Page 154 of Bossy Hero

“What’s the exact location in Miami?”

“It’s the port, Boss. The actual fucking port.”

“Which one? Everglades or Miami?”

“Port of Miami.”

Alan reclines slowly, sinking into the pillow. “That’s the bigger one, and it’s shared with cruise ships. Whatever’s gonna happen will be even more complicated by tons of people and so many berths. That’s fan-fucking-tastic.”

Tomer continues without responding to Alan’s gripe. “The architect was careful to conceal it. His warning not to share the list with anyone else makes even more sense. If it fell into the wrong hands, our chance to do... whatever he needs us to do would be severely compromised.”

“How the hell are we gonna find out what to do in Miami if he refuses to speak plainly with us? I feel like we’re being jerked around.”

“I’ll find out what ships are scheduled to come in at that time,” Tomer offers. “Not sure how much I can trust the schedule this far in advance, but there’s got to be a reason he picked that time and place. I should be able to find out in ten to twenty minutes.”

“Go to sleep, T. Enough for today.”

He huffs. “Fine. But one last thing. My intel team needs a meeting with you in the morning. Bring in Leo, Shep, Sawyer, and anyone else you can spare. We’ve finished cross-referencing the list of seventy-two and analyzed Salgado’s feedback on them. We need to get surveillance on some of these fuckers. I need bodies for that.”

“Yeah. That’s fine. In the morning, I’ll ask Lettie to help me round everyone up.”

“I’d be happy to do that for you, Boss Dad,” Lettie’s sweet voice trills from the phone.

Alan’s smile shines luminously in the reflected light of his cell screen.

Sounding chagrined, Tomer admits, “Sorry, Big Al. Working from the bunk room.”

“That’s fine,” Alan replies with a restrained chuckle.

Since our subpar phone privacy skills have been exposed, I butt in with my own surprise greeting. “Hi, kids.”

Lettie giggles, then says, “Hey there, Miss Maddie. Looks like we’re both guilty of being nosy nellies, huh?”

In jest, I toss back, “Or our men are guilty of never knowing when it’s time to stop working.”

Lettie’s quick to agree. “Amen to that.”

“That’s enough,” Alan announces. “It’s late. Get some sleep, you two. That’s an order.”

“Ain’t it cute how he thinks he’s the boss of me, babe?” Lettie teases in a quieter volume before coming through louder as she addresses Alan. “Listen here, Boss Daddy-O, I’m off the clock now. I’ll stay up all night if I wanna.”

Since they know I’m listening in, I don’t bother to hide my chortle.

Alan feigns annoyance. “Young lady, were you disrespectful like this to your grandparents when you were young?”

“No, siree.”

Still grinning, Alan says, “Good.”

Lettie tacks on, “I was far worse. Papa once called me the sassmaster three-thousand.”

“I’m terminating the call,” Tomer interjects. “See you in the morning, Boss. Night, Madeline.”

I lean closer to the phone. “Good night, kids.”

Once Alan hangs up, he sets the phone aside and snuggles close to me. I let him finagle us into a spooning position and soak up the feel of him pressed against me. He’s warm and safe. The perfect person watching over me.

“Alan?”

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