*
A half hour later, Nick sipped his drink while Gus and Rachel watched Gus’s iPad with the App Nick added for tracking the RFID now resting in Tracy’s purse. He grinned as Gus swore under his breath, and Rachel moved away, taking a big gulp of her wine. Rachel turned on him, complete with a finger pointing jab.
“No way could you have known this. You’ve sold your soul to Satan. He fixes any damn scenario you want done. Admit it! Then tell me how much time you have before he collects your black heart for eternity.”
Nick pretended to be channeling either Satan or the Great Kreskin, fingers probing his own temples, eyes squeezed shut in contemplation. “She reached the ten mile mark toward home before turning around. Tracy is on a beeline course for bailing her Samoan buddy out of jail. How am I doing?”
“Annoyingly well,” Gus admitted. “Sweet Jesus… when you nearly choked her out on your counter, I thought she’d not only streak back home, but that she’d pack everything at her place, and leave the state. She hasn’t called anyone yet though.”
“You would have been right if not for Nick selling his soul to the devil,” Rachel insisted. “The acolyte of Satan strikes again. Now what, you evil spawn?”
Nick finished his drink. He crouched where Deke was enjoying his own beer, roughing his canine buddy behind the ears. “I guess Satan’s acolyte takes his clueless buddy Gus, and sharp as a razor dog brother Deke to walk Jean home from school.”
“I’m serious! You are scary good, and it freaks the hell out of me,” Rachel admitted while sitting down and sipping some more of her wine.
“And me.” Gus toasted Nick, and finished his drink. “It’s a relief thinking about simply walking to Jean’s school with Deke. C’mon, you canine lush. You’ll need to get rid of some of that beer.”
“Walk along with us, Rach,” Nick urged. “The fresh air will get you into a better mood.”
“Nope. I’m going to take a nap. This crap is too complex for fresh air. I don’t suppose we could all have popcorn, and watch movies when you bring Jean home, huh?”
Nick hesitated, but plowed ahead while putting a comforting arm around his wife. “When dealing with an outside human ingredient dumber than a pair of dirty socks, all avenues of action must be considered. Gus and I will monitor our human element while you take your nap and we escort Jean home. It’s not the best of all possible worlds… but it’s the only one we have.”
Rachel moved in close to Nick, gripping him to her with an audible sigh. “I don’t hope to change you, and already you’ve proven my ability to read people is blatantly suspect. I follow your lead, my love. As Gus mentioned, maybe I’ve become a bit too complacent. Don’t ever leave me.”
“Not in this lifetime. I promise soon we’ll be on the book tour. I’m convinced retirement is not in the cards for me. I will keep you all as safe as I can, but Gus was right in that I would be like a hand grenade with its pin pulled. I can only keep from exploding in true serial killer fashion near innocents if projected in a direction where I can best do good… whatever that means.”
Rachel kissed Nick with unwavering passion, turning into a moaning interlude which Gus turned away from. Rachel pulled away. “I…I’m yours, baby, forever and a day.”
Nick smiled while framing her face in his hands. “Buckle up, baby, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I’m getting sharper with all this practice. From now on though, I promise to leave the broad in the water, and take the cannoli.”
Rachel kissed Nick on the lips with a quick peck. “Go get Jean, Godfather, and whatever plan that idiot bitch Tracy invents in the meantime can be dealt with later.”
*
“Do you think they’ll allow that Luta Palamo out?”
“I don’t know, Gus. Your guess is as good as mine. Palamo didn’t wreck anything. A bad sign is we didn’t get a call to sign a complaint. I’m thinking they want to list him as a drunk and disorderly, fine him, and kick him free. If they give him a court date, he won’t have to pay a fine until he appears in court. That could be what turned Tracy around. She may have called the PD, and found out she could simply come collect Palamo.”