Page 44 of The Gentleness of Rage

Slate’s club name was the same as her surname. Talk about fate.

“We need to speak to her,” Ramirez announced.

“Yeah. But I’m not bringing Jaelynn down here.”

“We’ve updated Howser. He’s agreed she can go down as Witness A. But he said if it looks like Jaelynn’s the culprit, all protection is off,” Ben stated.

“Jaelynn ain’t no killer.”

“Hope not, Slate, because we will bring Jaelynn in,” Ben warned.

Slate leaned forward. “Jaelynn’s no murderer.”

“Good. Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Ben replied.

“You’re an asshole sometimes,” Ramirez said, and Ben chuckled.

“Aware of that,” Ben responded, standing and gathering his stuff up. “But I’m an honest one.”

“Gotta give him that,” Ramirez agreed.

Slate snorted.

Jaelynn

I felt like kicking Ezra hard. I was now up to the year twenty-fifteen and felt like head-butting my desk. Ezra knew nothing about filing.

I was sorting a much larger pile into bills, invoices, junk, bank statements and so on. The damn year was in three boxes alone. Luckily, only two filing cabinets were full. The other four remained empty.

It appeared I’d need them. I cleared all the scattered piles, and I thought my job was done. Until Ezra mentioned the storage shed had loads of paperwork. But he’d cheerfully stated that it at least was grouped together by the year. Somehow, I guessed that was Slate’s influence.

I’d nearly screamed when I had seen all the boxes stacked up, but Ezra was correct. The years were marked on them, and thankfully, they started at twenty-fifteen. The database on the computer was looking good, and I’d found many repeat customers for Ezra. There were also his regular customers who had Ezra’s men tidy their yards once a fortnight.

I’d been under the impression Ezra did large landscaping deals like for hotels and so on. I hadn’t realised he also ran a gardening business, and I’d had to separate those clients from the landscaping ones. But thankfully, the office was starting to take shape.

The door opened, and as I glanced up, Slate entered. A smile crossed my lips as he walked over and kissed me.

“How’s my girl?”

“Hungry,” I answered, sniffing.

Slate had brought lunch, as he’d begun doing daily.

“Ezra in?” Slate inquired.

“No, he’s out at Apache and Rock’s site.”

“Good. I didn’t want to share,” Slate said and pulled out some hefty-looking sandwiches.

“Jeez!” I exclaimed. “Where did you get them from?”

“Penny. I fixed her sink this morning when at the shop, so Penny spoiled me,” Slate replied with a wink.

“Ah, yes. What is happening with the Jett and Sin drama?” I asked, biting into half a sandwich.

“The doctor has been hit with three lawsuits,” Slate responded and laughed.

“Three?”

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