Page 62 of Ava
“Promise you won’t allow Alex to get in his moods?” Dottie asked, and turned to look at Ava. “It’s nothing bad, but he’s always been the quiet one. Out of all six boys, he could sit in the middle of the room, playing with his toys, and it was like we never knew he was there. He needs to get out more often, and I’m not talking about riding a horse out in the middle of nowhere, where he only talks to the horses and cattle.”
“I promise. I’ve already said something to Wyatt about it, and he’s keeping an eye on him. So are Dillon and Wilson. We have his six, Mom.”
“Thank you,” Dottie said as she came around the island, and hugged her daughter. When they broke apart, Ava felt like she’d dodged a bullet. She grinned at Dottie’s next question.
“How are the plans for the wedding coming?”
Morgan groaned, then shook her head. “I did get all the fittings done for the dress, and it’s over at the ranch. The caterers have been hired, the flowers are picked out. Invitations are going out in three weeks, I think that’s it?”
Ava frowned, then asked. “Cake?”
“Crap, I knew I forgot something. With this time of year, it’s going to be hard to get Wyatt into town to taste test a cake.”
“Would the baker come out to the ranch?” Dottie asked.
“I never thought to ask him that.” Morgan looked at Ava. “Remind me on Monday to call the bakery to see if they can come to the ranch with samples.”
“Got it.” Ava grinned as they continued discussing the wedding that was to take place at the beginning of September, only two months away. “Will the wedding be as big as this BBQ will be?”
“We’re trying to keep it more civilized, more organized. Today’s BBQ started out as the graduation party, then when some of DJ’s friends found out, they told others, who told others, and now it’s this big.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” Morgan finished her coffee, then got off her seat to take her cup to the sink. “You going into the office?”
“Yeah, I want to see if there are any responses to my e-mails.”
“Okay, but don’t forget, all hands on deck at ten, but no later than noon. You don’t want me to send out the search party for you.”
“I’ll be there.” She laughed as she lifted her left arm, and set the alarm on her watch. While Ava gathered her things to head to the office, Morgan helped her mother and aunt as they loaded up the bags of cookies into a box. They called out that they would see her there. At the last minute, Morgan turned back, and asked, “Do I need to send someone over to pick you up?”
“No, I’m going to ride over.”
“Okay, see you at noon.” The others left, and Ava headed to the office. After grabbing another can of soda, she sat down at one of the computers and fired it up. She first checked her personal e-mails, then went to her account for work. By the time she got to the end of the spam, and other non-essential correspondence, she was getting frustrated. Still nothing from her sources on Tanner. She was just about to sign off, when her computer dinged, and she sat up and read the subject line from the new message.
She quickly opened it, and read the message, then she grabbed her phone and made a call. It didn’t take long for the other party to pick up.
“Tom, this is Ava Hanson, over at Boswell. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure, let me go to my office. I was just playing with my daughter before we came over to the ranch for the day.” Ava could hear him walking and then a door closed. “I’m in my office, what’s up?”
“You hear from Carl Miller from BCI since you wired me up last night?”
“No, why, and how did it go at court?”
“Judge threw the ticket out, because of shoddy police work. The DA, and Tanner, who happened to be there with at least four of his goons, were pissed. I might have rubbed it in his face that I got off because of the above-mentioned shoddy police work, but I made sure we were in the truck, with it running and in gear before I said it. We were out of the parking lot before they could do anything.”
“Okay, but what does that have to do if I’d heard back from Carl or not?”
“Oh, sorry,” Ava took a sip of her Cola and grounded herself. “While we were in the court house, Justin watched his truck. He saw Tanner and his cronies climbing all over it. When we left, we went to Carl’s location, and he found three tracking devices on the undercarriage, and two on the inside of the cab. He kept them and took them to his people. I just got an e-mail from him. I sent it to you.” She paused and heard him pounding on the keyboard.
“Okay, got it.” He was silent for several minutes, then came his whispered explosion. “Are you fucking shitting me?”
Ava shook her head and shrugged, but knew he couldn’t see her. “I guess. How well do you know this Carl Miller?”
“I’d trust him with my daughter’s life. We served in the military together. We’ve both saved each other’s lives a few times, both in the military and out.”
“Let’s hope he makes it out to the BBQ, then maybe we can have a chat with him.”
