Page 11 of Astrid
Out in the garage, Astrid told Alan to pick out a truck or Jeep to drive, but not his own personal vehicle. Alan only shook his head, and didn’t question her as he picked out the four-door black Jeep. It didn’t take Astrid more than five minutes to put the tracking device on it, along with several cameras. Once she climbed inside, she shrugged. “Might be overkill, might not.”
“I guess we won’t know until we get there.” He programmed the address into the GPS on the dash, and after nodding to Joyce who had opened the overhead door for them, they went to his appointment. Astrid only waited five minutes before she questioned him on what he did, and why he was going to where he was. By the time they arrived, she was confident she could pull off the assistant angle of why she was there.
CHAPTER5
“Oh shit,”Astrid said over an hour later, when she immediately pulled her phone and started snapping pictures. She’d also taken a spare camera out of her purse, and quickly mounted it to the back of the GPS unit. She had just enough room at the top of it to be able to get clear pictures of the place they were approaching.
She looked at Alan, and said, “I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but you are not available to do any work for these people for at least a month.”
“Why?”
“That’ll give us enough time to do some research. I don’t know about you, but all these no trespassing signs, and keep-outs have the hair on my body standing on end. Something’s not right here. I hate to ask, but are you armed?”
“No.”
“I have one in my purse, then one on my ankle. Let’s just hope and pray they won’t confiscate my purse.” She paused as Alan slowed down, then nodded. “Don’t be surprised if they ask for your phone. You’re secure, so they can’t get anything off it.”
“Do you want me to hand it over?” Alan looked at her with concern written all over his face.
“Yes,” Astrid said, and sucked in her breath and pointed in front of them when three men stepped out of the woods, each carrying a rifle and aimed it toward their Jeep. If Alan hadn’t been driving slowly, the men would have been run down. They acted like they hadn’t a care in the world, and the guns they carried looked lethal.
“What the fuck?” Alan breathed beneath his breath as he quickly downshifted, so he didn’t hit the men.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly.” Astrid nodded and took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She had to wonder if she would be this nervous if it was just her, or one of the other women with her. Probably not, she was more nervous for Alan and his reaction than her own. She had the training, and wondered just how much Alan, and the other guys knew what to do in a situation like this if they were on their own.
She nodded as Alan rolled down his window, and asked, “Help you?”
“Probably not, but can we help you? You’re on private property,” the man in the middle of the three, and the largest one said. Astrid noticed he had a lump of something in his cheek, and she could only think it was chewing tobacco, if the stains in his beard were any indication. When he turned his head to the side and spat, it was confirmed, and she tried not to wrinkle her nose at him.
“I’m Alan, and I have an appointment with...” Alan fumbled with a notebook in his pocket, and pulled it out to look at. Then he looked back at them, “Yeah, I have a one o’clock appointment with a Neil.”
“Regarding?”
“He called me and asked me to make some shelves for him.”
The man on the right pulled his phone and dialed, but he stepped away before Astrid could hear anything. She looked down and was grateful that she’d had the foresight to hook herself up with a button camera. The guy who had pulled his phone to make a call called the big guy over to him, and they talked for a good three minutes. When the first guy came back over to them, he frowned as he stepped up and pointed to Astrid.
“Who’s she?”
“My assistant,” Alan didn’t hesitate to tell him. The way he spoke, Astrid believed him.
“Okay, before you go in, I’m going to need your phones,” the man held out his hand, and before Alan could question him, Astrid handed hers over. Alan quickly followed suit. The guy took them, and stuffed them in his back pocket. “You’ll get these back when you leave.”
“Why did you take them?” Alan asked, and Astrid cringed at his question, not thinking he’d get a direct answer, but it shocked her when the man replied.
“Boss man doesn’t want anyone taking pictures of his house.”
“Oh, where do you want me to go?” Alan asked as he put the Jeep in gear, ready to get out of there.
“Follow this road for two miles, take the right fork, and then the house is down there a mile. Someone will meet you and escort you inside.”
“Okay, thanks,” Alan said, and started off slowly. When they rounded the first bend, and the men behind them could no longer be seen, he looked at Astrid with wide eyes. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, you’re doing good so far.”
“Actually, inside I’m shaking like a leaf. I think knowing I have backup helped. Do you happen to have a spare gun?”
“Stop,” Astrid said, and when he did, she leaned over and took her ankle piece off, climbed over, then down to the floor, lifted his pant leg, and strapped it onto him. She made sure to fix his pant leg when she was done. Before buckling her seat again, she put her Glock from her purse in the small of her back, and pulled her shirt out of her pants and covered it. “Ready.”
