Page 31 of Monkey Business

“Ladies,” yelled Ace shaking his head. “Please. I’m begging you. Stop now before I get sick to my stomach.”

“Aw, poor baby doesn’t like our conversation,” smirked Faith.

She walked toward him, patting his cheek, then kissed it. The others all did the same, knowing that Ace was tolerant of their touch now but still not fond of it. When Grace noticed the grin on his face, she stopped.

“I thought you didn’t like us touching you.”

“I didn’t. A while back. But with the help of my beautiful wife and my amazing therapists, it’s not so bad.”

“You little shit. You like the kisses on the cheek,” laughed Erin. Ace scooted by the women and down the hall, giggling like a little boy all the way. As they entered the room, Lauren spoke first.

“Okay. We’ll go to the circus.” Nine stared at them open-mouthed.

“ACE!!!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Do we know what you want us to look at? Where should we spend the majority of our time?” asked Mary.

“I wish we did know,” said Nine. “Right now, all we know is that the circus, Gus, and the disappearing women are somehow connected. We want you to stay together. All the time. No exceptions, even for the bathroom. We don’t want you as decoys. We want you as observers.”

“This isn’t a joke,” said Gaspar. “We’re talking about a lot of women who have gone missing and never been seen again. No bodies. No clues. Nothing. Just gone.”

“We get it, honey,” said Alexandra. “You forget that we’ve lived through everything you guys have. We’ve seen and heard all about the horrible cases, the missing women, children, animals, all of it.”

“Animals,” whispered Grace. “We could take one of the dogs with us.”

The men all looked at her, smiling big broad smiles.

“That’s a fucking great idea,” said Whiskey. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of that.”

“What if we brought Alvin?” grinned Ani. “I mean, he’s a sweetheart and doesn’t mind being on a leash. It would feel very ‘Louisiana’ to bring an alligator to a circus.”

“I don’t think we can afford that liability,” frowned Ian. “Good idea, sort of. But no.”

“Fine. He was the one that wanted to go. He thought it would be fun to see the performers,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You’re talking to the alligator now, too?” growled Ian.

“I mean, not talking, talking, but yes. We communicate. All of us do. He loves the women.”

“Damn thing just hisses at me,” muttered Baptiste.

“I wonder why,” grinned Rose. Baptiste just chuckled at his beautiful wife.

“Alright, take Monster, Beast, or Zeus. Rotate the dogs, and maybe they won’t notice. You won’t be able to do anything inside the tents, so you’ll have to stick to outside events and exhibits with the dogs,” said Nine.

“How would you like us to be paired?” asked Tori.

“We want groups of four. No less,” said Trak. He looked directly at his wife, ensuring that she understood him.

“You do realize that we’re twice the age of most of the women taken. They’re not going to come for us,” said Lauren.

“Twice the age, but don’t look it,” said Luc. “You need to be careful. We’ll be close, but anything could happen.”

“I think sticking together and having the dogs, we’ll be fine. We know what we’re doing, and we won’t take any risks, we promise,” said Erin.

“Okay,” nodded Ghost. “Teams of four. Team one, Erin, Rose, Lissa, and Ani. Team two, Lauren, Mary, Kat, and Addie. Team three, Alexandra, Grace, Ella, and Piper. Team four, Faith, Lily, Tori, and Lucia.”

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