Page 41 of Deception and New Direction (Ranger Shield Security #3)
When the window rolled down, a man’s perfectly chiseled face appeared, shadowed by a light scruffy beard, and the typical blond surfer’s hair in disarray, I remembered the photo Archer had shown me of the two of them years before.
Vince may have grown up, but his face hadn’t changed much.
I had a knack for remembering people’s faces and names quite well. This was Vince .
“Come on you two, quit staring at my handsome face and get in the car,” Vince said with a grin and then winked at me. Yeah , these two were definitely related. They may not look the same, but their mannerisms and flirting were very similar.
Archer opened the back door, and I slid in, only for him to push me farther in so he could slide in beside me. Okay , I guess we’re both going to be in the backseat.
“Still on plan A ?” Vince questioned casually from the driver’s seat.
“Yeah. Let’s meet the others at Ace’s apartment, and I’ll fill her in while we drive,” Archer informed him.
There was a lot to break down from that statement. “ You know where I live?” I asked him, since Vince seemed to pull out of the parking lot without needing to ask for that information.
“Yes,” Archer confirmed. “ We’ve got two of our guys sitting on your place now just in case anyone suspicious shows up.”
“Inside or outside my place?” I asked.
I would like to think I knew the automatic answer to that, but it was hitting me very quickly that this Archer was a different man than I once knew.
“Outside. One is sitting in the parking lot watching your particular complex building, and the other is out walking a dog around the property. “
“You brought in a fake dog for this?” I asked, because that seemed a bit extreme—granted I’d never had a hit taken out on me before so maybe this was par for the course.
“No, It’s Jack’s real dog,” Archer responded.
Jack. I didn’t know this name either but I assumed he worked with Archer too. I needed information. All of it.
“Alright, well I don’t live that far from here, so you better get talking,” I said, turning to face him. “ Give me all the details.”
“As I mentioned earlier,” Archer began. “ Back when I worked in Vegas , I put a man away for a long time, but he just got out of prison and is hell bent on retaliation. Word on the street is that he’s already left Nevada —even though that breaks his parole—to come to Georgia to kill me.
It was noted through some undercover officers who are knee deep in his mafia group that he also put out a hit on my wife—you—for three million dollars. ”
All the air was sucked from lungs as I took in what he just said. Don’t ask me why I focused on one particular point he made, but I was stuck on it.
“The mafia?” I asked, my eyebrows surely reaching near the top of my forehead. “ As in, real-life mafia?”
“Yes,” he responded. “ He was part of the Pagano family syndicate—but not just any member—an actual Pagano family member. They weren’t too happy I put him away. His family claims he’s at home in Vegas recovering from a bad case of the flu. I don’t know if he really is here in Georgia or not.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Technically, guys at his level don’t usually get their hands dirty, especially after the last time when it landed him in prison,” he explained. “ Especially when he knows he’s got eyes watching him. My guess is that they’ve sent some minions to do the dirty work.”
This made sense. “ So now what? What’s the rest of plan A look like?”
“One of our guys, Diego , is camped out in the parking lot of your apartment, keeping an eye on things until we get there,” Archer informed me. “ Once we get there, Jack will do a quick scan of your place and then we can go inside, but Vince and I will go with you.”
“Will Jack have his dog when he scans my place?”
“Yes,” he replied. “ It’s actually a good thing to have a dog with him in case there is an intruder. His dog is well trained, but a stranger won’t know that.”
“I only asked because I have a dog of my own, and I wasn’t sure if his dog would be okay with Percy .”
“Percy?” he asked.
“My pug.”
“Jack actually has four dogs, so his dog will be fine with yours. What about your dog?”
“He loves other dogs, so he won’t be a problem, though he may bark when a bunch of people walk through the door he isn’t used to.”
Archer nodded in response, but I had more questions. Many actually.
“So what? You’re a cop here in Atlanta now, and they just passed along the message about this guy?” I asked.
Archer looked up to Vince and then back at me.
“I’m not a cop anymore,” he replied. “ I work in private security and investigations now. Vince works with me and about more than half a dozen other people.”
I stared at him, taking all that information in.
“I spoke to my old chief at the LVPD who told me they have someone on the inside who informed them of the hit.” Archer’s words caused my heart to race faster.
I couldn’t believe they had someone on the inside of a mafia group—more importantly, someone who would risk their cover just to save our lives.
“The chief suggested we go on vacation or something and give him two weeks to try to gather what he needs to arrest the guy for breaking his parole restrictions.”
Did he say two weeks?
“I can’t just abruptly go on vacation for two weeks,” I tried to tell him.
He held up his hand to cut me off as there was obviously more explanation coming.
“ So , for the next few weeks—or until the threat goes away—you and I are attached at the hip, every day. You go to work— I follow. You go grocery shopping— I’ll push the cart.
Oh , and while you’ll have your own room, it will be at my house, so pack enough clothes to last you at least a week or two. ”
My head jerked back in shock, because surely, I had not heard him correctly. “ I’m sorry, what was that last part?”
“You’re moving in with me, Ace ,” he said, brokering no room for argument. “ We never lived together when we were married, so now we can live it up. It’ll be fun.”
Vince snickered from the front seat, likely thinking the same thing I was.
Fun?
You have got to be kidding me.