Nick chuckled. “She may have mentioned that in our conversation.”
“Good. I can see you’ve already made up your Muerto mind to do this insanity. I know you can’t pull this off as cartoons, so let me think.” Rachel leaned back in her chair, eyes closed, rubbing her chin in deep comical contemplation. She leaned forward again after a moment hearing Gus and John stifling amusement in varying degrees while Jean giggled. “I see all now. The great Muerto wants to unmask the quirks in our justice system once again, while using the justice system’s own minions to willingly help him carry out and cover up his heinous acts.”
“Maybe.”
Rachel sighed. “No maybes about it. I can’t say I don’t support you in this, but are you going to do the book signings too?”
“Yep. I have to. Cassie prompted my publisher to push a special print run for these signings. Cass will be flying into Olympia today. She’s decided to stay halfway between us and Seattle. She called me while I was on the way home. The first signing will be tomorrow at 11 am in Olympia. I told her to send a limo for us on my dime which she’s handling. Gus will be accompanying us on the book tour since his character Jed in the novels is so popular. I have a huge seafaring scene in this one just released, Assassin’s Folly, and Jed played a prominent role in Caribbean Contract too. No critics dare challenge my seafaring plots with the ancient mariner Payaso at my side.”
“John and Dan are flying home tomorrow,” Nick continued. “John will check on our places, do preliminary visits to Santa Cruz to scope out the situation, and introduce himself to Dimah Kader. I’m calling Dimah today to prep her for meeting with my associate El Kabong, who will be taking the lovely cousin escaping the East Coast Kaders under his protective wing. Dan’s going back because he’s a geezer, and he’s already homesick. I don’t blame him. In any case, that’s the scoop for the future while we’re here enjoying the great Northwest.”
“And after you solve the Salermo problem in Santa Cruz, Muerto?”
Nick shrugged. “What can I say, ‘Doin’ right ain’t got no end’.”
“You know I hate that ‘Outlaw Josie Wales’ quote, right?”
Nick reached across the table, and clasped Rachel’s hands. “Yeah… so what’s your point?”
“It means you’re planning on going to New York after one of the most dangerous mobsters in the country.”
“Like you admitted, Rach, in some cases the justice system misses the mark. I don’t. If that woman and her kids ever hope to be safe again, Lino Verducci must be persuaded to leave them alone.”
Rachel smiled for the first time. “I bet this outlaw intervention makes Grace mental, huh?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Good!”
“Although I will be missing this glorious book signing event because I need to meet my future cousin-in-law, and assure her I can keep my future love safe, Gus has consented to wear a cam for my viewing pleasure. I wish to see the great El Muerto and Payaso handle the infamous ‘Book Killers’.”
“Sorry, John,” Nick replied. “They don’t show at signings. Some of the more intense book critics arrive to lecture me on grammar or plot twists they hated, but the BK’s love their exalted positions working to cause chaos on the Amazon marketplace from the shadows.”
“Gus? I thought you said I would see ‘Book Killers’,” John turned to his fellow Muerto minion.
“The great Muerto doesn’t foresee everything,” Gus replied.
“Yes I do.”
*