“Well,” Noah said, “what did I do to deserve that?”
“Nothing yet,” Sarah said with a mischievous grin. “It's what you're about to do.” She peeled his shirt off over his head and reached for the buckle of his belt. “I'll explain the rest when we get in the shower.”
*
Noah had told them they could all sleep in a bit the next morning, but old habits are hard to break. By seven thirty, they were all awake and ready for breakfast. The hotel had a waffle maker and other items for a free breakfast, so they decided to simply eat there.
“Waffles,” Neil said, “are one of God's great gifts to mankind.”
“You say that about every kind of food,” Sarah said, poking him in the ribs. “As much as you eat, I cannot understand how on earth you can stay so skinny.”
“Hey! Stop that!” Neil said, slapping at her hand. “I can't help it I'm still growing.”
“If you're still growing, kid,” Moose said, “then you're going to have a big problem. You can barely get through a doorway now.”
Neil sneered at him. “Yeah? How's the weather down there, Shorty?”
The easy banter continued while they ate, but then it was time to get to work, so they cleaned up after themselves and went out to the car. Sarah dropped the three men off at the warehouse, then went in search of jewelry and baby needs.
One of the things she had been told over and over during her training for E & E was to avoid drawing attention to herself during a mission. Regardless of what kind of vehicle she was driving, she was always supposed to keep it under the speed limit, signal every turn, do everything by the book so that no one would take any notice of her or the car.
Normally, that wasn't a problem, but when she came to the first stoplight, she found herself right beside two young men in a brand-new Corvette, and the driver kept looking over at her with a grin while revving his engine. She smiled at him, but that only encouraged him. He rolled down his window and began calling for her to race him to the next light.
Sarah shook her head, still smiling, but the boy didn't give up easily. His friend was making faces at her, and clucking noises, and she suddenly found it annoying. She glanced at the rearview mirror, then looked all around to see if there were likely to be any police in the area.
She saw nothing, so she turned and glanced at the Corvette's driver again, then winked. He broke out into a huge smile, and revved the engine a couple more times as they waited for the light to turn green.
Green appeared, and the rear tires of the Corvette suddenly began spinning and screaming, as the driver gave it all he had. Sarah shook her head at his foolishness and pushed her own foot to the floor. The Chrysler's all-wheel drive grabbed the road and threw her forward like a rocket, leaving the Corvette sitting in a cloud of its own black smoke.
It was almost a quarter of a mile to the next light, and Sarah had been sitting stopped at it for more than five seconds before the Corvette pulled up beside her. The driver was staring at her in awe, but his comments and taunts had come to an end. The passenger was looking straight ahead, unwilling to even turn his eyes in her direction.
When the light changed again, Sarah drove away sedately. The young driver of the Corvette gave his car more accelerator and pulled quickly away, but Sarah knew that he would never forget the day a big four-door sedan had left him sitting still at the light.
Three hours later, with three big bags of costume jewelry, Sarah returned to the warehouse. She dumped it all out on the table, and she and Neil began choosing the items they would use to decorate the shrine. She had bought necklaces, bracelets, brooches and more, all kinds of sparkly, shiny things to represent the offerings believers would present to Santa Muerte.
She sent Moose out to the car to get her other purchases. Two folding cribs, a playpen and a folding cot for an adult were carried in, followed by a TV, a mini fridge and plenty of snacks and soft drinks to stock it with. There were also three big bags of diapers, baby food and other necessities. Moose set them all in the room they had set aside as a holding area for the nanny and babies, and then he and Neil began setting them up.