She snorted. “No, I’m not. Woodchipping is not on the agenda. My goal is for this situation to end quickly and peacefully, with as little drama as possible, and without me having to do much more than Prime people for info and to make the guy forget he even knows Emily, much less that he has a baby with her.” She chuffed. “Although I donotpromise to not make him punch himself in the balls and face a few times before he forgets.”
Ken actually snorted. “Only if you promise to try to get video of that.”
She high-fived him. “Deal.”
Beck glared at Ken. “You know it’s not that easy! Since when does Dewi not go the extra mile? And she’spregnant!”
“And I’m yourboss,” Dewi growled, shooting a pointed glare at Beck. “I want this handled quickly before we have a complicated mess to clean up because Ralph kills the guy. Or, worse, kills innocent people while looking for the guy. Or, worse that that, the baby is harmed or killed. The only reason Henry grabbed the baby is because he thinks Emily’s family is rich and he’s looking to extort money out of her. He doesn’t want the baby.”
Beck walked over to Ken. “I donotlike this, dude. Not one bit. It willnotbe that simple.”
“You don’t have to like it,” Dewi said. “You do, however, need to stay here and hold down the fort with Ken in case anything happens. I don’t want Carl and Mateo forced to go on a call unless it’s an emergency and you need backup. We’ll be home by late tonight.”
“Who’s driving?” Joaquin asked Dewi.
She arched an eyebrow at him. “We’re taking my Saleen.”
“And you never let anyone drive your Saleen,” he said. “I’ll go get my stuff from my car.” He headed out of the office, leaving Beck standing there with his hands on his hips.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Beck said. “Dewi,please, I’mbeggingyou, let me go with Joaquin.”
“Beck, it’s really okay,” Ken said. “How about getting the coffee pot started for me, please? I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.”
Grumbling, Beck left the office.
“I’ll pack you some breakfast and coffee,” Ken told Dewi.
She leaned in and kissed him. “Thankyou,” she said. “I really appreciate you backing me up.”
“Yeah, well, be careful, sweetheart. Don’t make me have to listen to Beck say ‘see I told you so’ for the rest of my life, huh?”
She smiled and gave him another kiss. “Easy-peasy!”
* * *
There wasno direct route from Dewi’s house to Miami. Technically not Miami, but out in the northwest Hialeah area. After checking her map app, instead of taking I-75 south and then east across Alligator Alley, Dewi opted for a route that would cut across the state on I-4 and then head south on a connecting highway to pick up the Florida Turnpike. Otherwise, they’d get bogged down in construction traffic around Sarasota.
After packing coffee, water, food, two spare pairs of undies for Dewi—because like hell was she taking any chances—and extra ammo, and another bathroom trip for Dewi to pee, they headed out with Dewi driving the Saleen. If they got pulled over, she’d simply Prime the officer into letting them go with a verbal warning, claiming she was on her way to the doctor because they thought there was a problem with her baby.
Joaquin rode shotgun and kept in contact with Ken and Emily via text, as well as studied the information Ken had dug up and sent to their phones. “Looks like Henry’s mother is a real grifting piece of shit, too,” Joaquin said after summarizing Henry’s thick rap sheet to Dewi. “That, or she has the worst luck and balance in the world. Ken found where she’s been the plaintiff in several slip-and-fall cases against local grocery stores and settled for undisclosed amounts. And that’s just down here in the past fifteen years. Looks like she moved here from New Jersey.”
“Terrific,” Dewi snarked. “Remind me to tell Emily not to be so nice in the future. And to not fall on some grifter’s dick.”
“No doubt.”
They were able to avoid the worst traffic due to the early hour, and it wasn’t long before they were heading south on the Turnpike. “Here we go,” she said after merging onto the toll road and effortlessly weaving around cars as if they were standing still. “Easy peasy chicken squeezy.”
Joaquin didn’t respond at first. She sensed…something from him.
“What?” she finally asked, glancing his way.
There was a strange look on his face. “What did you say?”
“Huh?”
“Just now. What did you say?”
“Easy peasy chicken squeezy?”
