Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“Darius?”
“He’s one of the partners. He’s been with us since back in Denver, but he runs the LA crew now. He’s also Liam’s dad.”
Definitely a family affair.
I nodded and refrained from asking who the arrogant asshole celebrities were, but jotted that down as a future follow-up question, and instead asked, “Who was your favorite celebrity?”
Without having to think, he answered, “Justice Lonesome is the shit. Totally down to earth. Even been to her place in the mountains of Colorado where she and her husband Deke and their kids live. Not for work, for a cookout. She’s serious good people.”
I had to take a moment to process the fact that Cap had hung out with another “Oh my God!” celebrity, the insanely talented singer-songwriter, who I was a massive fan of, Justice Lonesome.
“Are you breathing?” Cap teased.
I kinda wasn’t.
I went about doing that.
Then I queried. “Okay. What else do you do?”
“We have private, corporate and government clients. And I’m sorry, Raye, the investigative work we do is all strictly confidential.” He let go of his mug with one hand to reach out with his other and take mine. “I can’t talk about it, ever. It’s part of the gig.”
“You told me Elsie Fay’s grandparents hired you.”
“I did that because I knew you were going to be there when we told the cops the same thing. Though, I also did it because it was pertinent to the situation, and I didn’t have much choice. In the end, it was going to be necessary information for the police to know so they understood why we were there. And there might be other instances like that. Some of the shit we do gets in the papers.”
Oh, I’d noticed that.
“But for the most part, we try to operate under radar and keep our work under wraps,” he went on. “That said, you need to know it isn’t a nine to five job, I get callouts like last night, though, those are infrequent. The team working a case tends to be the team that can deal with the case. But we absolutely take each other’s backs. You need to know, that means I could be working late hours on my own cases.”
“Okay,” I replied.
He paused a second to ascertain I’d taken that in.
Then he kept going.
“And you know I started interning with NI when I was fifteen. They didn’t involve us seriously when we were that young, but they knew we were interested in joining the team when we were old enough, so the longer we were around, the more they taught us. Then the Army taught me even more. The years of experience Lee, Mace, Luke, Vance and the rest have ratchets up into the hundreds. In other words, they know what they’re doing, and along the way, they taught us that. They also are very thorough in how they curate their teams. We understand the job in an integral way, and we have each other’s backs. This isn’t about thrill-seeking and taking risks to get off. This is about getting the job done and getting home safe.”
“So, it’s not just catching cheaters cheating,” I murmured.
He gave my hand a squeeze. “They got mortgages and mouths to feed, and the desire to live a good life and retire to better, so we take cases to pay the bills. So yes, we do that. But no, it’s not just shit like that. And I’ll admit, some of the shit we do can be dangerous, but that isn’t our day to day. What I’m trying to impress on you is, when it happens, we have the skills to handle it.”
“All right.”
He studied me a beat before asking, “What are you thinking?”
“I believe you when you say it isn’t about thrill-seeking and taking risks, but I’m sensing the risks are still there. It’s not your average job. And after what you said to me yesterday, I’m wondering about your motivations for doing it. Because that kind of work draws a certain kind of person, and it has to be a little about thrill-seeking and taking risks.”
He nodded. “I’ll grant that. And yeah, that’s a valid observation. What I mean is, we don’t do stupid shit out in the field. But that’s what I knew on the streets, Raye. Survival. Making it so I woke up the next day. It just wove into the fabric of who I was.”
As much as I hated that he’d experienced that, he spoke sense, and there was probably no way around it happening for him.
He continued, “Then Roam and me saw the Nightingale men in action, and it was just done. I get that’s because I wanted to learn how to be able to take care of myself as well as live a life where I commanded respect. A life where no one would shit on me or underestimate me. I totally get that. But the bottom line, every day is different, and I always gotta stay primed to use my brain and my body. If I didn’t do what I do, I’d be a cop or still in the Army.” He smiled. “But this way, I make a fuck ton more money, and I get to work with men who, most of them, I’ve known half my life, and I consider them brothers.”