“Yeeeeah! And you know all these bougie parents around here would pay good money for bodyguards to accompany their kids to things like prom and stuff. You’d be good at it.”
I just nodded again. “Yeah, I suppose I would.”
“Think about it. Could really be a good thing for all of us.”
“Will do.”
He took his gauze and his coat off the hook and shouldered out of the closet. But his words left an imprint. If anything, I figured one day, especially with my piloting experience, maybe I’d open up an airstrip. Or take over the rundown, private one around here. I never thought about opening up my own security business or anything like that.
It got my gears turning as I heaved the first water jug out to its dispenser.
It didn’t take long to change out the dispensers, and I was thankful that no one else stopped me. The whole point of this venture was for me to be unseen, though at the clinic that was a bit hard. Everything was lit up like the Fourth of July with bright, blue-white lights that felt like they tried to sear the fear of God onto someone’s corneas.
Maybe Doc should have his fucking eyes checked.
After my work there was done, I made my way back to my bike with the duffle bag slung over my shoulder. I did a round on Ranger’s tech repair shop, just to make sure those pimply-faced college kids weren’t fucking around in ways they shouldn’t have. But things were all clear on that front. No doubt, Ranger probably had eyes on them anyway without them even knowing.
Wouldn’t have shocked me one bit.
Ghost’s bar didn’t really need a round on it. Mostly, I just walked the darkened outside to make sure the cameras were still working and that major shit hadn’t gone down. I couldn’t go into the bar, though. A lot of people would notice me there, simply because I provided most of my off time bodyguarding services to the bar during the later hours it was open.
But just as I rounded the back corner to head down one of the alleyways next to Ghost’s bar, I saw it.
A black car.
With tinted windows that rolled by.
With that fucking logo plastered on the side.
“Bingo,” I mumbled as I fished out my cell phone.
Thank fuck, the alleyways were close together. The buildings in downtown shaded these areas, even with the sun as bright as it fucking was that day. I kept my footsteps silent, though I splashed through a puddle or two, and I gave myself three seconds to breathe before I peeked around the corner.
Only to see that blacked-out car stopped at a stoplight.
“Gotcha,” I muttered.
My phone came out and the pictures started. I zoomed in on the license plate and snapped a few for Ranger. When they turned left at the light, I zoomed in even further and simply held down the picture-taking button so that it took a series of successive pictures.
Then when they disappeared, I booked it across the street.
“Oh no you don’t,” I grumbled as I slipped in between two buildings.
It took me a second to locate them, but I eventually clocked them going through a drive-thru. It was one of the more popular local burger joints in the area. Only one in the entire state. I paused in the shade of a tree, looking like I was eating the rest of my ice cream cone and fucking around on my phone. But when I peeked over and saw the fact that whoever was in the car was only handed two drinks, I slowly moved my phone’s camera toward them.
I zoomed in on the rolled down windows and took some pictures of the profiles of those two fucking faces.
“Gotcha, you stupid fucks,” I murmured.
When they turned back out onto the main road, I realized they were headed right back into downtown. I slinked through the darkness of the trees that our community kept protected, using the shade to my advantage. I kept an eye on them, watching as they drove around. Stopping at stop signs. Stoppingat yellow lights. Doing every fucking thing they could not to draw attention to themselves.
Outside of the fact that their car was very out of place for the town of Redd Valley.
“Like a sore fucking thumb,” I said to myself.
I didn’t get close enough to get any other pictures, but after I tailed them around town for over an hour, working up a hunger after that massive ice cream cone, I knew it was time to call Cap. I pulled out my phone and found an alleyway to perch in while the blacked-out car walked right into Wrecker’s ice cream shop.
I used the encryption software Ranger put on all of our burner phones to send him the slew of pictures I took.
