Phoenix’s eyes grew dark, “Byte located it. It’s located on the same property as the dairy farm.”
Duke and I both started to speak at the same time, but Phoenix cut us off. “We’ll talk more about it at church. When she wakes up, get a prospect to show her to her room and get them something to eat. Her friend can stay in there with her for now. Then, we’ll all sit down and go over what we know.”
***
The girls slept for several hours. Duke stayed in there with me the whole time they slept. I thought it was odd, but didn’t comment on it. He seemed to be watching over Reese the same way I was watching over Ember. Since I was actively ignoring my feelings, I decided to actively ignore his, too.
When they finally woke up, prospect Jamie led them down to the room Phoenix had arranged for them. Duke and I followed them for some reason unbeknownst to me. What was known to me was how good her ass looked in those tight as hell jeans she had on.
Ember suddenly whirled around. “Have you seen my bag? I’m not sure when I lost it, but I really need it. Can Reese and I go look around for it?”
“Duke and I will go find it. You and Reese check out your new room and get settled.” Did she catch me staring at her ass? Did I really care if she did?
I figured she dropped the bag during one of the scuffles earlier. If she dropped it when she was fighting with Duke outside, most likely someone would have already found it and brought it inside, so I went to look outside of Phoenix’s office first. I turned the corner and spotted it immediately, on the floor right outside of his office. Well, that was too easy. I reached to pick it up and noticed the zipper had come undone, her crap sticking out the top about to spill everywhere. I shuffled it around some, trying to get her stuff to settle so I could close it for her when a distinct green caught my eye. I pushed the clothes she had on top to the side and dropped my jaw at the site before me. “Holy shit…” I breathed. “Duke, go get Phoenix, but do it discreetly.”
I stepped into Phoenix’s office and started carefully placing the contents of her bag on his desk.
Phoenix walked in, followed by Duke. “Holy shit. Where did that come from?”
“Ember’s bag,” I replied, dumbfounded.
“How much is that?” he asked.
“Don’t know. You want me to count it?”
“Duke, you start counting. Dash, see what else is in there.”
I pulled out all of the stacks of cash, but the bag still felt heavy. No longer caring about her privacy, I tossed the clothes into a chair. I reached into her bag and pulled out a handgun from the bottom. I placed it on the desk and stuck my hand back into her bag, pulling out an even larger handgun.
“What the fuck is she doing with those?” Phoenix asked.
I couldn’t help it, I busted out laughing. Phoenix glared at me. “I’m sorry, Prez, but she is definitely your kid if she’s walking around with a Glock 19 and a Desert Eagle 1911 in her backpack.”
Duke chimed in, “And a little over a hundred grand in cash.”
Phoenix chuckled, but quickly sobered. “Something must have really scared her.”
My laughter died as well. “Yeah, and we’re going to find out what that was.” I paused for a moment. “You want me to take this back to her?”
Phoenix ran his hand over his jaw, “Take her the bag with the money and her clothes. Tell her we found the guns and put them in the safe. Carefully ask her if she has anything else on her.”
I took the bag down to her room. “Uh, Phoenix put your guns in the safe, but um, your cash is still in there.”
“You went through my stuff?” she accused.
“Yeah, we did, after I saw the money falling out of it,” I answered, trying to sound indifferent.
Her eyes widened. “Don’t worry, doll, it’s all still in there.” Relief washed over her face. “Now, I gotta ask, you got anything else on you we should know about?” She looked down and hesitated. “Not saying we’re going to take it. Not saying we won’t. But Phoenix wants to know.”
She sighed and pulled up her pants leg to show me the knife she had strapped to her leg. Then she did the same with the other leg. Damn, this girl just kept getting better and better. I whistled, “Nice.” She grinned impishly. “I suppose you can keep those for the time being. You want to keep the money with you or you want me to put it in the safe?”
Her cute little nose scrunched while she considered my offer. She stood and removed a large portion of the cash from her bag. “Can you put this in the safe for me, please?” Smart girl, keeping some of it handy if she needed it.
“No problem. You two stay here and stay out of trouble.” I winked. “We’ve got church and then someone will be back for you.”
“Church?” Ember asked.
Reese answered, “It’s what they call their club meetings.”
