“We’ve been doing this a long time,” John said. “It’s easy to forget that what we mean isn’t obvious to everyone around us.”
I reminded myself that they were helping me and that they probably weren’t intentionally keeping me in the dark.
“Feel free to ask if we confuse you again,” Austin said, confirming my guess.
“Thank you.”
Meg sat next to Jack. Cate sat next to Jay. AJ and Matt stood near the door.
“We’ve now had five men ask about Nina,” John said. “And we haven’t ID’ed a single one.”
“No, sir.” Austin looked at Ryan, who nodded.
“This complicates things,” Jamie said. “Do we have to worry about our families?”
I held my breath while the question hung in the air.
“I’m sorry,” Austin said. “I wish I could tell you they’re safe, but I can’t. We don’t know who the threat is, or how far he’ll go.”
“And it appears they have deep pockets and an endless parade of paid thugs,” Ryan added.
Paid thugs always killed people in movies and TV shows.
I swear, when this is over, I’ll never watch another crime show again.
“I’ll call in some favors and we’ll beef up security,” John said.
“Emily and Ashley can watch the kids here,” Jamie said. “That’ll free up some manpower.”
“What about Nana?”
“We won’t leave her alone,” John answered.
“Nina, does your house have a security system?” Ryan asked.
I laughed.Like that’s in our budget. “No.”
“I’ll have Doug install one.”
“I can’t afford to pay for all this,” I said. Dropping my head onto my forearms so it didn’t hit the hard table.
“You don’t need to worry about it,” Austin said.
“Excuse me?” I asked, lifting my head.
“I brought this down on you; I’ll cover the costs.”
Was Austin rich? I didn’t think government employees made that much money.
“Nina, let us do what we do best. We’ll worry about the payment plan later,” John said.
I nodded because I no longer had the energy to argue. As long as Nana Sue was safe and getting the medical help she needed, I’d figure out the rest.
I’ll need a second job to cover the costs. Technically a third one, since I babysat regularly. I’d have to give that up to get another full-time job.
Fingers flew over keyboards.
Hands held phones to ears.
