“I’ll hit him up,” Shanti offered. “Though, warning, he’s going to be about as happy as your men are I’m asking about some joker who got his throat slit.”
“I don’t think any of us are very thrilled with the way this one turned,” Raye replied. “But Kevin isn’t backing off Willow. She blocks him, he gets another phone or shows up at the Oasis. He’s doing fucked-up shit. His bestie got dead. And she’s still in his sights. We gotta figure out what he’s into and make sure Willow is well clear of it.”
We all nodded our agreement with this statement.
“I’ll dust off the grenades,” Tex muttered and trudged away.
Behind his ever-present shades (Tito had a style, it was a weird style that included different varieties of hats, flip-flops or kicks, Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses and shorts), Tito gazed among us all, his eyes hidden and therefore his thoughts the same, then he shuffled back to his table.
“I think Tito is about as big of a fan as all the other guys with this one,” Luna noted in a low tone.
I wasn’t that far behind them.
This just got really scary.
But I agreed with Raye.
We needed to make sure Willow was safe.
And once we did that, we could be done with Kevin and whatever he was into.
It would take some time, but I’d learn that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Not by a long shot.
FIVE
“THE MAN”
(TAYLOR SWIFT)
Okay, so it was chicken.
But even though Shanti gave me knowing looks, I ducked out of work twenty minutes early that night in order to go out and buy our usual bribe paraphernalia for Mr. Stupidhead (the girls had other names for him, and they were better, more apt and included bad words).
He was in our network of informants.
All right, in truth, one should call him an uncooperative informant because he didn’t like us, and we didn’t like him, but he saw and heard things we might need to know.