Page 26 of Lulu

I could hear the displeasure in Sanford’s tone and snorted, “Why do you think he chose the name Crazy? He’s young and takes chances and he pretty much does what he wants.” I took a breath. “Have to agree with him on this one, Sanford. Especially the way Spider was taken out. Sounds like a fucking hit to me. Were you planning on telling any of us?”

He snapped, “Why the hell do you think I’m calling?”

I wasn’t too sure about that. Something must have happened to make him think it was a good idea to tell us about Spider. I was suspicious of his call. “Have you found something out? Something that confirmed that it was a hit?”

He cleared his throat, but it was his hesitation that told me that he wasn’t going to be honest. “No, we, ah, still think it was a random thing.”

He didn’t sound very convincing. “Random my ass. From the description those kids gave the cops, random doesn’t dress up like a fucking ninja, sneak up behind someone, and shoot him in the back of the head.”

“Okay, okay, I get your point,” he groused. “I’m going to tell you like I did the rest of the team--watch your back until we know for sure what’s going on. If you think your location has been compromised, you get the hell out of there.”

I knew the fucking drill. I ran my hand through my hair. “Keep me informed.” I ended the call.

I didn’t need this aggravation. I didn’t totally trust Sanford, either. In my line of work, I couldn’t afford to. If someone wanted us out of the way, and they went to him for the job, he wouldn’t think twice about taking the money and assigning one of us to take the other guy out. None of us were supposed to know each other’s real names, so chances were that we wouldn’t know until we were in place for the hit and recognized the target. Then we’d have a choice to make.

I wondered how many of us would take that shot.

Like I’d told Crazy, we were dispensable. No morals. No regrets. Cold-blooded killers doing what no one else had the balls for. Death wasn’t pretty. It was messy and left a lot of heartbreak behind. Hell, even the fucking bad guys had someone who loved them. I wondered who Spider had left behind. Who would be devastated that he was dead aside from his parents?

Lulu’s beautiful face came into my thoughts as it occurred to me that now wasn’t a good time to bring her into my life. But when would it have been a good time? I was also a selfish bastard. I’d waited too fucking long for her. The years of watching her from afar, keeping myself away from her, were over.

Jesus, I was sitting here hard as fuck for her.

Five o’clock couldn’t get here fast enough.

I shook my head, exited my truck, and went inside.

Chapter 11

Lulu

Five o’clock could not have come soon enough for me. From the moment I’d walked through the door, twenty minutes late, it had been non-stop. Megan had booked appointments back-to-back, obviously forgetting about breaks and lunches, and to top it off she’d spent half the morning in the bathroom throwing up with what she swore was food poisoning but which Elizabeth had diagnosed as the flu. Finally, at noon, Elizabeth had sent her home, explaining that she couldn’t afford to get sick at her age, and that she shouldn’t come back to work until she was over whatever it was that she had.

Then she sprayed the lobby and desk area down with Lysol.

That left me to run the front desk and assist her with patients. I managed to scarf down a breakfast bar in between appointments, but it could have been cardboard for all the taste it had. It had done nothing to satisfy the hunger in my belly, either. Our last patient came in at three forty-five, and because of the stressful day we’d had, Elizabeth decided that we could close up a little early. I gladly locked the door and flipped the sign to “Closed” at four fifteen.

“What a day!” I sighed, turning to face Elizabeth. She was behind the desk, scanning through the computer at what I assumed was the scheduled appointments for tomorrow. I didn’t like the look on her face. “What is it?” I began to walk toward the desk.

She began to shake her head, her mouth turned down in a frown. “Looks like we’re going to have another full day tomorrow.” There was confusion in her eyes when she raised them to mine. “The first week Megan worked here, she did everything perfect. Now she’s overbooking and forgetting to set time aside for us to catch a breath.” She scratched her head. “I don’t understand it.”

“I’ll talk to her tomorrow, or whenever she returns,” I offered. “Find out if something is going on. Since there’s a good possibility that she’ll be out sick, why don’t I see if Stephanie can start a few days early?”

Elizabeth nodded. “That’s a good idea. I don’t think I can go another day without at least a break,” she joked smiling. “With a third person we can at least work something out.”

I returned her smile. “Since my ride won’t get here until five, I’ll call her now. See you in the morning.”

“Have a good night, dear.”

I sat at the desk and looked up Stephanie’s number, already deciding that if she couldn’t start early, I’d ask Millie to fill in. I hadn’t heard if she was still on lockdown or not. In fact, I was kind of surprised that she hadn’t reached out to me. A smirk spread across my face as I realized that if Millie were on lockdown with Loco, he would keep her occupied in his bed. He had once been known as the club man-whore, and he’d lived up to the title, screwing any unattached women within his radar. Then Millie had come along and changed all that.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Stephanie?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Stephanie, this is Lulu from Dr. Bowers’ clinic.”

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