The knock came and although it didn’t take two people to open a door, Vance walked me to it his arm curled around my neck in a way that even I, with my significant lack of experience,
knew
was
somewhat
excessively
proprietary. I had no choice but to wrap my arm around his waist or I would look awkward and be uncomfortable.
Surprisingly the minute I did this I was comfortable, very comfortable.
This was not a bad thing just that I thought it was kind of in-your-face for Luke, considering.
Vance opened the door and stepped us both back, keeping me at his side while Luke came into the house.
Luke looked at me then at Vance, his face blank. I held my breath.
“We good?” Vance asked.
Luke’s lips twitched. “Yeah,” he replied.
I blinked. Was that it?
Vance’s arm around my neck tightened and he curled me into his body so we were ful frontal. When I looked up at him, he was grinning.
Wel , I guessed that was it.
Guys were so weird.
Vance started talking. “Jules, be smart, watch Luke and do what he says. I don’t wanna have to come back down the mountain to sit in an ER waiting room.”
“Okay,” I said.
“No drug dealers tonight. Just business. Got me?” Vance went on.
Hmm.
Macho-speak.
I decided against answering and instead I just frowned.
“Got me?” he repeated.
Okay, so I had to answer and I did so snottily. “Are you aiming for our make-up to be the shortest in history or what?”
Vance grinned again, it was his turn not to answer and he did it better than me.
“I kid you not, Crowe, I’m working the King Sooper’s stores tomorrow. I’m gonna find me a checkout boy. Safe job, good insurance and he probably won’t tel me what to do.”
At my threat Vance kissed my forehead. Then he let me go.
I took this to mean he didn’t feel the King Sooper’s checkout boys were much competition. He was probably right.
“Bye Boo,” I cal ed.
“Meow,” Boo cal ed back from somewhere in the house, likely somewhere where he was getting into trouble.
“Be good,” I cal ed in warning just in case he was getting into trouble.
“Meow! ” Boo cal ed back again, sounding harassed.
I turned to Luke. “I’m ready now.”
Luke had a ful -on smile going. They were rare and they were effective. Some woman was going to be super lucky one day. I just hoped that Luke was just as lucky.
We started to move, Vance grabbed my hand, gave it a tug and I turned back to him. His head bent and he touched his lips to mine.
“Be careful,” he murmured, his face close, his eyes soft and warm.
My breath caught.
I nodded and whispered, “I wil .”
We left and I swung into the passenger side of the Explorer.
“King Sooper’s checkout boys?” Luke asked after I’d buckled in.
“My dream men,” I replied.
“Babe.” He started up the SUV and we headed out. “At least you aren’t wearing purple pants tonight,” he noted.
“I didn’t want to embarrass the team.”
“I’m thinkin’ that’d be impossible.”
Wow.
That was huge.
Even with that hugeness uttered, I decided to take a page out of Luke’s book and be quiet.
*
It wasn’t a silent night for Luke. He talked.
He told me Nightingale Investigations had a varied clientele. The bulk of which was corporate investigations, background checks on employees, looking into fraud, that kind of thing. This was done in-office, usual y by their computer hacker, a guy named Brody, as wel as through surveil ance. They did some domestic investigations, cheating husbands, cheating wives, pilfering money from joint bank accounts. They used to do security but now only watched Fortnum’s and recently my place. They took on some government contracts, federal, state and local. They also took on specialized cases. These Luke didn’t share much about but explained they were worked almost exclusively by what I was realizing were the “Top Four”: Lee, Luke, Mace and Vance. The team also did a lot of skip tracing and this they did national y if the skip seriously skipped. Mostly it was done in a six or seven state area which Luke considered “local”.
Vance, Luke confirmed, was their top tracker. He also did al their wire work. Further, he was the guy they chose to do most reconnaissance because he was ultra-quiet, something he’d learned during his past as a felon.
Lee was ex-special operations force, Army Night Stalkers. Monty was an ex-Navy SEAL. Lee’s specialty was everything. Monty’s specialty was planning operations (these operations Luke also didn’t go into detail about).
Matt and Bobby, two more of Lee’s team, were local boys who should have been cops but preferred an extra chal enge. They spent a lot of time pul ing in skips, taking photos during dangerous liaisons, doing stakeouts, providing security (as in bodyguards) when a client needed it and they acted as added manpower. “Foot soldiers” was how Luke described them.