Chapter Seven

Three dots appearing and disappearing cycled for close to a minute, and Leah grinned as she imagined the look on Larry’s face while he worked out the safest way to answer the question.

Finally, she was rewarded with an answer.

…um…

Leah

snickered, covering her mouth with her hand so she wouldn’t wake up Pete.

“You are having way, way too much fun over there,” Shannon said dryly from the driver’s seat when she caught Leah’s movements from the corner of her eye.

You don’t know the half of it, Leah thought to herself.

Sorry, couldn’t resist, she messaged Larry, followed by a smiley face.

You really asked me that? I thought it was Pete messing with me, he answered.

Now she did laugh out loud, albeit as quietly as she could.

***

Leah had been spot-on in her assessment. The question had caught him completely off guard.

Larry read it, blinked, read it again, and then again, and frowned, trying to figure out if Leah had asked the question or if his old Army buddy was goofing around.

After several rounds of typing then backspacing, he finally typed the only thing he could think of that wouldn’t land him in trouble and hit ‘send’.

Then she responded with an apology and a smiley face, and he grinned.

“She’s got a goofy sense of humor like me. Nice,” Larry observed.

“So here we go,” he said, and he began to type.

I thought about packing the gorilla costume for the week’s adventures, but it’s just so high maintenance, you know? I mean, it’s hard to see out of the mask, and the material doesn’t breathe well AT ALL. Gets really stuffy in that thing. So, I kept it simple. Jeans, boots, and so on. But I think it’s very important to note for the record – I did stash the inflatable dinosaur suit in my bag, just in case.

He hit ‘send’ and waited.

Several ‘rolling on floor laughing’ emojis were sent his direction.

They were followed almost immediately by, it’s a shame I didn’t think to pack my tutu, you’d have looked fabulous in it! and a picture of Jim Carrey in a tutu from Ace Ventura.

He roared with laughter at her response.

Yep, I can’t wait to see her again, he confirmed.

A flash of inspiration struck, and he typed furiously.

Do you like steaks? I cook a mean steak.

Do you now? Leah responded. I believe I’d like to test that.

Done, he sent back. By the time you guys get here, I’ll be ready to put them on the grill.

Still grinning, he put his truck in reverse, turned around, and headed back down the driveway toward the town of Ravenna on a grocery run.

He was back at the cabin in an hour, unloading enough food for three days – including steaks he’d had the butcher cut especially for him.

Once that was done, he typed I am gonna try to get a nap in. Text if you need me and sent it to Pete’s phone.

Leah responded immediately.

I was going to ask you when you last slept.

Oh, I don’t know…I’d been up since five a.m. when I got the call about the car bomb, so…a day, or so?

Wrong. Forty-eight hours at least, by my calculation. Set an alarm and go to sleep, Larry. You need it, was her answer.

Yes, ma’am, he typed back before he did exactly what she suggested.

***

Leah was still giggling off and on about Larry’s costume comments four hours later. Just before Shannon pulled over so they could switch out drivers, Pete stirred.

“What are you giggling about?”

She showed him, and he chuckled.

“You asked him that? That’s hilarious. I bet it took him a while to respond, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah, Larry’s got a great sense of humor,” Pete said as he grinned. “Get him to tell you about him cracking wise while we were in formation sometime. It was epic.”

“What happened?”

“Nope, I’ll let him tell you. He tells it better. Let’s just say I personally thought the extra pushups we all had to do were worth it.”

***

He took her hand and said, “May I have this dance?”

And as he pulled her into his arms and they began to sway to the music, the light fragrance of jasmine she wore tickled his senses. Larry looked down at her with a warm smile.

“What?” Leah asked.

“Nothing,” he replied. “Just enjoying being with you. You look beautiful tonight.”

She blushed, glowing with pleasure.

He guided her expertly around the floor, focused completely on her, delighting in her giggle when he dipped her low without warning.

“Nice moves,” she said, looking up at him through her long lashes. “Very nice.”

“You think so?”

“I do,” she answered.

“Well, then,” he murmured. “Check this out.”

And he gently lifted her and kissed her as the slow, sultry music drew to a close…. and began to ping?

What?

His brows furrowed together before he realized it was his work phone, which launched him to wakefulness.

He snatched the offending object up from the bureau and scanned the latest messages from Bruce.

Bad news, his IT man had written. Duffy is off the grid. Fort Worth team went to pick him up, but they can’t find him, Larry.

The next message a minute later read I cross-checked his name against all flights leaving DFW and Love Field in the last twelve hours. Wherever he went, he didn’t fly there – at least, not commercially.

“My money says wherever Duffy is, Zavier’s with him,” Larry observed to himself before he read Bruce’s last text.

So, heads up, you might wanna include unexpected company showing up in your plans – B.

“Great,” Larry muttered under his breath, and picked up the burner phone to warn Pete.

***

Pete pulled his truck back out onto I-65. They hadn’t gotten very far when the phone buzzed in Leah’s hand again.

She read it and frowned.

Just heard from my guy in my office, Larry had written. Fort Worth crew went to go take Duffy into custody, but he’s nowhere to be found.

She solemnly relayed the message to Pete, and suddenly remembered something that at the time seemed innocuous. Now, with more context, it struck her as sinister. She voiced her concerns to Pete, and it led to them discovering that a tracking device had been placed on the underside of Pete’s truck.

Shannon’s temper unleashed for the second time in as many days, and again Leah found it amazing to watch, if not a little scary. The three formed a battle plan, and Leah communicated it back to Larry as Pete drove.

Hey, she said. We’re gonna bring the fight to them! and proceeded to give him the summary of Shannon’s rant.

Sounds like a plan. How far out are you guys?

Pete says about four hours. We just went through Nashville.

Okay. Get here safe, and we’ll line it out.

You going back to sleep?

I’ll try, he admitted. No guarantees.

Leah chewed her lip, then typed I’m worried about you. You need to be rested. I have a feeling what’s coming is gonna be huge and being tired won’t help.