Chapter 11 #2
They were standing on the opposite sidewalk from her office space.
One of the club’s SUVs hid them from view as they surveyed her office.
Gwen was still on the phone, but other than asking the man on occasion if he wanted anything to eat, nothing else was said.
Once Toni heard Gwen tell the man that she did not have a key to Ms. Anderson’s office, and therefore the man could not wait in there.
Unfortunately, Toni did not hear the man’s inquiry or response to that, so she didn’t know for sure, but could only assume he’d asked to go into Toni’s office.
Gwen did have a key to Toni’s office, but she knew better than to allow anyone in under any circumstances.
But it did beg the question if there was something in her office that the man wanted.
“Ranger, she’s freaked out enough as it is,” Tally scolded him.
Turning to Toni, she realized that Tally wasn’t looking at her.
Her gaze was a little off, and she had a tip to her head that wasn’t quite natural.
Looking almost like an animal did when they perked their ear at something.
Her dark skin and hazel irises were beautiful.
“There’s no easy way to explain this, but we’re short on time, so I’m just going for the CliffsNotes version.
Have you ever heard of the comic book character Daredevil? ”
Toni’s eyebrows raised at the unexpected question. “I know the concept. Can’t say I’ve actually seen the movie.”
“Well, take out the radioactive acid, and that’s me.
I use echolocation to learn my surroundings.
” She loudly clicked her tongue twice. “For example, I know you’re wearing sneakers, pants, and a loose shirt and have your hair up in a pigtail.
I also know you recently ate something with basil and garlic, had coffee with no cream, and you and Ranger recently had sex.
” As Toni’s jaw dropped, Tally added with a smile, “Not bad for someone without eyeballs, ay?”
At that statement, Toni realized why Tally’s gaze was off. It wasn’t that her eyes were unfocused, it was that they were fake.
“I don’t know if I should be impressed or embarrassed, but that was incredible,” Toni breathed out. She leaned closer, “How did you know we recently had sex?”
“You have each other’s scents on,” Tally explained. “It’s faint, so I’d say a few hours ago, but it’s still there. Don’t worry, no one else would be able to tell. I just have a super smeller.” She laughed at her own joke while tapping on her nose.
Ghost casually walked across the street, having been surveilling Toni’s office space. On the drive over, she’d given them a rough layout of the building and the different rooms. It was odd how nonchalant he looked when her heart was pounding fiercely in her chest.
“Keys patched into your security cameras,” he informed Toni. “He says you need an upgraded system, because it barely took him thirty seconds, and that was because he was slightly distracted while watching his son.”
Toni was very slowly starting to piece together all the club members, but she still felt like she was going to need a chart to know who was who and who was with whom.
From the few club kids she knew of, she was definitely going to need name tags at the very least. So far, she’d figured out that Rose and Keys were the club’s techs, but she didn’t think that Rose was part of the club.
But then why was she a club tech if she wasn’t part of the club?
Toni really needed to learn the club’s politics, hoping they had some sort of written charter that she could study.
“Now, this is a prototype. It’s not going to be as comfortable as it will be in the future,” Ghost said as he pulled out what looked to be a ring box.
Ranger immediately snatched it from Ghost’s hand, but Ghost did not seem bothered by this and continued talking to Toni as Ranger opened the box.
“It’s a microphone and tracker that goes on your back molar.
Since we didn’t have time to custom fit it to you, it might be a little awkward at first.”
Custom fit? Why would she ever need a custom-fitted microphone and tracker on her back tooth? Like doing the standard check of purse, phone, keys, tooth microphone…?
Ranger pulled the small device from the box. “Open your mouth as wide as you can. I’ll try not to make you gag.”
There was a moment after he spoke those words where their eyes met, the innuendo hanging heavily between them.
Toni could see the clear conflict in his gaze, like warring thoughts were racing through his mind.
Not knowing what to say, Toni stepped forward and slid her fingers under his shirt at the small of his back as she opened her mouth.
“Really wishing I had a Tic Tac right about now.”
Ranger, thankfully, chuckled. As he reached into her mouth, her eyes flicked to Ghost, and she caught his nod of approval.
Instinct told her that Ghost knew about Ranger’s assault and how those words would have been taken if they’d been spoken six months ago versus now.
She didn’t need Ghost’s approval for anything between Ranger and her, but she couldn’t argue feeling a surge of pride at his appreciation.
It took some finagling, and it wasn’t exactly comfortable having Ranger try to fit his hand into her mouth to set the device, but eventually she was set and Keys confirmed that he would hear her.
Ranger took Toni’s face in his hands. “We have eyes and ears on you. Tally’s a badass, so listen to everything she says. We’re seconds away if you need us. Figure out what he wants and how much he knows, but not at the expense of your safety. Got me?”
Toni nodded stiffly, more nervous than her first day in court. “Got you,” she whispered back, unable to talk louder.
Ranger leaned down and kissed her deeply. “I hate that I’m not going in there with you.”
“But you understand why you can’t?” she pressed.
“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “But I can’t argue with the logic that you’ll get more out of this man without me there than with me, so I’m choosing to allow you to use Tally as a human shield instead.”
Toni’s mouth gaped open, but Tally snorted. At some point while Ranger had his hand in Toni’s mouth, Tally had put on a pair of sunglasses and now had a traditional blind man’s white cane.
She held up her right middle finger to Ranger. “Why don’t you knit a tissue you can cry into while we women go take care of business?”
Toni appreciated Tally’s confidence. She just hoped the badass woman had enough for both of them. “I’ll be fine,” Toni told Ranger.
“You better be,” Ranger growled, like a threat.
Not wanting to delay anymore, Toni unmuted her phone call that was now lasting forty minutes and warned Gwen she was coming in.
* * *
Ghost raised an eyebrow at Ranger as the man climbed into the back of the SUV with him.
The dark windows in the rear seats would prevent anyone from glancing into the cage and getting suspicious at seeing the two of them sitting stationary on the side of the road.
Ghost got it. Ranger wasn’t willing to wait any further away from Toni’s office, which wasn’t too far down the main drag from where their bar was being rebuilt.
“Kind of surprised you caved so easily,” Ghost commented as he pulled up the app on the tablet Keys kept in each vehicle. It would show them the feed from Toni’s office as well as the sounds from Toni’s tooth mic.
“You know damn well that the only reason I did was because Scar is no doubt in that building right now,” Ranger grumbled, pulling the tablet from Ghost’s hand. “Does Keys have facial recognition on this guy yet?”
Ghost nodded. “Cody Pike, forty-seven. He’s not a local, but he does live in Cottonville.”
“Any connection to her parents?”
“Not that Keys knows of yet, but he’s still looking. Now that he has a name, it’ll be easier to figure out what’s going on.” Out the window, Ghost watched as Tally and Toni made it into the office. “Showtime,” he murmured.
* * *
Toni could understand why Gwen might mistake the man standing in the lobby as her father.
They had similar builds with salt and pepper hair, but Toni put this man a few inches taller than her dad had been.
Toni never confirmed with Gwen whether she actually believed this man was Toni’s father.
Ranger and Ghost had warned her not to, saying that they didn’t want to draw any more suspicion to the situation for Gwen’s sake.
If the woman knew, then they’d have to come up with a story to cover why a man was pretending to be Toni’s dad, and why Toni knew immediately that it wasn’t her dad.
The fact that Toni had asked Gwen if she was safe already hinted at trouble.
Most likely, Toni was going to have to come up with some story to tell Gwen, because the woman wasn’t stupid, but for now, her concentration was on what the man wanted.
“Toni,” he said, standing. With a wide smile on his face, he could have easily been mistaken for a trusting uncle-type, but Toni wasn’t buying it for a second. “Come give your old man a hug.”
The very last thing Toni wanted was to give this man a hug. Thankfully, Tally saved her from having to follow through on it to keep up the farce.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize your dad was here.
” She tapped her cane on the carpeting, her face angled up towards the ceiling with the sunglasses still over her eyes.
“My case isn’t that pressing. If you could get me to a seat, I can wait, Ms. Anderson, while you talk to your dad in your office. ”
Crap. That implied that she was going to be alone with the man.
“Thank you, Mrs., uh, Conrad,” Toni said, making up the name on the spot when she realized she didn’t know Tally’s last name. As she guided Tally over to a chair, she held her purse out to Gwen. “Can you let my dad in my office please?”
Gwen hesitated slightly, but then rushed over to get Toni’s keys from her purse. “Of course, Ms. Anderson.”