Chapter 12
WIN – SHIMMY - WIN
MORGAN
“I need to tell Violet about the change in plans. And I was supposed to call her fifteen minutes ago to check in, so I really need to do that.” I absently scratched my neck.
Violet was going to be so peeved at me for even thinking about leaving with a stranger. But my gut was saying this was the right move—well, not literally, but you know what I mean. Besides, I was just here for the crystal. If Nelson was taking it away from here, then I was going with him.
Nelson nodded. “That’s fine. I need to update my team too.”
“It doesn’t seem very heroic though…”
“What do you mean?”
I tried to ignore the itchiness under my arms. No one wanted to watch me scratch my armpits, especially not my handsome sidekick. “Leaving the hunters here without trying to do something about them… It grates worse than if someone swapped the positions of two colors on the rainbow.”
Nelson didn’t disagree.
“So, let’s make a plan.” I rubbed my hands together.
Nelson lifted his eyebrow and gave me “the look”. I was familiar with “the look” because I’d been getting various forms of the same look from people all my life. It usually meant they wanted to be stick-in-the-muds.
But not wanting hunters roaming around unchecked wasn’t the same as wanting to play charades for four hours straight, which was the last time I’d received “the look” from Violet.
“Let’s listen in on them. See what they are saying.”
“And how would we do that?” Nelson said slowly.
“You’re with the SC. You have things…” I waved toward his boringly black suitcase.
Honestly, the suitcase was what I expected of the SC. They were so dreary. Just like the black market peeps. Always so… black. Although Nelson did look pretty hot in black. His snug black pants, his tight black sweater, his mesmerizing black eyes…
Wait, I was getting off track. What was I thinking about again?
Oh, right.
I bet Nelson’s case held a plethora—what a great word, that—of gadgets. James Bond had Q, so SC agents had to have some amazing witch-y inventor too.
Nelson followed my gaze toward his suitcase. “What exactly would we do with my luggage?”
“Don’t you have stuff?”
“Stuff?”
“Like a bug!” I nodded. “That’s what they call them, right? You can shift into your super-amazing shadow form and drop it in someone’s pocket.”
“I don’t have a bug.”
“A tracking device?” When he didn’t immediately dismiss that idea, I knew I was on to something. “You have one of those, don’t you?”
“Yes, but…”
“No. This will be great.” I bounced a little, warming to my plan. “I’ll distract them, then you can sweep in and plant it on them. In fact, a tracker will be even better than a listening device, because they’ll lead us right to their evil lair.”
Nelson gnawed on his bottom lip as he considered my plan. Finally, he said, “I’ll talk to Gage about it.”
“Perfect.”
This was turning into an epic weekend! So much better than I’d anticipated, and I’d had high expectations ever since I’d found out about it.
I would finally get my hands on the crystal, we were orchestrating a devastating blow to our enemies by exposing their villainous headquarters, and best of all, I had acquired a sexy sidekick.
This was one of those win-win moments.
Except in my head, it went more like win—shimmy—win.