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“I walked away, but I watched them out of the corner of my eye. They each ate a little bit. Then, before I could leave a check with him, he left another hundred dollars and left with those two goons.”

“Pearl, honey, you did good.”

“I did better than good. He was driving a red GMC Yukon. I would have taken down the license plate number, but that would have been too obvious. I called before I had a chance to check our parking lot video.”

“You did an amazing job,” I said sincerely.

“I did?” For the first time I could hear a little bit of uncertainty in the older woman’s voice.

“Absolutely, Pearl. You handled this like a trained operator.”

She let out a long sigh. “I was protecting my town.”

We called Nash and told him to look out for a red GMC Yukon and to let us know where it was headed next. We had already let him in on the operation. Ten minutes later he explained it was pulling into the parking lot behind Java Jolt.

“Fuck.” Jase looked at me.

“There’s a shit-ton of cars in the parking lot,” Nash said.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Jase continued.

That meant that Ruby was going to be knee-deep in customers. We’d considered bringing her staff into the operation, but they were too young and green. Florence was the better bet, and that was saying something.

I looked around the room. Jase and I were the ones who had been handling this part of the op. Nolan and Simon had things handled when it came to the ambush. Neither of them looked happy as they listened to Jase’s swearing. Then I saw Beau grinning.

“What?” I asked in the calmest voice I could muster.

“You’re reading this all wrong,” Beau said.

Jase spun around and glared at Beau. “How do you figure?”

“Mizz Florence used to babysit me before my mama got sick. The woman had eyes in the back of her head. She was sharp as a tack. Still is. Don’t get me wrong, biggest gossip in town, but that takes a lot of smarts to keep up with everything. She’s going to handle this fucker just right.”

I thought about what he had to say, and he was exactly right. She might have gotten the movie name wrong. She might have wanted inappropriate equipment. But Florence Horton had made sense during our planning session. She’d made a lot of sense.

I looked over at my cousin, who was younger than me by two years. He was looking at me with a hint of dread.

“Jase. She’s got this.”

Twenty minutes later, Nash called in.

“The GMC left Java Jolt. It’s headed out of town toward Knoxville.”

I texted Thompson to see if he’d had any luck hacking Viktor’s phone. He had to be using a satellite phone. So far, Thompson hadn’t had any luck. But now that he had Viktor’s coordinates, it would be easier.

Before I was done texting, Jase’s phone rang. It was Florence Horton.

“How do you make these calls conference?” Florence Horton demanded to know.

“Just give me a moment, Mizz Florence,” Jase said in a soothing tone.

“I’m in Ruby’s office, and my hands are still shaking. You'd better be fast. I’m plumb ready to pass out.”

Jase got everybody on the line.

“Pearl, you there?”

“I’m here, Florence.”