Page 39 of S.O.S. Perk

Perk grunted. He’d seen a shitload of kids’ hubris up close and personal at school, and knew the team had probably called it right. “So where do I come in?”

Del took over again. “We want you to head to Nelsin’s house and stake it out until the kid emerges with the girl.You’ll surprise him. Be smug. Inform him that it’s nice to confirm the rumors that have been going around about Kaelyn’s whereabouts. Then you let him know that if he doesn’t want you to rat him out on the kidnapping thing, he’ll need to cut you in on part of his gaming-app, money-stealing gig.”

“And Kaelyn?” Perk asked, already considering how he’d play things in his head.

“You’ll tell Jeremy that as a sign of good faith,you’llget her out of the way.”

“Out of the way?” Perk repeated.

“Right. You’ll make it sound like you’re willing to do her in, when in reality you’ll bring her back here. We’ll put her and her parents in a safe house until this operation has completely wrapped up.”

“What do you think?” Baskins addressed Perk, tenting his fingers while leaning forward.

“I think it sounds like a plan,” Perk responded.

He wouldn’t say there’d be no problems, because that was the fastest way to making sure that an op got tipped on its head. But his confidence was high that he could pull this off without a hitch.

“Good,” Baskins nodded. “Now head out to the Nelsin residence. We have no idea what time Jeremy will make his move, but our van has drones keeping watch. There’s a front door to the house, a back door, and a bulkhead. The heat detectors have revealed a warm spot in the basement that hasn’t moved, so we believe that’s where Kaelyn has been stashed. Which also has us assuming that Jeremy will egress through the bulkhead.”

Perk nodded. “I’ll stake that out, and if the kid leaves via a different exit point, your team-on-watch can let me know.”

“I’m counting on you to know how to play this, Perkins,” Baskins relayed.

“Don’t worry. I’m not just a pretty face.” He gave them his best, conceited smile, which got a chuckle out of his pretend mother, Agent Tertia.

“Yup. You’re ahandfulalright,” she winked. And if Perk wasn’t mistaken, she nudged Sloane’s foot under the table.

Yes!

Perk barely refrained from snorting. He knew a double entendre when he heard one, and clearly Tertia and Sloane had been talking about him. That boded well for Saturday.

But first he had a role to play, and he wasn’t about to blow it.

“Once you have Kaelyn,” Baskins continued, “bring her back here and we’ll make sure she’s safely stashed. We’ll have her parents already on premise, and they’ll issue a statement to the press that they’re distraught and going into seclusion until their daughter is found. Then we’ll get them, the family dog and Kaelyn into a safe space until we have everything we want.”

“Consider it done,” Perk nodded.

Because he couldn’t help himself, he chin-lifted to Sloane and gave her a big, toothy smile.

Color instantly rose up into her face, which caused Tertia to giggle. Some of the team tipped their heads in amusement, but Smalley glowered.

Yup. That man needed to loosen his sphincter or he was going to keel over from a stress-induced heart attack before he reached the age of fifty.

Perk spun on his heel and left the office, practically floating his way back to the car. This is what he was made for; a positive reason behind his youthful appearance. Whether his family believed he was a productive member of society or not was moot. He was about to do a job that would go a long way toward assuaging his own pesky insecurities.

It took twenty minutes to reach the Nelsin home, three more for him to pick up a comm unit from the van so they could stay intouch, and another five for Perk to walk around searching for the best place to eventually appear out of the shadows. He wanted the element of surprise, especially not knowing if Jeremy would be armed.

Perk’s skills of persuasion would be the first—and hopefully the only—line of attack, so that weapons wouldn’t come into play. The last thing they needed was to alert the entire neighborhood with a gun fight, and in doing so, clue the absent and unknown head-of-the-snake Jeremy reported to, that their game had been compromised.

Perk tucked himself into the bushes by the back deck and hunkered down.

He was good at waiting.

His phone ticked away the minutes. One o’clock came and went. Then two. It was a quarter after the hour when Perk was finally alerted by a rattling inside the bulkhead. He watched as it slowly opened.

“I have contact,” Perk whispered into his comm.

“Roger that,” came the reply. “Let us know if you need backup.”

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