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Carly stood in awkward silence, immediately regretting her unfortunately out-loud comment about Jocko’s shoulders. The squeezing she both regretted and didn’t regret. After all, his shoulders did feel amazing. But it did make for a next-level awkward moment, in which she felt like her tongue was both ten times too large and dry as a desert.
“You should probably call your sister now,” Jocko said, breaking the silence.
“Oh, right,” Carly said, coming back to Earth. “Yes. That.”
She retreated out of the bedroom, nerves still a little tingly from giving Jocko’s shoulders an impromptu examination, and got out her phone. It didn’t even ring twice before Piper picked up on the other end.
“Did you get him?” her sister said.
“Oh, we got him. We so got him.”
“Did you use your ninja star?”
“No,” Carly said, trying to hide her disappointment. “But we did get him. Now go. Go do your thing with your man biscuit.”
“Right. Way to go, Carly,” Piper said, and hung up.
“Way to go,” Carly said to herself, still thinking about Jocko’s shoulders.
31
“They got him?” Pony said.
“That’s what she said,” Piper said.
They were sitting in a beat-up gray van, parked close enough to Harris’s house that they could watch it but not so close that they’d be spotted. Most of the lights in the house were dark, but a few windows were lit, illuminating bits and pieces of the grassy lawn outside.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Piper said. “Carly came up with the plan, then Devil got involved… I thought it was going to end up as a flaming pile of Doritos, cheese, and chaos.”
“Now all we have to do is drag this asshole boss of yours in by the ear.”
Before they got out of the van, Piper took him by the arm.
“Pony.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you’re here with me.”
“Where else would I be?” he said with a grin. “Now, let’s go get this bastard.”
They approached the house at a tangent, sticking to the scattered shadows in the dark suburban neighborhood. Pony led the way, and Piper let him. He was the former Army Ranger, after all.
It didn’t take long for them to navigate right up to the edge of Harris’s house. Piper strained her ears, but couldn’t hear a thing.
She got up on her tip toes to sneak a peek though one of the windows. Inside, she could see what looked like a kitchen. The lights were on and as she watched, she caught the briefest of glimpses of movement inside.
She ducked low involuntarily at the sight of it, but it was unlikely anyone inside could have seen her or Pony in the dark. Piper tapped Pony on the leg to get his attention, pointed at her eyes, and then pointed at the bright kitchen window.
Pony nodded, understanding her hand signals.I saw him in there. He pointed to the back of the house, and led the way, creeping slowly and quietly across the lawn, moving from tree to tree, all the way around to the back of the house.
There, Piper saw a back door to Harris’s house. Pony moved up to it, putting away his pistol and reaching into his leather jacket to produce a small case.
“Spotted this door the other day when I was watching Harris,” he whispered, unzipping the case to produce a set of lock picks.
Quietly, but quickly, he unlocked the back door before returning the lock picks to his pocket. Piper looked at him quizzically.
“Learn that with the Rangers?” she said.
