cell.” He pointed to the number under the address.
She held his face between her hands. “Didn’t you hear me? I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m going to worry about you plenty. But I like the idea of you being over at the big house. Where I can watch you.”
“Thank you. I’ll be there before you’ve had your sixth beer.”
Their kiss bordered on some further fooling around, but in the end, they separated. Jason slipped out the sliding glass door and onto the beach.
About halfway to Andy’s he dialed Kyle Lansdowne.
“Hey there, Jason. Everything go smoothly?”
“Yessir.” He wasn’t sure how to begin.
After a minute of air silence, Kyle began, “You know, for a not very talkative guy, you’re sure not doing a lot of talking.”
Kyle’s sixth sense about these things was legendary.
“I met this girl.”
“Oh boy. What is it with you guys and Florida? If anything happens to Christy, I’m giving up everything and heading out there. They must put something in the water. And to make matters worse, Christy has been working nearly twenty-four seven. Hell, I’m about to call up Collins and ask him if we could just take a temporary duty to Iraq to go vaccinate some kids or something. At least it would get me out of having kid-duty for the sixth day in a row.”
Jason chuckled, “I feel your pain, sir.”
“No, you don’t. You’ve got no idea what it’s like to be past your prime, hearing about all your guys getting laid and having girl issues. Is that what this call is going to be about? You need more time off so you can cement your relationship? Do you want to know how many times I’ve gotten that call, son?”
Jason knew he’d calm down, but he just let him rant on. Kyle abruptly laid the phone down to straighten something out. One of his three was crying after he was done.
“Honestly, I don’t know how they do this. Tomorrow, I have to take the three of them to a birthday party, one of Maggie’s friends. I’m going to strap Brandon to the nearest tree. That means all I’ll have to do is watch out for Luke, and at his current age, he still likes girls and thinks they smell nice.”
“Well, you give Brandon my best, then. Tell him he should soak in the bathtub, and that will take care of his sore behind.”
“Was I that obvious?”
“He’s always the one you’re talking about getting into trouble, sir.”
“Okay. Well, now that we got all that out of the way, what’s the emergency?”
Jason took a deep breath and sat on the bench, donated by the good people of Sunset Beach, about ten steps from the beach access. He watched the constant parade of old and new bodies in various stages of undress and inebriation.
“So this girl is an investigative reporter?”
“Uh-oh. You better run. You didn’t say anything you regret, did you?”
“No. Not really.”
“Well, which is it—no or not really?”
Jason felt Kyle’s mysterious powers of getting anything out of anyone working extremely well.
“The problem is on her end. She’s researching a story about the sex trade, and more particularly, she thinks she’s identified some key players in a big human smuggling ring up in the Portland area where she lives.”
“Okay. I’m holding my breath here.”
“She’s written some high-profile articles for the Columbian something-or-other.”
“Yea. I know it. And?”
“She thinks she’s being harassed. Well, she knows she’s been harassed. They tossed her place, she’s gotten some death threats and the worst part is, they sliced up her cat.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Cut up one of her tires too. So, I think she was pretty smart. She hopped on a plane and came to Florida, where she spent some time as a child.”
“Where are her folks? What kind of a father lets his little girl do that stuff?”
“Gone. She’s all alone.”
“And no ex gunning for her? Jilted or jealous boyfriend?”
“Not that she’s mentioned.”
“But of course you didn’t ask her because you thought it would interfere with your chances of getting laid, right?”
That was a funny line, but Jason held it in. “Actually, we didn’t have any problem in that department.”
“You’ve only been there what, two days? God forbid you’d have to wait a week to get in bed with her. So do you want my quick answer or my long answer, Jason?”
“Well, wait. You don’t even know the question I’m going to ask you.”
“I think I do. I’m a lot smarter than anyone thinks I am. I even let Christy think