Page 25 of Saving Bonnie

“Tino’s got an interesting background for today’s meeting,” he explains to Montoya.

Damn.I should have moved to the living room instead of leaning against the girly pillows on Bunny’s bed.

Montoya pops onto the screen, startling the others. Despite having state-of-the-art equipment at the ranch, he doesn’t bother to use the camera on his computer. His gaze moves low on the corner of the monitor.

“You were able to come to a mutual agreement with the young lady.”

Damn gray-haired bastard. His second-sight thing, or whatever, bothers the hell out of me. Still, does he know more than he should about our setup?

“What agreement?” Dante frowns.

“He played hero,” Kassy adds. Her cat, Princess something or other, jumps into her lap with a meow of disapproval.

“You didn’t mention this.” Dante stares into the monitor, demanding an explanation.

“It had nothing to do with why you sent me here.”

Dante’s unmoved.

Annoyed, I give him a recap of what happened on Sunday.

“Well done,” Montoya adds. “Your decision to help her set things on the right path.”

Again, the creep factor slithers over me.

“So this has nothing to do with Conrado or his mother.” Dante looks thoughtful.

“Neither of the guys was Conrado.” Unfortunately, that’s the only thing I can confirm.

Montoya nods. “The security system will work twofold.”

“Exactly.” I turn to Dante. “We’re still with the original plan. Kassy watches during the day while Frank is parked down the street. I’m downstairs at night. The marshal is across town, and I have a team sitting at the store.”

Dante starts tapping his fingers on the desk. He’s been anxious to get his hands on Conrado Villa after what he’d been doing to Iris. “Nothing from any of your contacts?”

“Not yet. These things can take time.” Because the piece of shit is insignificant, I don’t have anyone with contact to him. “This is the only place with confirmed traffic that will lead us to him.”

“But she hasn’t been there,” Dante counters.

“From what you said, Olga comes here several times a week,” I remind him. “Why? Why is she downtown?”

“I checked the area,” Kassy explains, “in case she’s working close by, but I got nothing.”

“They have to be living across the border.” Anyone with money can pay cash and lie low with little effort.

“I haven’t seen either of them coming across the checkpoint.” Kassy scrunches her nose. “Of course, for being the government, their cameras suck. I don’t know why I bothered hacking into the feed.”

“And nothing at Iris’s store?” I ask, in general.

“Nothing.” Kassy smirks. “Though I did send another two guys over.”

I raise a brow. “What? Why?”

“You aren’t around, and Iris is there by herself,” Dante reports in a dry tone.

“You let her go by herself?” Even with security, Dante hasn’t let her go too far. He isn’t willing to give Conrado a chance to get to her. Yet, he insisted I had to be the one to watch the café.

“Of course not.” He sits forward in his leather chair. “But the construction crew hasn’t finished remodeling the office, and I have work to do.”

---