Page 30 of The Woman with the Target on her Back (Grassi Family)

I found myself watching her ass as she went.

Okay.

Maybe itwaslike that.

CHAPTER SIX

Traveler

“I don’t understand,” I said back at the hotel when I powered up the laptop to access my saved camera feed from the night before.

The ones facing the front of the store and in the alley were all static. The ones inside had all been turned to face the walls.

I could sense August and Aurelio sharing a look over my head from either side of me.

“Out loud, please,” I grumbled.

“Seems like they knew what they were planning and likely knocked out the outside cameras. Likely from above, so the camera didn’t catch it. Then had someone go inside and fuck with those ones,” August said.

“But I would…” I started, then stopped. Maybe I wouldn’t have. Sure, I knew a lot about the local crews, but that didn’t mean I knew everything.

It was entirely possible that if one of the members came in wearing something similar to the developers, I wouldn’t have looked twice at them. Or they could have come inside when I was in the back, or taking out the trash, that kinda thing. And because this area was very “mind your own business,” if there wasn’t a friend of mine like Sheryl in the store at the time, no one would have said anything.

“Damnit,” I grumbled, slamming the lid of the laptop closed, and pressing the palms of my hands into my eyes.

I was tired.

Bone-deep tired.

Despite having gotten my usual couple of hours of sleep.

Sheryl told me all the time that the chronic lack of sleep was going to ‘catch up to me’ someday. Maybe that was what this was. I finally wasn’t running around busy all day long, and my body had a chance to realize how worn out it was.

Then again, I also had a busted up business, a target on my back, and a father in a coma in the ICU. So, yeah, maybe the stress was just getting to me.

“Hey, look. This isn’t the end. It would have made life a fuckuva lot easier if the cameras were working, but there are other ways to figure out information,” August said.

“How? This isn’t your town. You don’t have contacts all around that you can go to for information.”

“No,” August agreed. “But you do.”

“I get to actively be involved?” I asked, looking up at them. “This doesn’t fall under that mafia ‘protect the little lady’ rule?”

August snorted at that.

“We can still protect you and have you participate,” Aurelio said.

“Besides, if we left you alone in the hotel too long, you’d likely get us kicked out after bitching to the staff about all the waste here.”

This time, it wasn’t just me annoyed by August’s constant need to needle at me. Aurelio sighed and walked toward the kitchen.

“By any chance, would your head explode if you kept in some of those nasty-ass remarks about me?” I asked.

“Nasty-ass, or completely accurate?” he shot back.

And, fine. I could be a pain in the ass. I did sometimes lecture people about the surplus of waste in things like hospitality or just general businesses. I mean the amount of food that gets thrown away instead of donated…

“I mean, you’re thinking it now, aren’t you?” he asked, smirking down at me.

---