Bounty(77)

I looked back up at Deke. “Mr. T.”

His eyes went from the phone to me. “Yup.”

He started moving back to the kitchen (this journey taking Deke all of two steps) and I hit my screen to engage the call and put it on speaker.

“Hey, Mr. T. You’re on speaker,” I greeted.

“And who all would I be speaking to?” Mr. T’s voice came back at me.

“Me and Deke.”

“Deke Hightower?” Mr. T asked and my gaze shot to Deke.

His last name was Hightower?

Of course it was.

It was a cool-as-shit name.

But how did Mr. T know that?

“Uh…yeah, uh…” I stammered.

“I’m right now on my way from the Carnal Police Department, heading to the Carnal Hotel,” Mr. T broke into my thoughts to say. “I’ve spent the last half an hour getting briefed by the mercifully capable-sounding Lieutenant Keaton. And Lieutenant Keaton informed me that you’re currently in a Mr. Deke Hightower’s charge.”

In a Mr. Deke Hightower’s charge.

Mr. T was hilarious.

“That I am,” I confirmed, trying not to giggle at the look on Deke’s face as he stared with unhidden irritation mingled with equally unhidden surprise at my phone. These saying he was not a big fan of being called “Mr. Deke Hightower” and he was a little shocked (and appalled) Mr. T was so snooty. I then asked Mr. T something that was also unnecessary, “So you made it to town all right?”

“Indeed, Justice.”

“Deke’s making us dinner,” I told him. “When we’re done eating, we’ll come into—”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Mr. T interrupted me brusquely. “Fortunately, as you informed him I would be arriving and gave him leave to speak to me as a member of your family, Lieutenant Keaton was rather forthcoming about your ordeal. You need to stay put and rest. In fact, you should be quite careful with all activity for the next few days, giving your body time to heal as well as the energy to do so.”

I tipped my head to the side, a silent question to Deke.

I hoped he got my silent question because he nodded back.

“Do you want directions to come out here?” I asked. “Dinner isn’t lobster but it’s yummy.”

“No, thank you,” Mr. T answered, and even though I wanted to see him, especially in a time like this when he was at his best, the competent and capable calm in a storm, I was kind of glad.

I had my calm in a storm.

Deke.

And anyway, Mr. T would definitely not want bologna sandwiches.

“I have calls to make and things to see to,” Mr. T went on to explain. “We’ll schedule a time for the morning after you’ve had some rest. However, I need to speak with you now about a few of those things I’m seeing to.”

“Sock it to me, Mr. T,” I invited.

“Right,” he stated, all business. “I’ve been in touch with Kai Mason. He currently has no openings on his team to send bodyguards. He’s suggested a firm in Denver that he highly recommends. I’ve done some research on them and I’m in agreement with Mason. And this could be a multi-tasking opportunity because, although this firm does provide security services, they mostly do investigations. They’re very good. And although her parents informed me they’ll be looking into securing their own investigators, I’d like your approval to engage them to find Bianca. They can coordinate efforts with Constantine’s team or Constantine, as he should, can employ this Nightingale Investigations directly.”

I thought of Stella Gunn’s husband, Kai “Mace” Mason. He played double-duty as her bodyguard (though, if you talked to Mace about this, it wasn’t a duty in his eyes except one that had the adjective “husbandly” before it). He also ran a company of bodyguards and they were highly sought after because they were seriously good at what they did.

Lacey used them.

Dad used to use them.

I would have thought of them but Deke had wasted no time setting up a posse of local badasses to watch over us, and since he had, I didn’t need to.

And I’d met Mace’s old employer, Lee Nightingale. I knew his wife better because she was a really good friend of Stella Gunn. But I’d met a number of Lee’s friends too, these guys were also his crew, and they were arguably more badass than Deke and Tate were.

I thought of all this as I watched Deke stop squirting mustard on toast to look at me and give me a negative shake of his head.

“Well, Mr. T—” I started.

“One other thing, Justice, before we discuss.”

“Okay,” I replied.

“Lieutenant Keaton has shared that Mr. Hightower already has some locals providing such security services. I was at first opposed to this idea but Keaton said this crew is being led by a Tatum Jackson. From what I could discover in the short amount of time I’ve had to look, Jackson has a skillset that would make troubling the men at Nightingale Investigations with sending out bodyguards unnecessary. They can still search for Bianca. However, if you wish Mr. Jackson to lead this local crew, I’ll need to contact him for billing purposes.”